Decentring and Decolonising Studies on Memory within the field of Transitional Justice: Lessons from Colombia’s Truth Commission and its Engagement with Ethnic Peoples

While Latin America is characterised by colonial expansion, conflict, and experiences of Transitional Justice (TJ), few studies have focused on how the region’s Indigenous Peoples have experienced peacebuilding processes (see e.g. Rivera Rodríguez, 2019; Guerra Curvelo, 2017). The case of Colombia is significant, given the differentialised affectation of Indigenous and other Peoples by the armed conflict and the acknowledgement of this victimhood by the Havana Peace Accord of 2016. An ethnic approach was mandated for the Colombian Truth Commission (CEV), guided by its Directorate of Ethnic Peoples (DPE), which was created after a process of consultation with leaders of Indigenous, afro-descendant, and Rom (or Romani) Peoples. The aim of this article is to analyse the way in which the DPE attempted to decentre and decolonise the work of the CEV in constructing memory from an intercultural perspective and identify lessons for scholars of memory studies in other contexts.