SoilAssembly TINKU UKU PACHA

Why a Soil Assembly?

The international Soil Assembly network was born in 2022 out of a spontaneous desire to bring together humans from many fields and territories with plants, microbes, fungi, algae, seeds, and other practitioners in the web of life, to share stories and practices of biodiversity, soil regeneration and planetary care.

A Soil Assembly is an actor of the territory where it is organised. Soil Assembly #1 was held in Kochi, India in 2023. The Soil Assembly #2 : Tinku Uku Pacha will be held from 8-11 May 2025 in La Chimba, Ecuador, a rural indigenous community in the Andes, home to the great peasant leader Tránsito Amaguaña who, along with many others, fought for indigenous peoples’ rights and land access from the 1930’s until her death in 2009.

This Assembly #2, to be held in the intercultural centre named after her, will strengthen the local community and the region while stimulating exchanges with a global network of people, initiatives and territories, broadcast via an online stream open to all.

This 3 day assembly will bring together diverse and contrasting participants, according to the themes of each day: 1) regenerative rural economies 2) soil science, art and planetary peasants 3) celebration of Transito Amaguaña and indigenous peasant women leaders.

The aim of the Soil Assembly network is to develop, share and collect knowledge in the fields of living pedagogies, permacircularity and soil ecologies in a horizontal, transdisciplinary approach, in the service of a greater cause: awareness of the soil, ecosocial health and the celebration of indigenous and (neo) peasant resistance.

Planetary stewardship for healthy soils

Tinku means Meeting, Confluence and Conflict. Uku Pacha is the time-space of the underworld in Andean cosmovision. Connoted as hell by the Christian invaders we now know better: it is rather the essential base of all life on earth.

The Soil Assembly#2 Tinku Uku Pacha confronts multiple sectors and actors, both local and international, to imagine new and ancient ruralities and address some of the most pressing questions of our time and the most important for our future:

How can we regenerate soils and environments while also sustaining rural economies and involving the youth? How can science and art deepen our understanding of soils and ecosystems and create meaningful change? What are the leaderships and visions we need to progress towards a good life for all beings?

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To do this, we need your help! This crowdfunding campaign will support:

1. Organising the «Soil Assembly #2 - Tinku Uku Pacha» in el Centro Intercultural Comunitario Tránsito Amaguaña in La Chimba, Ecuador.

2. Publication and printing of the newspaper that will develop a special section from Tinku Uku Pacha of the South American edition of Planet Laboratory #6 Planetary Peasant

3. Soil Residency focussing on chromatography, sonification and understanding the soils of the territory.

About the Soil Residency

The residency in the Intercultural Community Centre in La Chimba, Ecuador, focuses on soil chromatography and sonification as ways of interpreting underground realities for our senses. Just as chromatography enables us to «see» the soil using chemistry and paper, we use open source software and sound design to «hear» it. We combine creativity, science and peasant knowledge to broaden understanding of the soil, carrying out open source research rooted in and empowering the knowledge of local communities.

A chromatography laboratory will be established in the CICTA during April and May where soil samples from the territory of La Chimba will be gathered, sonified and analysed while discussing with the people who know these soils. The results of this laboratory will be shared in an pedagogic audiovisual installation to be inaugurated during the Soil Assembly #2 where visitors will be able to «hear» and «see» underground, understanding the different soils of the territory and becoming aware of all the components of the soil.

The team of residents is composed of Ronny Albuja (digital artist), Santiago Tapia (programming), Daniel Gachet (music), Danilo Gómez (chromatography). They will be joined by La Chimba community members and special guests at different stages of the process.