An Indigenous Media Collective operating in the Southwest of Colombia, between the High Andes and the Lower Amazon. Its mission is to support processes of self-governance, cultural preservation, and communication across indigenous territories and beyond through film, radio, and multimedia productions. Until 2023, the collective associated 10 indigenous leaders living between the states of Nariño, lower Cauca, and Putumayo in the Southwest of Colombia. Formerly known as Ñambi Rimai (spearheaded by the territorial organisation AWAI).
The current Pan-Amazon Collective is led by Ayenan Quinchoa Juajibioy, who also has taken the role co-investigator and local liaison for the Plants_intelligence team in Putumayo.
Ayenan Quinchoa Juajibioy was born in Tabanok Bëngbe Uáman Luar Tabanok (Our sacred place of origin). He is a member of the Kamëntšá and Inga people, located in the department of Putumayo, in Colombia's Southeast. He is the youngest of 7 siblings and is a student of Materials Engineering at the University of Antioquia, and computer programming technician at CENSA (Antioquia Systems Center). He is an empirical videographer and collaborator of Felipe Castelblanco, with whom he worked as co-investigator, actor, and drone pilot for the documentaries Rio Arriba and AYENAN made in collaboration with Lydia Zimmermann with Ñambi Rimai Media Collective. He currently works as multimedia content creator for the educational platform of the U de Colombia (University Corporation) in Medellín.
Throughout his life Ayenan has been a protector of his territory and the legacy of his ancestors and parents. For millennia the Kamëntšá and Inga cultures have had an intimate contact with the magical plants of their environment, and this connection and sensitive knowledge have motivated Ayenan to shine a light on a collective process of territorial defense because the memory of his culture is being physically and culturally exterminated due to the social, cultural, economic, and cultural transformations brought to them by globalization. Therefore, by traversing his large territory and sowing seeds from native plants to protect the water and land as a collective entity, Ayenan hopes that humanity will become aware and transform its way of living and existing on equal terms with other living beings, nature, and all of humanity.
