Tinku- Encounter- Confrontation*
This artistic-research project began by exploring the significance of my Quechua heritage, as someone born and raised in Germany. While there is growing attention to Indigenous cosmovisions and non-human interrelations in the German academic realm, my work is focused on raising awareness about the historical use of Indigenous stereotypes in shaping a German national identity—and how these stereotypes continue to be violently perpetuated today. My research has since expanded beyond the German context, as colonial fantasies about Indigenous peoples are prevalent worldwide. A key example is the story of Matoaka, generally known as Pocahontas, whose narrative—likely invented by the colonist John Smith—has shaped global perceptions of Indigenous women, obscuring her true story and the unknown location of her final resting place in Gravesend, England. For the German context the relevance of the German author Karl- May has been a center of my art and research.
For a series of performances, which evolved into this artistic research project as part of Repatriates, I encapsulate being hunted by the colonial stereotypes, fiction and imaginaries and the significance of this experience through my performances. This series exposes how stereotypical representations of Indigenous women fuel anti-Indigenous racism, and how colonial fantasies shape cultural and institutional practices, especially in relation to repatriation. I examine cases where the return of Indigenous belongings and human remains are either impossible or obstructed by institutions. What role do colonial fantasies—shaped by literature and mass media, such as the works of German author Karl May and his fictional character “Winnetou” or the figure of Pocahontas—play in what remains immovable or unused, confined to storage or displayed in museums? How can we attend to, understand, and grasp this interplay between fiction and reality, and how do they influence one another? Finally, how can we use this understanding to imagine and create change, fostering healing from the impact of these fictions?
Driven by these questions, this project seeks to move beyond colonial fantasies, institutionalized discourses of conservation science, and colonial notions of “objects” and “human remains”. Blending performative strategies, video, textile installations, and academic research for my dissertation, I explore gestures and images that evoke our healing capacities. By expressing our inter-relatedness with ancestors, nature, and especially water—as a symbol of transformation and purification—I aim to uncover new ways of experiencing and articulating relational existence and embracing continuous transformation.
* Tinku is a flokloric dance from Bolivia which I performed as a young girl. It is based on a ritual practiced in the Potosí region, but does not replicate it’s ritualistic function. The central part of the Tinku ritual is a fist fight between community members. The blood that is shed during this fight is perceived as an offering for the pachamana (mother earch). The violebce against each other is therefor also an act of collective healing and creating equilibrium with nature. Tinku literally translates to “physical attack” in Aymara language and “meeting” in Quechua. These dual meanings of encounter and confrontation encapsulate two facets of the same activity, which lead to collective healing, which I apply as my journey/method for my artistic research project.