Workshop Claiming Justice: Indigenous Normative Knowledge, Methods and New Legal Techniques in Latin America | 21–22 May 2026

21–22 May 2026

Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Campus Solbosch, Room R 42.2.103/42.2.110

This symposium, organized within the framework of the EDGES project, examines the main contemporary directions shaping struggles for justice grounded in Indigenous normative knowledge in Latin America. By addressing the epistemological and methodological challenges these dynamics raise, it seeks to contribute to the development of more robust, informed, and participatory socio-legal knowledge. The event brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers from anthropology, law, political science, and history, alongside Indigenous leaders and community members, working through a collaborative workshop format.

The symposium will be preceded by a one-day mini-course on Indigenous rights topics, open to students, activists, and scholars.

Day I

Thursday, 21 May


Para una integración de las metodologías indígenas de investigación en las epistemologías jurídicas | Indigenous Research Methodologies and Legal Knowledge: Transforming Legal Practice Through Indigenous Epistemologies

Revisiting concrete examples of judicialization and criminalization processes through classical legal analysis combined with ethnographic reappraisal. Contributors identify and mobilize Indigenous methods — including storytelling, digital documents, and Indigenous texts — for the operative reintegration of Indigenous epistemological standpoints into legally oriented analysis.

Metodos indígenas de investigación: trayectorias de investigación en la UFAM con énfasis en los derechos territoriales y más-que-humanos

Rosijane Fernandes Moura – Tukano (UFAM)

El derecho propio como herramienta metodológica y transformadora

Nelson Cucuñame (Univ. Autónoma Indígena Intercultural) & Nina Bries (European University Institute)

Tejiendo justicia desde el pueblo Kankuamo: la armonización restaurativa como prática de justicia propria en Colombia

Shirley Arias Monteiro (Abogada Kankuamo)

Narrar e Cantar as Leis de Multiseres — vitalizando os lugares-chave ecológicos / Storying and singing the laws of multibeings — vitalizing the keystone ecological places

Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen (Univ. of Helsinki)


Derechos y Tierra: Las múltiples facetas de las pertenencias | Land, Rights and The Many Ways of Belonging

Bringing together researchers and leaders to address the many dimensions of property regimes from multiple material and epistemological Indigenous standpoints, and the possibility of proposing alternative normative models through Indigenous methods and praxis.

¿Con (con)sentimento o no?: Corazonamientos decoloniales plurales sobre el derecho de propiedad desde la Selva Viviente (Kawsak Sacha)

Indigenous Normative Knowledge and Ownership in Colonial Latin America, 16th–18th century

Manuel Bastias Saavedra (Hannover Univ.)

“A terra não nos pertence, nós que pertencemos a ela”

Almires Martins Machado (Univ. Federal do Pará)

Colonisation et exclusion en Guyane: la lutte des peuples autochtones

Éric Louis (Yopoto Kali’na) & Pierre Auzerau (Univ. of Helsinki)

Day II

Friday, 22 May


Consentimiento previo, libre e informado: entre multiculturalismo neoliberal, prácticas de corazonamientos y justicia multiespecies | Free, prior and informed consent: between neoliberal multiculturalism, heartfelt thinking and multispecies justice

Examining the tensions and limitations of free, prior, and informed consent frameworks, and how Indigenous communities — such as the Sarayaku People in Ecuador — have produced their own legal frameworks as genuine legal experiences. The panel explores how participatory methods can be conceptualized as legal techniques to mitigate the pitfalls of official law.

¿Con (con)sentimento o no?: Corazonamientos decoloniales plurales sobre el derecho de propiedad desde la Selva Viviente (Kawsak Sacha)

Mario Yaucén Remache (Pueblo Originario Kichwa de Sarayaku) Jans Jenny García Ruales (Marburg Univ.)

El desafio de la construcción del Dialogo intercultural

Fernando Lezcaño (Observatorio Regional de Derechos Humanos, Argentina y Pueblos Indígenas)

La disputa judicial para el cumplimiento del Paradigma de la autodeterminación territorial de los pueblos indígenas ante proyectos extrativos


La interculturalidad a prueba: justicias en tensiones | Interculturality put to the test: justice in tensions

Using case studies to document and assess ongoing intercultural dialogues, this panel proposes a normative test based on the “reversal of the burden of proof” as a communicational requirement grounded in Indigenous methods.

Diálogo intercultural en procesos penales: Un análisis cruzado desde auto-etnografías colaborativas

Myrian Gualinga (Pueblo Originario Kichwa de Sarayaku – Kuriñampi) & Barbara Truffin (ULB)

Defensa especializada y abogacía comunitaria en el Sur de Chile: Usos de las normatividades mapuche en las Defensas del Sur

Fabien Le Bonniec (Univ. de La Frontera)

Fabriquer des formes d’écoute alternatives: possibilités et limites des jugements in situ au regard des cosmovisions autochtones

Fiona Argenta (ULB)

Conocimiento marítimo razia y razonamiento jurídico archipelágico en el Caribe

Mateo Cordoba Cardenas (Uniandes)

Entre antropología, justicia multiespecie y derechos indígenas: formas de coexistencia y cosmopolítica entre los pueblos Piripkura y Munduruku

Thiago Mota Cardoso (UFAM)

Catálogo florístico colaborativo con la Asociación de Productores Indígenas de la Tierra Caititu (APITC) en la Amazonía Brasileña

Markus Enk Schall (ULB)


· Université libre de Bruxelles, Campus Solbosch · Brussels Organized within the EDGES project, funded by the European Union Workshop format privileging collaborative and participatory research methods