Bailey Kamau ’27, a NexPoint Tower Scholar, is triple majoring in economics, human rights, and African American studies. She was awarded the SMU Tower Center Marian Tower Scholarship, for which she applied to study abroad with SMU-in-Peru. She shares her inspiring and eye-opening experiences traveling in Peru.
In May 2024, I took a 10-day research trip with the SMU Human Rights Program to the Amazon rainforest within Peru with a cohort of nine students. There, we shadowed the work of an organization called Minga Peru, which works to provide resources and empowerment programs to Indigenous communities within the Amazon. Traveling to Peru was a life-changing experience that challenged the way I think about activism and human rights and developed my research and storytelling skills.
I made the decision to apply for SMU-in-Peru when I saw the sign next to the Human Rights office with a description of the trip and the words “Picture yourself there.” The trip included boat rides along Amazonian rivers, living around the Indigenous community, and experiencing first-hand Indigenous Amazonian activism. Before I knew it, I was making a phone call to my parents explaining that I had signed up for a trip to the Amazon rainforest.
Before traveling to the Amazon, we flew through Lima. There, we met the founder and director of Minga, Eliana Elias, who explained the history and purpose of Minga. Minga works to provide resources to Indigenous communities, empower Indigenous women, and protect the Amazon rainforest. These three main programs are its intercultural radio station, workshops, and environmentally sustainable income-generating programs. These programs were all manufactured for the purpose of empowering Indigenous leaders within their community and providing them resources to maintain their culture and livelihood. Over the next week, we traveled from Lima to Nauta and then to Minga’s base within the Amazon rainforest where I had the opportunity to see firsthand the work of Minga and the Indigenous women who worked with the program. It was incredibly impactful to see for myself how these programs play out in the real world.
I woke up my first morning in the Amazon to the sound of bird songs. When I stepped outside, I was greeted with the most beautiful sunrise. I could not believe that these were the same rays that would creep through my bedroom window every morning. Each day was filled with a new adventure. Once, we rescued an injured iguana, who had mistaken our boat for land. Another day, we were greeted by a sloth!
The highlight of the experience was meeting with Indigenous community leaders working within their own spaces. The Amazonian communities we visited were a part of the Kukama people who have lived in the Amazon for hundreds of years. Kukama people reside in the upper Amazon region, and they have lived and adapted to the jungle for hundreds of years. In 1549, Juan de Salinas headed a Spanish expedition following the Ucayali River. Since 1549, they fell victim to Spanish colonial rule and Western diseases, which by the 1700s caused the Kukama population to dwindle to 800 people. Their fight to preserve their lands and livelihoods has continued ever since. (KUKAMA (Cocama) Culture | Amazonia Expeditions (perujungle.com))
Each day, we would travel by boat to one of the Amazonian communities. For each visit, we were shown incredible hospitality by community members who hosted us in their homes, cooked lunches for our group, and explained their lives and work to us. While I am not fluent in Spanish and needed a translator to communicate, that did not stop community members from engaging with us and walking us through their history and culture.
I learned how resilient Kukama people are in protecting the Amazon rainforest. Throughout the years, their culture has been suppressed by educational systems. Many of the elders in the community were punished for speaking their own language. However, Minga collaborated with Indigenous communities to revitalize the language within the community schools so that children will grow with an understanding of their culture.
Carrying on their culture to the next generation is important for many reasons. I was told many stories within Indigenous culture that centered around the environment. In Kukama belief systems, a boa constrictor, who is the mother of water, birthed the first Kukama person. Her words were, “wherever you are, you are not alone.” Because the rivers are sacred, they work hard to honor it by not overfishing.
From a public policy viewpoint, the intersection of gender equity, environmental justice, and cultural revitalization is incredibly relevant. Industries that encroach on land and waters that are sacred to Indigenous communities are not only destroying the environment but also destroying that group of people’s way of life. I also saw how many gender rights activists within the Kukama community were also working towards environmental justice. Many of the people at the forefront of environmental justice movements in Peru were Indigenous women who fought for the right to preserve their land and livelihood. These women tied their fight against gender violence to their fight to defend the environment.
Throughout the trip, I sketched everything around me along with journaling events that resonated with me. As a culminating project for the research course, I turned my sketches into a graphic novel highlighting my experience and how engaging with Indigenous culture resonated with me as a Black woman. I found many parallels between Black history and Kukama history, as well as between our current movements to revive our culture. My project concludes that by understanding our similar histories we can become better advocates for our collective empowerment. From the experience, I hope to learn more about how I can be an ally of Indigenous rights cultural revitalization and environmental justice for all marginalized peoples.
