Reimagining hydrocolonialism: In search of post-extractive futures among Indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico

Colonial expansion into Mexico’s territories is a continuing process, currently exemplified by the extractive activities of mining corporations across the territory. Despite consistent calls for sustainable mining by the Indigenous communities, these corporations continue to exhaust any available opportunities to exploit any mineral reserves with deleterious consequences on the environment and human health. Using the Ollin, a Zapotec symbol representing movement, and hydrocolonialism as a conceptual framework, the article examines extractive mining practices in relation to Indigenous economies, ancestral traditional knowledge, societal structures, and the natural environment. The findings suggest that, though there was consensus on the vitality of the survival of communities through sustainable mining practices, the establishment of foreign mines on Indigenous lands continued to weaken the sense of community all around, thus facilitating a lack of resistance to the injustices. The article suggests that the extraction of minerals and Indigenous labor exacerbates the exploitation of Indigeneity. Thus, envisioning an Indigenous future must look into the values of antepasados, to prioritize and act out of love for our communities and our natural environment.