This past year, I was the recipient of the Thomas J. Watson Traveling Fellowship, which funds college graduates to pursue a year of self-directed research outside of their home country. This book contains my writings, drawings, and paintings from the fellowship, through which I explore how historically marginalized indigenous peoples struggle to sustain their lands, homes, and livelihoods.
Through visual journaling, a reflective process that incorporates mapping, gestural sketching, and architectural drawing, I recorded the stories of the Orang Ulu of Malaysian Borneo, the Quechua of the Andean Altiplano, the Matses of the Peruvian Amazon, the tribes of Ethiopia’s highlands and Omo Valley, and the Khanty and Altai communities of Siberia. The great value in visiting each of these places is that although they are all similarly undergoing forced transition and are at risk of becoming culturally extinct, the challenges they face are distinctive. I was concerned with how environmental, pol
