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A shallow river turns a corner under a partly cloudy sky

“Through the stories of the river, we learned how the policies of nation, community and municipality overlap with the ongoing rock and sand mining for the construction industry,” Gabriela Valdivia said. (courtesy of Gabriela Valdivia and Valeria Orozco)

Editor’s note:

In the following stories on “Creative Collaborators,” we highlight the innovative spirit and impactful work of faculty and student collaborators in research, teaching and community engagement in the College of Arts and Sciences. Read about a UNC geographer and her team who examined the effects of the construction industry on Ecuadorian river communities, a faculty-led student group that advised a Durham-based nonprofit on community disaster response and a graduate student research consultant who provided expertise to an interdisciplinary undergraduate data analysis class.

Led by geographer Gabriela Valdivia, a collaborative team is examining the impact of the construction industry on Ecuadorian communities along the Hollin River.

Gabriela Valdivia has had a reverence for rocks since she was a child in Peru.

Whenever her father returned from business trips searching for rocks that showed promise of commercially viable oil, he shared the rocks he discovered, the maps he drew and the stories of the people he met.

“Rocks tell such detailed, beautiful stories about the world,” said Valdivia, Class of 1989/William C. Friday Distinguished Professor and director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas.

That fascination led to a career. Prior to earning a doctorate in geography from the University of Minnesota, Valdivia completed an M.A. at Carolina. As a graduate research assistant, she was sent to the Ecuadorian Amazon to translate the research projects underway there.

“That’s where my story as an Amazonianist begins. That’s where I learned about my privilege as a researcher and the difference it makes to ask the local people if they would be interested in a study instead of telling them I’m doing a study,” she said. “It flipped the script for me, and I’ve been asking this question ever since.”

Gabriela Valdivia stands in a forest and holds a small fruit.
Gabriela Valdivia learns about cultivated forests in Nuevo Santo Domingo de Hollin. (courtesy of Gabriela Valdivia and Valeria Orozco) 

Valdivia is a political ecologist in the department of geography and environment. She examines the effects of governing and transforming Latin America’s natural resources on local cultural and ecological communities.

A recipient of a William C. Friday Arts and Humanities Research Award from the Institute for the Arts and Humanities and Honors Carolina, she currently is focusing on the changes taking place on the banks of the vibrant Hollin River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Specifically, her team is examining the impact of the booming construction industry on the resources and communities along the river.

Last December, several team members stayed with a family in the province of Napo to learn about the river — its history, resources and spaces that are vital to the people who live there. The indigenous landscape is shifting as land adjacent to the river is acquired for roads or development, she said.

“Through the stories of the river, we learned how the policies of nation, community and municipality overlap with the ongoing rock and sand mining for the construction industry,” Valdivia said.

Valdivia’s research team includes Fredy Grefa, a native of Napo who earned his Ph.D. in geography at Carolina and teaches at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito; UNC geography professor Javier Arce-Nazario; graduate student Ina Shkurti; and three Honors Carolina students who also received Friday Research Awards — Valeria Orozco, Brenda Palacios Rodriguez and Ana Zurita Posas.

After seeking the local community’s interest in the project, the team interviewed six of the nine siblings in a family with a long shamanic (yachak in Kichwa) tradition. Valdivia described yachaks as indigenous researchers who systematically investigate the effects of a certain plant or diet, or how to read the water flow, for example, and then pass that knowledge on.

People sit around a sheet on a river bank. The sheet is which is decorated as a map of the river and surrounding area.
Youth create a map for the Napo Runa Cartographies Initiative. (courtesy of Gabriela Valdivia and Valeria Orozco)

Each family member drew a “mental map” of the river and its relationship to the community. The researchers used those perspectives plus audio recordings, photography, and archived and drone footage of the area to create a composite map as well as booklets for each sibling that highlighted their unique expertise.

Rodriguez, who graduated last spring, participated in the initial trip to Ecuador and was instrumental in illustrating and digitizing the family’s stories.

“Sharing the legacy of a community that is trying to ensure that these stories never fade away was truly meaningful,” she said. Rodriguez, whose family is of Mayan descent, said she especially valued the researcher-community collaboration.

The map has since been imprinted on cloth, and this past summer the researchers shared it with the community.

“The cloth map bridged the visual and the oral,” Valdivia said. People would touch the map, point to a symbol and share a memory, even adding missing elements like birds or plants or waterfalls, she added. The younger people added imprints of their hands or feet and stamped the map with rocks and leaves.

A student wears a life vest and smiles. Behind her, people take inner tubes into the river.
Brenda Palacios Rodriguez, Fredy Grefa, Alexis Mamallacta and David Mamallacta on the Hollin River. (courtesy of Gabriela Valdivia and Valeria Orozco) 

For Valdivia, collaborating with her student researchers was a highlight of the trip. All three had taken her recent COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) course, designed to foster learning between students at UNC and other countries.

“I love going to the Amazon because it challenges my way of thinking,” Valdivia said. “These students were extremely creative in trying new ideas, and they really enhanced my love for this kind of research. Besides, they were so much fun!”

By Patty Courtright (B.A. ’75, M.A. ’83)


Published in the Fall 2024 issue | Features

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