An Art Exhibit at The Wadsworth Museum in Hartford by Researcher and Curator: Catalina Alvarado Cañuta, PhDc Anthropology.

Weaving Images of Healing: Caring for the Ancestors of the Future is part of Catalina Alvarado-Cañuta’s doctoral project, which presents Indigenous art as a living methodology for research and collective relief. By bringing together creators from different peoples of Abya Yala—Loreto Millalén, Mapuche, Master Weaver; Francisco Huichaqueo, Mapuche, Artist and Filmmaker; Catalina Alvarado-Cañuta, Mapuche, Academic and Embroiderer; and Maya Kaqchikel: Jeff Cán Xicay, Weaver, Maya Kaqchikel, Patzicía, and Amabilia Escalante Ortiz, Guatemala, Weaver—the exhibition transforms the museum space into a territory where textiles, projections, dances, garments of memory (known as archaeological objects), ceremonial sounds, and a ritual mask are not displayed as objects, but rather come to life and activate the space from their own dimensions. What distinguishes this project is its break with extractivist models of academic research and curatorial practice. Here, knowledge is not limited to an academic article, but is shared, practiced, and collectively woven with the community. Situated at the intersection of medical anthropology, Indigenous studies, and decolonial praxis, this project proposes that the relief of colonial trauma is also an aesthetic, communal, and political act.