Community is the land and people who shaped me and our interconnected extensions--It is the tie to the local land around us, it is knowing that the land and people do not need to be “saved” but rather respected, it is knowing that there is less and less food but everyone will eat, it is recognizing the loss and joy we have experienced together, it is listening to the cicadas sing and knowing what it means, it is watching the swallow tailed birds arrive and knowing rain will follow, it is walking into spaces together we are not wanted in, it is living in resistance. Community is remembering those before and thinking of all those who are yet to come.

storytelling is a powerful language of love

Elizabeth Virkina Swanson is a Napuruna-Kichwa Indigenous filmmaker, photographer, and M.A. Sustainability student at Arizona State University (graduating December 2026). Her work is rooted in storytelling as a tool for Indigenous knowledge transmission, environmental documentation, and community-led communication in the Napo River Basin of the Ecuadorian Amazon, where she continues to work closely with the Iyarina Research & Education Center and the 1,300-acre Iyarina Reserve stewarded by her ayllu-muntun (clan). She is also a strong advocate for the return of photographs and audiovisual materials to their places of origin, viewing them as heritage pieces essential to the continuity and thriving of Indigenous cultures and lifeways.

In 2021, she participated in the Emerging Indigenous Filmmakers Mentorship Program, strengthening her foundation in visual storytelling. She has been featured in the film "Ceibo" and co-directed her first documentary, "Waska", alongside Nina Gualinga and Boloh Miranda, focusing on Indigenous territorial protection and Amazonian lifeways. In 2023, she joined the first Kanua Film Festival, working with TAWNA Cinema and Kara Solar on Ecuador’s first floating film festival. Traveling by canoe for 15 days along Amazonian rivers, she supported community filmmaking workshops where participants created short films in a day and screened them the same night, combining storytelling, sustainable energy, and river-based mobility in a participatory cinema model.

Her photography work, beginning in 2021, has been exhibited in multiple United Nations conferences and policy spaces, bringing Indigenous perspectives directly into decision-making environments focused on climate and environmental justice. One of her videography works will also be featured in TAWNA Cinema’s art pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale in Italy.

Following these experiences, she began her graduate studies in Sustainability at Arizona State University. Since then, she has continued working at the intersection of Indigenous knowledge, environmental research, and visual storytelling. She has served as Co-Principal Investigator on 'Solar Canoes Against Deforestation", funded twice by the Tamalpais Trust, and as Co-PI on an ACLS Digital Justice Seed Grant project supporting research on Indigenous knowledge of river ecosystems. Alongside this work, she has supported community-led land recovery efforts, including contributing to the process of purchasing ancestral land for conservation and stewardship within her territory.

Across her practice, she uses photography and filmmaking not only as documentation, but as a way of strengthening intergenerational knowledge transmission in Runashimi/Napu-Kichwa and amplifying Indigenous perspectives on rivers, climate, and ecological change.

Biography

Kanua Film Festival

Photographer & Filmmaker

Nov-Dec 2023

Joined a multicultural and multifaceted team of Filmmakers and Solar Energy Technicians representing various Ecuadorian Indigenous Nationalities to be part of the first of it’s kind, Kanua Film Festival---The Amazon’s first floating film festival bringing Indigenous stories, 29 films from nine countries to communities, to the big screen all powered by solar energy.

Interviews with media outlets like The Guardian and NPR The World.

Film Workshop Facilitator

Nov-December 2023

Worked as part of the TAWNA Collective to facilitate a collaborative learning space where we shared photography and film techniques with 6 Indigenous communities across three Indigenous Nationalities.

A short film was created and edited alongside communities and screened in the same day as part of the Kanua Film Festival.

If Not Us Then Who?

Amplifying voices of indigenous peoples and communities through film distribution.

Impact Storyteller & Communications

June 2021- present

Emerging Filmmaker Development Program

June 2021- 2022

27 indigenous filmmakers from 18 equatorial indigenous communities come together to share experiences, learn from each other, and work on their personal short film.

ACEER Conservation Fellow

Conservation Fellow

June 2021 - present

Project involves mixing art and science with indigenous thinking to communicate bio-cultural knowledge.

Iyarina Andes & Amazon Field School

President

June 2018 - present

Family business with 20 + years creating jobs and alternatives forms of income for indigenous communities. Dedicated to the conservation of forests and preservation of indigenous languages and culture.

National Geographic Funded Research in the

Ecuadorian Amazon

Fall 2019

Worked in partnership with the Waorani Nation and two researchers. Served as the project coordinator, translator, research assistant, and indigenous liaison.
Worked as a field assistant to Prof. William Balée of Tulane University on a National Geographic funded project titled “Historical Ecology of Waorani Ridgetops, Ecuadorian Amazon”. My work in data collection there required rigorous consistency as well as physical endurance working long hours under difficult Amazonian forest conditions.

Water Conservation Indigenous Liaison

Peruvian Amazon Summer 2019

Accompanied John Sabo, Arizona State University’s lead water policy expert and Director of Future H20, to the Peruvian Amazon to meet with Bora indigenous community members to explore project collaborations on the future of rivers in the Amazon basin. My role was to serve as a communications liaison between scientists and the community.
Networked with Peruvian Amazonian Conservation Leaders.

Assited Tod Swanson (linguist, anthropologist, and Director of Iyarina) to record and transcribe videos.
Goal is to create a database of traditional indigenous storytelling, singing, and ecological knowledge.

Social Relation to Nation | Recording Voices of the Amazon

Ecuadorian Amazon Summer 2018/2019

Inti Anka Taripay

Facilitate kichwa language courses, meetings, and webinars.

Kichwa Language Committee

November 2020 - Present

Communications Committee

November 2020 - Present

Graffic designing, event planning, communication strategy.

WA-YA Outdoor School

Outdoor Instructor

June – September 2020 (Olympia, WA)

Spent 10 weeks weaving together outdoor survival, science, and indigenous culture/perspective to provide youth an opportunity to connect with nature. We created a safe and exceptional learning experience during the times of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wrote curriculum, assisted with program logistics, created a safe learning environment, followed COVID-19 guidelines.
Worked with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Indigenous Storytellers, Tribal Leaders, Nisqually Wildlife Refuge Center, Kayaking trip instructor, board members.
Promoted outdoor education to parents and potential campers.
Main point of contact for Spanish speaking parents and children.

Nature Bridge Yosemite

Inspired kids from all backgrounds to spend time outdoors and connect to nature while teaching about Yosemite’s geological landscape, watershed, cultural history, and ecology. Grades 6-12. Programs vary from 2-5 days. Activities include day hikes, science investigations, skiing, evening programs, backpacking etc.
Wrote curriculum: Yosemite’s geological landscape, watershed, cultural history, and ecology.
Led day hikes, science investigations, evening programs, and backpacking trips.

Environmental Science Educator

December – March 2020 (El Portal, CA)

Desert Botanical Garden

Environmental Science Educator

December – March 2020 (El Portal, CA)

Facilitated learning about the Sonoran Desert environment through inquiry-based teaching and activities. Grades k-8.
Taught S.T.E.A.M based programs in the Sonoran Desert.
Organized and handled large school groups.

NASA Develop National Program

Researcher

Spring 2019

Analyzed precipitation, snow cover, and soil moisture using NASA Earth Observations in the Greater Toronto Area to improve flood preparedness for coastal communities. Created a Land Classification map and a Google Earth Engine tool with three other participants. Partnered with the City of Toronto, City of Mississauga, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, and Credit Valley Conservation.

Researcher

Fall 2018

Used NASA Earth Observations to analyze Land Surface Temperature and Tree Canopy Cover in order to mitigate the Urban Heat Island effects in Tempe Arizona. Created a time series map and a land classification map in a team with three other participants.