Paper Short Abstract:

Based on research with members of the indigenous Emberá-Wounaan community in Panama, this paper explores the (im)possibilities of doing research differently, aimed at doing justice to the diversity of Emberá-Wounaan perspectives and their attempts to navigate, benefit from and simultaneously make future-proof territories that are changing due to transit migration.

Paper Abstract:

Since a decade, an increasing number of highly diverse migrants on their way to North America has passed through indigenous territories at the Colombia-Panama border. Although the impact of this migration on these border communities has slowly become a point of attention for the Panamanian government, academics, the media, and civil society organizations, the role or fate of these communities are often framed in two simplistic ways: either through a criminalization of indigenous actors and their migration-related business, or a concern over migration-induced endangerment of the ‘indigenous way of life’ in an area still considered ‘remote’. Based on embryonic research with city- and comarca-based members of the Emberá-Wounaan community, this paper explores the (im)possibilities of doing research differently, aimed at doing justice to the diversity of Emberá-Wounaan perspectives and their attempts to navigate, benefit from and simultaneously make future-proof their changing territories. It considers in-depth, collaborative mapping methods to accommodate different aspects of their territory (water, sovereignty, marginalization) as well as ambiguous socioeconomic and political relationships. It also considers the role of local, foreign and indigenous researchers in cultivating knowledge about these perspectives and relationships. The paper is an attempt to disentangle layers of participation and representation, and to address historically produced injustices.