Jimena Bigá

Jimena Bigá is a PhD researcher in Indigenous Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has a background in archaeology, cultural heritage, and semiotics, and expertise in multiple modes of communication and discourse analysis. She holds a Master’s degree in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, with a focus on Indigenous archaeology. Her research expertise is focused on multispecies heritage, Indigenous methodologies, body–territory methods, and Indigenous-led, land-based education. Her work is conducted in close collaboration with Tuxá youth from Rodelas, in northeastern Brazil, where she develops an understanding of heritage grounded in ethical, ontological, and epistemological justice. Her research accompanies and supports community-led processes, including the revitalisation of the ancestral Tuxá language (Dzubukuá), the repatriation of archaeological materials expropriated during the 1980s, and the ongoing Tuxá land demarcation process. In 2024, she was a visiting researcher at the National University of San Martín (Argentina) and at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (Bolivia). Her recent publications include, among others: “The Toré and its Elements in Tuxá Indigenous Context: Translating Inner World through Performative ‘Art’ in Brazilian Northeast” and “Land-Based Education and Tuxá Cultural Resilience in the Opará River, Brazil”.