Pictogramas, comunicación intercultural y diseño participativo

In this paper we reflect on the process and preliminary results of a participatory project that aims to support and collaboratively design a system of pictograms for intercultural communication processes with and for indigenous communities in Ecuador. The project builds on the long tradition of community-based communication as an important intercultural space of resistance for indigenous peoples of Ecuador. We have joined efforts with young student representatives of different Amazonian nationalities motivated by the need to share information and make visible the situation they are going through, as students, during the COVID-19 pandemic which has had a differentiated impact on indigenous peoples. To advance the work we draw from extensive contemporary indigenous visual practices and from experiences of participatory design from the Global South and Indigenous Research to create a series of graphic materials. The experiences allow us to discuss how the transitions between image and words, practiced through the creation of the pictograms, can allow all of us involved to try out various forms of knowledge building and critical understanding of reality.