Indigenous women caught between intimate violence and deforestation processes

On the back of environmental conservation projects, many indigenous women play a role in deforestation processes. My case study on the Yine people from the Peruvian Amazon, Madre de Dios Region, focuses on the gender dimension within processes of small-scale informal timber trade, carried out from a buffer zone of the Manu National Park (globally, one of the most important protected natural areas). Despite being the last link in the chain of ethnic and gender subordination, Yine women seek to redeem their position of subordination and economic, physical and affective vulnerability through their labour. On this basis, W-Deforest explores a unique link for social sciences: gender and intimate violence in relation to environmental tensions. How does the violence suffered historically and structurally by indigenous women shape their current relationship with the deforestation process? W-Deforest proposes an innovative research method that arises from anthropology, community psychology and Digital Humanities. Among the different results, podcasting is the most innovative output that contributes to multiple objectives: new scientific co-produced knowledge, greater self-awareness among indigenous women, differentiated restitution activities and a great impact among a diverse European audience.A mixed methodology, which crosses classic ethnology tools with others inspired by community psychology, will encourage the group of indigenous women to use talking maps and collective self-representations to explore new forms of self-narration.Upon completion of the Work-Packages at my host institution, UNIVE - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia – (Italy), the project will fill a significant gap in anthropological studies on gender violence, Amazon ethnography and political ecology. At the same time consolidating my position as lecturer and researcher with updated skills in digital humanities and innovative methodology for data dissemination