In Praise of Mother Salt

This archive showcases the Andean salt flats through a media constellation of photographs and short videos. It highlights the beauty and spiritual significance of these salt flats for Indigenous peoples in the Andes, contrasted with the violence caused by lithium extraction and other large-scale mining activities that threaten the existence of these ecosystems.

The archive presents the salt flats as living beings and ancestral deities, often referred to in the Quechua language as Kachi Mama or Mother Salt. Its creation pushes forward what Ann Cvetkovich has defined as a “mutual engagement between art practice and the archive” (2014, p.292), expanding the concept of an affective archive that captures the histories of racialized peoples and illustrates why these histories are significant from a decolonial lens. In summary, the archive expands the media’s potential to envision Indigenous futurities.

Laguna de Salinas, Arequipa, Peru

Maras Salt Mines, Cuzco, Peru