Sustaining Huaco making in Perú: A decolonizing study with a native knowledge bearer

Abstract This article investigates the extensive knowledge and experience of a traditional Peruvian huaco maker named Lorenzo Cabrera Abanto. Huaco is a pre-Columbian pottery form that western museums and literature identify as a portrait jar or vessel. Lorenzo is discussed as a living repository of ancient heritage and Andean art making for those unfamiliar with its expressions. Due to globalization and changing dynamics in Peruvian culture and economy, huaco making as an expression of Peruvian heritage is threatened. Examining huaco making and history through a decolonizing lens, Lorenzo’s life and work as a native knowledge bearer is considered in light of globalization, the demands of the capitalist markets, theoretical premises of critical pedagogues, and concerns of an art educator. Confronting cultural interactions and shifting global paradigms, the arts education field can productively draw on critical art pedagogy that is informed by diverse discourses and reveres Native wisdom and knowledge of living art forms such as those sustained by Lorenzo.