The central theoretical question considered in WP2 is related to historicising Indigenous knowledges and agencies. This involves thoroughly examining historical and archival material and valuing Indigenous sources and narratives (oral, written, spiritual, graphic, etc.). The focus will be on submerged histories, new sources, and different ways of understanding history, expanding on still Eurocentric historiography. Indigenous experiences are framed by colonialism; therefore, the relations of Indigenous peoples with colonial powers and state formations, historicising identities, and knowledges are crucial to this WP, expanding on the notion and complexity of Indigenous knowledges in Latin America. 

This WP will study memory, agency, identity, power, and other all-important notions that characterise the relationship between the conceptualisation and transformation of Indigenous knowledges entangled with the colonial state and institutions, such as universities. It will also demonstrate the traceability of Indigenous knowledges in different sources, including oral sources, colonial and imperial administrative archives, and judiciary sources. The objective is to offer methodological tools for EDGES researchers to identify, recover, and analyse Indigenous perspectives from the past in historical sources.