About Me

Totonac teachers and knowledge holders sit together in a meeting at the Centre for Indigenous Arts.

About

Chibueze Peter Edeze

Researcher & Explorer

North America · Papantla · Mexico

Tutunaku (Totonac) knowledge holders

Cultural continuity through community learning.

UNESCO source (opens in a new tab)·Image credit (opens in a new tab)·CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)Full credit ↓
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HomeAbout Chibueze Peter Edeze

Research · Exploration · Community-led value

My work begins with people.

I am a researcher and explorer, interested in Indigenous and traditional knowledge, living heritage, craft, and the relationships between people and their environments.

I explore how people, places, objects, techniques, knowledge and materials come together in everyday life. My interest is in how these relationships can strengthen cultural continuity, local capabilities and community wellbeing.

I want to develop research and learning approaches that support community-defined value creation, responsible value governance and fair benefit sharing. The people who hold the heritage should decide what is possible, what is appropriate, and what must remain protected.

The purpose that guides my work

Create value.
Keep heritage whole.

Knowledge, materials, objects and places are held in relationships. Value must strengthen those relationships and the people who sustain them.

01

Value creation

Begin with the community’s own definition of value: wellbeing, cultural continuity, ecological care, skills and livelihoods. Support chosen opportunities without eroding meaning or turning heritage into a commodity.

02

Value governance

Communities set the rules for access, cultural use, research, publication and partnerships. Knowledge remains under the control of its custodians. They decide the boundaries and have the final say.

03

Fair benefit sharing

Agree fair terms before work starts. Recognise contributions, make costs and benefits transparent, and let communities determine how benefits support practitioners, future generations and collective wellbeing.

UNESCO ethical principles ↗ (opens in a new tab) UN Declaration · Articles 18, 31 & 32 ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Textile photograph: Draceane (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)

Six connected areas of inquiry

What I explore

Living heritage in its own context, through the people who know it.

Our intended value-creation approach

Empower the people.
Keep the value with them.

Social entrepreneurship education and training, co-designed with communities, with value governance and fair benefit sharing at every stage.

A proposed learning pathway. The photographs below show independently documented heritage and training settings.

A Zafimaniry woman beside a wooden fence and cultivated plants in Madagascar.01

Listen & define

Begin with community priorities. Agree who represents the community, how decisions are made, and what should remain private.

Community-defined purpose

Local languages, customary protocols and individual consent shape participation.

Photo, context & source

A Zafimaniry woman in Ifasina, Madagascar, 2007.

Photograph: Bernard Gagnon (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Zafimaniry woodcraft (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

Totonac teachers and knowledge holders sit together in a meeting at the Centre for Indigenous Arts.02

Co-design the learning

Develop education and training with local teachers, artisans, elders, women and young people. They determine what is appropriate to share.

Learn with the custodians

Adapt the curriculum, pace and setting to community choices.

Photo, context & source

Teachers and knowledge holders of the Centre for Indigenous Arts meeting with UNESCO in Papantla, Mexico. Published 2026.

Photograph: Casa de Medios del Centro de Artes Indígenas CAI (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Tutunaku teachers and living heritage (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

Community radio participants work with laptops, headphones and microphones.03

Build enterprise capabilities

Offer practical learning in social entrepreneurship, financial literacy, costing, cooperation, communication and negotiation for community-approved livelihood activities.

Capability before expansion

Protect cultural meaning and ecological limits; do not make heritage itself a commodity.

Photo, context & source

Community media participants editing radio content during training in Mexico. Published 2026.

Photograph: REDES A.C. (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Community media training in Mexico (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

Two Quechua demonstrators work with plant fibres to make rope at a public festival.04

Govern the value

Co-design rules for permission, attribution, cultural use, partnerships and accountability before any activity begins. Community approval is decisive.

Authority stays local

Agree benefit-sharing arrangements in advance, with clear responsibilities and review.

Photo, context & source

Quechua rope-making demonstrators at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, DC, 2015.

Photograph: Jarek Tuszyński (opens in a new tab) · CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Q’eswachaka bridge knowledge (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

The fine weave and long fringe of a traditional Samoan mat.05

Share & review fairly

Make payments, costs and benefits understandable. Communities choose how benefits support practitioners, cultural continuity and collective wellbeing.

Fairness that can be checked

Review outcomes together; change or stop activities when the community decides.

Photo, context & source

A Samoan traditional mat photographed at Apia Market, Samoa, 2009.

Photograph: Sarah Kelemen (opens in a new tab) · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · ‘Ie Samoa fine mats (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

Learning should increase people’s ability to choose, negotiate and govern their own futures.

Our Values & Behaviours

How we intend to work matters as much as what we hope to achieve.
Six commitments guide the research, the learning and every relationship.

Community authority

Communities have the final say.

They control participation, cultural use, publication, partnerships and benefit arrangements within our work. Their decisions are final for our involvement.

In practice: We proceed only within the boundaries they choose; a refusal ends the proposal.

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Read all six commitments

Community authority

They control participation, cultural use, publication, partnerships and benefit arrangements within our work. Their decisions are final for our involvement.

In practice: We proceed only within the boundaries they choose; a refusal ends the proposal.

Co-design

Community members help define the questions, learning process, methods and measures of success from the beginning. Local expertise shapes the work.

In practice: We make room for elders, practitioners, women and young people, through community-chosen processes.

Ongoing consent

We seek free, prior, informed and ongoing consent. Collective agreement does not replace individual choice. People can decline, pause or withdraw their participation.

In practice: We revisit permission when purposes, uses or partners change.

Cultural integrity

Sacred, restricted and sensitive knowledge stays with its custodians. Learning and livelihood activities must protect cultural context and the landscapes that sustain it.

In practice: We respect limits on access, recording and disclosure, including a decision to share nothing.

Fairness & transparency

Communities and practitioners help set fair terms before work begins, including payment, recognition, shared benefits and responsibilities.

In practice: We explain costs and decisions plainly, credit contributions, and provide ways to question or challenge the process.

Learning & accountability

Research should be useful to the people who inform it. We return agreed findings in accessible forms and invite community review before release.

In practice: We correct mistakes, honour commitments, and stop when community approval is withdrawn.

Reference frameworks: UNESCO ethical principles (opens in a new tab) · United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (opens in a new tab)

Trace the photograph. Read the record.

Sources & Image Credits

Every image is a real documentary photograph. Photo permissions and heritage sources are listed separately so each can be checked.

UNITED NATIONS

Community authority & cultural rights

Indigenous participation, knowledge, heritage and resource priorities in the UN Declaration. Official text reproduced by the Government of Canada.

Read source (opens in a new tab)
A Zafimaniry woman in Ifasina, Madagascar, 2007.
A Zafimaniry woman beside a wooden fence and cultivated plants in Madagascar.

A Zafimaniry woman in Ifasina, Madagascar, 2007.

Photograph: Bernard Gagnon (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Zafimaniry woodcraft (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

A batik artisan among textiles and tools at the Yogyakarta palace, Indonesia, 2019.
A woman in blue clothing sits beside batik fabrics and craft tools.

A batik artisan among textiles and tools at the Yogyakarta palace, Indonesia, 2019.

Photograph: Danangfirmanto (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Indonesian batik (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

Teachers and knowledge holders of the Centre for Indigenous Arts meeting with UNESCO in Papantla, Mexico. Published 2026.
Totonac teachers and knowledge holders sit together in a meeting at the Centre for Indigenous Arts.

Teachers and knowledge holders of the Centre for Indigenous Arts meeting with UNESCO in Papantla, Mexico. Published 2026.

Photograph: Casa de Medios del Centro de Artes Indígenas CAI (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Tutunaku teachers and living heritage (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

Community media participants editing radio content during training in Mexico. Published 2026.
Community radio participants work with laptops, headphones and microphones.

Community media participants editing radio content during training in Mexico. Published 2026.

Photograph: REDES A.C. (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Community media training in Mexico (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

A man knitting on Taquile Island, Peru, 2006.
A Taquile man wearing a red knitted hat works on knitting outdoors.

A man knitting on Taquile Island, Peru, 2006.

Photograph: Thomas Quine (opens in a new tab) · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Taquile textile art (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

Knitted and woven textile objects on Taquile Island, Peru, 2023.
A knitted hat, woven bag, striped textile and red yarn on Taquile Island.

Knitted and woven textile objects on Taquile Island, Peru, 2023.

Photograph: Draceane (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Taquile textile art (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

Tenores di Bitti Mialinu Pira, a canto a tenore group from Sardinia, Italy.
Four Sardinian singers face one another while performing canto a tenore.

Tenores di Bitti Mialinu Pira, a canto a tenore group from Sardinia, Italy.

Photograph: Sardegnabella (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Sardinian pastoral songs (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

Traditional performers from Futuna Island, Vanuatu, photographed in 2013.
Futuna performers wearing traditional adornments stand against a blue sky.

Traditional performers from Futuna Island, Vanuatu, photographed in 2013.

Photograph: Graham Crumb / Imagicity.com (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

Photo record · Futuna performers, Vanuatu (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

Batad rice terraces in the Philippine Cordilleras, Philippines.
Green rice terraces and village houses on a steep mountain slope at Batad.

Batad rice terraces in the Philippine Cordilleras, Philippines.

Photograph: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Philippine Cordilleras rice terraces (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

Quechua rope-making demonstrators at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, DC, 2015.
Two Quechua demonstrators work with plant fibres to make rope at a public festival.

Quechua rope-making demonstrators at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, DC, 2015.

Photograph: Jarek Tuszyński (opens in a new tab) · CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Q’eswachaka bridge knowledge (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

A sand drawing from Vanuatu, photographed in 2007.
An intricate continuous geometric line drawn in sand in Vanuatu.

A sand drawing from Vanuatu, photographed in 2007.

Photograph: PhillipC (opens in a new tab) · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · Vanuatu sand drawings (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

A Samoan traditional mat photographed at Apia Market, Samoa, 2009.
The fine weave and long fringe of a traditional Samoan mat.

A Samoan traditional mat photographed at Apia Market, Samoa, 2009.

Photograph: Sarah Kelemen (opens in a new tab) · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab). Resized and converted to WebP; display cropping may vary. The photo adaptation retains this licence.

UNESCO · ‘Ie Samoa fine mats (opens in a new tab) · Original image (opens in a new tab)

Adapted photographs retain the licences linked above. Fonts: Playfair Display, SIL Open Font License. Photographs illustrate their documented settings; the education and training pathway on this page describes our intended approach.