Embodying relationality through immersive sustainability solutions with Indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon

The sustainability crisis is rooted in Western paradigms of separation. To overcome the challenges we face, Western-educated people, like us, must question our deeply internalized ontological assumptions and welcome alternative relational perspectives. Grasping a relational cosmovision, not only cognitively but embodying it physically and emotionally, can enable personal and social transformations that address the root causes of sustainability problems. We explore how relational forms of immersion in Kichwa and Waorani communities, through transformative and place-based learning experiences, may foster the embodiment of relationality. Students from a Western research institution participated in a two-week study-abroad program on Indigenous sustainability solutions in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Participant observation and interviews revealed how students built stronger and more relational connections to nature and questioned the universality of Western ontological assumptions. These transformative shifts were fostered through experiences of embodying relationality facilitated through opportunities of relating, reflecting, and embracing offered by the setting and the program’s activities. Findings showcase how transformative experiences of embodying relationality can contribute to ontological shifts strengthening the relation with and to nature and constitute immersive sustainability solutions. We conclude with a dynamic model of the process through which Western-educated people trained in experiencing themselves as separate individuals realize and embody their embeddedness in the net of relationships with all beings.