The Ritualising Protection Project is co-developed by the Research Team and the Resguardo Indígena de Huellas Caloto. Both the objectives of the project and part of the methodology have been shaped by the partner organisation with inputs from the Principal Investigator and filmmaker. In this way, we seek to include indigenous research methods in the research design, such as narration, autoethnography, community visits, walks on the land, and harmonisation.

In addition to desk-based research, the Project methodology has two main components:

(1) Observational research, through which the Research Team will observe and represent, through different methods, indigenous spiritual protection practices performed by and within the Nasa community in their ancestral territory. Thus, we seek to understand and capture the significance of these protection practices through the eyes of the Nasa community, and to contextualise these practices within the socio, political, and economic environment where the community live.

(2) Participatory action research, in particular indigenous methodologies, through which the Co-Investigator and the partner organisation seek to foster the (re-)appropriation of spiritual protection practices by the community and strengthen existing protection practices. In particular, they will use community meetings to engage the elders and their families, as well as walks on the land with the indigenous guard, and they will also perform harmonisation rituals. In this way, the research will also fulfil an emancipatory function by allowing the indigenous community to both take control of the knowledge production process and strengthen their own protection tools.