Resisting Erasure: The Practice of Learning from Maya Mam Narratives of Survivance in Guatemala

Abstract

Through the implementation of innovative research methods and engagement with Indigenous scholarship, scholars of transitional justice and archival studies can learn important lessons from Indigenous scholars and communities who are working to build brighter futures in the shadow of conflict, violence, and genocide. In my doctoral research, here presented in three articles, I make this argument through exploring the case studies of Rwanda and Guatemala, providing methods of analysis, and identifying opportunities for collaborative research. In part one, “New Documents Shed Light: Why did Peacekeepers Withdraw During Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide?”, an article published in 2018 in Genocide Studies and Prevention: an International Journal, I utilize the “critical oral history method” and analysis of recently declassified United States government records that shed light on the failed international response to stop the genocide in Rwanda. While methods used in this study elicit important information, the author finds that the study fails to include voices of people who suffered the consequences of these flawed polices. In part two, “Collaborative Archival Analysis & Co-Producing Knowledge,” I discuss the use of innovative archival analysis and “critical oral history” to address the flaws in the Rwanda project, drawing on important lessons from Indigenous studies and decolonizing methodologies. I apply these lessons in the case study of a collaborative project with the small town of genocide survivors in Nuevo Amanecer in western Guatemala. I argue that by broadening access to documents from the U.S.’ “colonial archive” about the Guatemalan genocide, we subvert the colonial archive in important ways. While these methods provide promise, future research needs to further develop these approaches. Finally, in part three, “Beyond Transitional Justice: Learning from Indigenous Maya Resistance in Guatemala,” I identify concrete lessons scholars and practitioners can learn from Indigenous scholarship when attempting to determine successes and shortcomings of the international community’s approach to transitional justice in the case of Guatemala. Through learning from the Indigenous studies concepts of refusal, survivance, and thrivance, as well as ideas of “damage-centered research” and “desire-centered research,” non-Native scholars can fundamentally reconfigure ideas of how to do their work by centering the voices and projects of communities who are building brighter futures. Ultimately, I conclude that non-Native scholars and practitioners can learn many lessons from Indigenous scholars and communities who are doing innovative future-building work, especially in the field of archival studies and transitional justice.