Collaborative research and methodological decolonization with video cameras

Abstract

This article reports the development of a collaborative research through the use of a participatory video methodology to document indigenous knowledge practices in southern Veracruz, Mexico. The case study describes the production of a video on livelihood practices with youth and how the process of the creation
of the video took participants back to cultural experiences and environmental meaning-making. The dialogical work with participatory video enabled in depth insights that exemplified the knowledge within the context of fishing practices in local wetlands, a practice done mainly by women that had receded and was being lost in modern times. The study found that, on the one hand, it was the involvement in the participative development process of a documentary production and on the other, decolonial education processes (discussions amongst learners and fisher women) that surfaced much of the rich detail that
then articulated into the local environment context and indigenous sustainability practices to enhance human wellbeing. The study found as well the relevance of the use of video cameras as a tool for the development of decolonial methodologies in social sciences research.