A River for Life: The Río Cobre Archive

A River for Life: The Río Cobre Archive is an artist-led project that partners with the peasant water protectors of the Río Cobre in Veraguas, Panama, to amplify their community-centered governance model rooted in the worldview of the river as a living relative.

The project’s primary digital component is an accessible website that serves as a living archive. It combines underwater cinematography, participatory field recordings, and Indigenous narratives to honor local traditions of land defense and collective decision-making. A dedicated NFT gallery on the site features still images and GIFs extracted directly from the 2023 video work, Guardiana del Agua – a hydrofeminist tribute to the legacy of murdered activist Berta Cáceres. This project expands that vision of resistance into a new, collaborative model for environmental stewardship.

All income generated from the sale of these NFTs will be donated directly to MOCAMDERCO (Movimiento Campesino en Defensa del Río Cobre). These funds will provide crucial support for the movement’s ongoing work, including legal procedures to resist persecution from capitalist and extractivist powers, as well as grassroots initiatives like river cleanup brigades, ecological monitoring, and educational workshops. In this model, blockchain technology serves as a transparent channel for solidarity, returning value directly to the river’s guardians.

This NFT initiative represents the first step toward a larger vision: the eventual creation of a Movimiento Campesino DAO governance model, where members of MOCAMDERCO can directly vote on community decision-making for water and territory protection.

The project ultimately proposes a hybrid approach where local knowledge, community care, and technology converge to protect the Río Cobre, creating a living archive and a blueprint for water rights rooted in reciprocity rather than extraction.