Elizabeth Swanson Andi

Elizabeth Swanson Andi is a multi-media artist and environmental researcher from the Ecuadorian Amazon, working across photography, film, and art that involves earth elements. She was raised between her ancestral territory in the Kichwa community of Venecia Derecha along the Napo River and the Sonoran Desert. She identifies deeply with and carries a strong responsibility to care for the Napo River, which has sustained her people since time immemorial. She belongs to the Napuruna (Amazonian Kichwa)—“people of the Napo River”—and is part of the Kichwa community of Venecia Derecha.

Her work is grounded in three Kichwa concepts: iyarina (thinking through the land and its memory), llakichina (feeling empathy, sorrow, and love at once), and kuyana (reciprocity and giving back). Inspired by her community and ancestral knowledge, she reflects on the environmental and cultural changes across generations—from her grandparents’ time of ecological abundance to today’s realities of language loss, forest degradation, and food and water insecurity.

She is co-director of the film Waska: The Forest is My Family with The Guardian Documentaries, alongside Nina Gualinga and Boloh Miranda. She is also Co-Founder of Passu Creativa, a collective that supports Indigenous and more-than-human storytelling through art, poetry, and film. Alongside her relatives, she runs the Iyarina–Indigenous Memory & Science Center.

Through her storytelling, research, and collaborative work, she is dedicated to protecting her homeland and uplifting Indigenous voices—for the land, for cultural survival, and for a future rooted in Indigenous joy. Allpamanda, kawsaymanda hatarishun.