Whose impact is it? A decolonised approach in intercultural communication and creative methods in practice-based research

ABSTRACT This project report focuses on the complexities, dynamics and impacts of intercultural communication, with the example of indigenous video productions by the Zhigoneshi Collective from the Arhuaco community in Colombia. A decade-long filmmaking journey undertaken by the collective targeted the violent political situation in the region and challenged some of the past films made about the community by external filmmakers. A collaborative self-reflective research film concludes the project; it explores the researcher’s positionality, inevitable power struggles, tensions around indigenous agency, intellectual ownership of the footage, politics of representation (who has the right to represent whom) and the importance of contexts of dissemination. More importantly, it explores the complex role of external filmmakers who must strike a balance between inevitable pre-assumptions, cultural stereotyping and their own privileged positionality.