Presenters – Red de Mujeres Matamba y Guasá, Mirna Rosa Herrera Vente, Laura Rodriguez Castro (Southern Cross University), Paula Satizábal (Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity)

Epistemic extractivism is a process of objectification, extraction and victimisation. Research projects that operate under extractivist and colonial logics, appropriate and plunder ideas, knowledges and resources for the accumulation of capital and power, as well as depoliticise and commodify grassroots’ political agendas. Through collective dialogues and a women’s gathering, comadreando en juntanza, undertaken in 2024 with the Black and Indigenous Women’s Network Matamba y Guasá from Timbiquí, Cauca, Colombia, we collectively reflect on the experiences of epistemic extractivism, its impacts and the ways in which it has and continues to be actively challenged and resisted. Grounded in popular pedagogies, and Black, interethnic and anti/decolonial feminist epistemologies and praxis we highlight the importance of healing and countering this violence by opening spaces that honour sovereignty, autonomy, joy, rest, and oral, spiritual and ancestral knowledges