Documentary Champeales: Making Past Technologies Visible for Present-Day Conservation

The bofedales, locally known as “champeales,” are high Andean wetlands essential for water conservation and management in mountain ecosystems. For more than two thousand years, Aymara communities have developed and maintained complex irrigation systems that expand and revitalize these wetlands, ensuring forage for livestock and sustenance for the wildlife inhabiting the high plateau.
Between 2021 and 2024, the collective CEQUIA, Collaborative Art and Anthropology—composed of visual artist Claudia del Fierro, documentary filmmaker Patricia Albornoz, and archaeologist Magdalena García—carried out an ethnographic and audiovisual investigation to make this ancestral knowledge and its ongoing practices visible. The documentary travels through different sites in the Arica and Parinacota Region, recording the relationships among herders, communities, and public institutions around the recovery of bofedales as tools for ecological and cultural conservation.

Through interviews, field trips, and on-site filming in the communes of General Lagos, Putre, and Camarones, the team explored archaeological memory through the testimonies of community members who still practice these techniques, as well as of relatives who migrated to the city but maintain memories and bonds with them.
“Our goal was to show how these ancient technologies can open possibilities for future conservation. We’re not seeking to evoke nostalgia, but to make visible practices that remain alive, so that future generations can continue them,” explained Claudia del Fierro.

During their research, the filmmakers observed how herding has declined since the mid-20th century, as communities have moved toward urban centers. However, a seasonal transhumance movement persists, in which families return for short periods to help maintain the bofedales, while elders remain in the villages practicing these tasks year-round.
The audiovisual production also highlights the collaboration between Aymara communities and institutions such as the National Forest Corporation (CONAF), the National Corporation for Indigenous Development (CONADI), and the Regional Government of Arica and Parinacota, which work together to restore threatened bofedales through irrigation systems inspired by Indigenous knowledge.

These actions not only ensure access to water but also help restore ecosystems, strengthen biodiversity, and keep alive cultural practices tied to community-based land management. “The water guided by the herders in the highlands benefits not only their livestock, but also the people of the area and the entire region,” added del Fierro.

Completed in 2024, Champeales is currently part of the documentary festival circuit and was recently screened at La Casa Tumbe, a cultural center of the Afro-descendant community in Arica. The event gathered over 50 participants—including community members, families, cultural agents, and the general public—creating a space for dialogue, exchange, and new networks of collaboration.

You can watch the documentary teaser here.