We all breathe this one air; we all drink the same water. We live on this one planet. We need to protect the Earth. If we don't, the big winds will come and destroy the forest. Then you will feel the fear that we feel … And soon it will be too late to change. Raoni Metuktire: Chief of the Indigenous (Brazilian) Amazonian Kayapó people

Prologue

It is easy to understand when one stands at the cima de la montaña (the top of the mountain) on the peak of Huayna Picchu overlooking Machu Picchu, the experience of profound and deeply unique feeling of spirituality. It surrounds us and it is breathable. It is embracing and immersive. It is around us and within us. The inter-connection and interdependence are real, timeless yet unique. We can truly become one in that moment.

As a mestiza Peruvian migrant to Australia, over time I have felt my ‘inner cultural self’ carrying the soft sounds, memories and traces of Indigenous voices and practices soaked in ancestral wisdom—gradually fading (Amorin-Woods 2020). Four decades of living within a Western context dominated by individualism, inequality and neocolonial epistemologies have contributed to a profound sense of cultural and personal loss, and at times, a loss of what it means to be human.

Over the years, this has generated waves of restlessness and incompleteness that have propelled me towards action: becoming an agent of change and advocating for unheard, often vanishing voices within Australia's ‘multicultural’ tapestry. In this context, the phrase ‘do as I say, not as I do’ takes on new meaning, as advancements in cultural ‘inclusion’ and recognition often remain superficial, taking more of a ‘lip service’ and somewhat tokenistic stance, rather than a lived practice.

This paper is a decolonising, qualitative inquiry drawing on elements of critical autoethnography, narrative methods and conceptual analysis to explore Andean cosmology and its relevance for contemporary systemic practice. It invites Indigenous and migrant systemic practitioners to reconnect with the ancient relational wisdom held within their own histories. It also encourages Western practitioners to consider engaging with these powerful yet fading ways of knowing, worldviews that centre kinship, reciprocity and relational balance in contrast to individualism, patriarchy and exploitation. The paper examines Peruvian Indigenous spiritual traditions that illuminate three interwoven systems—individual, society and ecosystem—functioning as parts of a larger cybernetic whole reverberating across time, land and culture; ancient wisdom that can inform contemporary evidence in practice regardless of context.

1 Introduction

Indigenous civilisations across the world have always carried and transmitted knowledge, oral traditions and embodied practices deeply rooted in culture, land and kinship. In the lands now known as Australia, where I live, are the world's oldest continuous cultures: the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Their ancestors inhabited this continent for more than 65,000 years—approximately 2300 generations—long-predating the settlement of Europe and the Americas (NMA 2026). While acknowledging these deep time histories, the present paper focuses on Peruvian Indigenous cultures, my own cultural heritage.

Across the globe, Western colonising powers historically positioned Indigenous cultures as lesser than: peoples to be conquered, civilised, corrected, erased, even ‘saved’. These frameworks cast Indigenous communities as primitive, uneducated or passive, rendering colonisation and invasion not only an act of domination but one often justified as for their own good. In Australia, this legacy is stark; Indigenous peoples were treated as subhuman, despite flourishing on and stewarding the land for tens of thousands of years. Their health and wellbeing trails that of the wider community to this day.

A similar pattern unfolded in Peru. Although the Inca civilisation possessed sophisticated knowledge systems, advanced agricultural engineering, architectural mastery and intricate social organisation, the invading colonisers viewed them through a similar deficit-laden lens (Moseley 2001). Much of the depth of Indigenous knowledge, ritual and relational practice was subsequently silenced, destroyed or buried, subjugated by a combination of weapons, disease and technology. Modern Amazon ‘development’ continues to systematically harm Indigenous peoples while benefiting external actors. State-driven modernisation projects—roads, colonisation schemes, oil extraction, logging and agribusiness—are framed as ‘progress’, yet produce displacement, ecological degradation and cultural loss for Amazonian communities.

Today, paradoxically, we find ourselves yearning for the very wisdom that was dismissed and suppressed. At a time marked by cultural fragmentation, social inequality and ecological crisis, where environments face devastation and collective traditions rapidly erode—the resilience and relational cosmologies of Indigenous cultures offer insights urgently needed. This moment calls us to unbury what has long been buried and to reconnect with ancient knowledge, values and practices. In doing so, we advocate for systemic practitioners to become active agents of social change: revitalising relational worldviews, challenging ongoing colonial patterns and engaging with Indigenous cosmologies in ways that honour their depth, integrity and contemporary significance.

1.1 Where Did We Lose Our Way? Eco-Centric vs. Ego-Centric

The principle of interconnectedness largely remained central to human existence until the industrial age, when humanity's relationship with the environment was profoundly disrupted and fractured. Industrialisation replaced natural and self-sustaining ways of living with rapid urbanisation, generating pollution, environmental degradation, resource depletion and climate change. During this shift, perspectives emerged that privileged economic growth even at the cost of ecological destruction, intensifying anthropocentric worldviews and reinforcing the idea that humans are separate from and superior to the natural world.

Within some Western theological and philosophical traditions, this superiority was intertwined with interpretations of a ‘dominion mandate’ to master the natural world and, in specific contexts, to occupy the land and subdue it (Genesis 1:28). These interpretations contributed to the justification of colonisation, including the subjugation of Indigenous peoples whose cultures emphasised relational, ecological responsibility rather than domination. Bateson argues that our ecological crises emerge from an epistemological fallacy: the dualistic and erroneous belief that humans exist outside, and above, ecological systems (Bateson 1979). Dupre describes this dynamic as ‘cultural imperialism’, whereby dominant cultures override and erode the identities, practices and traditions of others across institutions such as education, science, commerce and media (Dupre 1994). The privileging of ego-centric, extraction-based worldviews over eco-centric holistic ideologies has contributed to the catastrophic environmental and cultural losses and existential crisis we now face as a species.

1.2 Ecological Attachment: Reflecting on Andean Origins of Attachment

Interconnectedness has been central to human existence from the beginning of recorded history. Connection with animals, land and the natural world was not a concept to be theorised—it simply was. Just as biological theorists such as Ludwig von Bertalanffy (von Bertalanffy 1972), through general systems theory (GST), informed systems thinking and our understanding of family relational patterns, Indigenous ecological attachment precedes and, in many ways, informs developmental attachment theories proposed, for example, by Bowlby and Ainsworth. In ancient Indigenous knowledge systems, the environment is understood as essential to survival and as a primary teacher shaping learning, being and relating. Our society is now finally returning to the recognition that children require connection with their ecological surroundings to cultivate safety, belonging and wellbeing.

Bateson's work in cybernetics significantly advanced systemic family therapy by illustrating that relational patterns mirror natural systems: complex, self-correcting and organised through dynamic feedback loops. Nature consists of ecosystems and self-regulating communities that maintain homeostasis through intricate feedback mechanisms, nutrient cycling and population balance (Bateson 1979). Humanity is not separate from these systems; we are an integral, responsive part of them. Capra and Luisi also articulate this through complexity theory, emphasising that living systems are networks of interdependent relationships rather than collections of isolated components, an understanding closely aligned with Indigenous worldviews (Capra and Luisi 2014).

A simple illustration is the tree, a longstanding symbol in family therapy. A tree exists only through the convergence of soil, sunlight, water, air and a seed carried by wind or animal. Without these elements, there is no tree (Ruiz 2019). From this view, attachment begins with our attachment to all living things. When humans lose connection with the natural world, their first home and original secure base, the foundations for relational safety and belonging weaken. Yunkaporta goes as far as arguing that a return to Indigenous knowing and being is essential for restoring our humanity and re-establishing connection to the ecological systems that sustain life (Yunkaporta 2023).

1.3 Peruvian Indigenous Civilisation as Leaders of Wisdom

No discussion of Peruvian Indigenous history and culture can occur without reference to the Inca period (1438–1535). Originating from Cusco (Qosqo), the Inca civilisation represents one of the most significant cultural, political and spiritual forces in Peruvian pachakuti (epochal transformation). Inca wisdom was grounded in profound reverence for Pachamama (Mother Earth), dualistic and complementary spiritual principles and sustainable, highly sophisticated engineering. The Incas developed intricate agricultural terracing systems that preserved biodiversity; crafted the quipu (knotted cords) as a complex communication and record-keeping system; and designed extraordinarily precise stone masonry, such as Machu Picchu, the UNESCO World Heritage listed site. Their philosophy centred on reciprocity (ayni), collective responsibility and deeply embodied relationships with the Andean landscape (see Appendix A for Indigenous terms used in this article).

Peru is home to some of the earliest Indigenous South American civilisations that have survived across millennia. These cultures are steeped in ancestral spirituality, collectivism and Yachay—forms of learning that reveal the embedded wisdom of Andean cosmology. Their worldview conceives of existence as an interconnected whole: the mineral kingdom supports the plant kingdom, and the plant kingdom supports the animal kingdom. Cultural values are grounded in respect for nature and an understanding of humans as part of, not separate from, the living land. Traditions and social structures reflect ecological principles, adaptive responses to harsh environments and sustainable ways of being rooted in relationality and reciprocity (Moseley 2001).

1.4 The Wari: Foundations of Andean Civilisation

The Wari (honoured ancestor) spoke an early form of Quechua and originated from the Ayacucho region in the south-central highlands (2761 m). They flourished between the 6th and 11th centuries, managing the unforgiving Andean landscape in sustainable ways through advanced, long-lasting engineering, which enabled them to live and thrive in the harsh, high altitude. They pioneered the construction of andenes (agricultural hillside terraces), which prevented soil erosion and promoted water conservation. They promoted a micro-climate where terraces operated as solar traps, capturing heat during the day and releasing it at night, protecting crops from freezing at high altitudes. Their influence laid the essential administrative, agricultural and architectural groundwork upon which later civilisations, most notably the Inca, would build. The Wari realm extended from the Amazonian jungle to the Pacific coast, facilitating the exchange of diverse resources and knowledge. Their agricultural knowledge and planning and sustainable architecture remain visible at sites today. Contemporary Wari identity persists through modern Quechua-speaking descendants who maintain their ancestral heritage (Moseley 2001).

1.5 The Q'eros: Guardians of Inca Ancestry

The Q'eros, from Cusco (Qosqo), are known as ‘the last ayllu’, widely regarded as direct descendants of the Incas. They survived Spanish colonisation by retreating deep into the Andean highlands, living for centuries at altitudes approaching 5000 m, east of Paucartambo near Cusco. Long believed to have vanished, they re-emerged in the 1950s to share knowledge and cosmology with the wider world. The Q'eros maintain ancestral lore, rituals, healing practices and cosmological teachings with remarkable integrity. Their lifestyle promotes and enhances reciprocal sustainability, through pastoralism, small-scale agriculture (promoting biodiversity) and traditional crafts (using natural materials), and upholds collective social structures, all of which maintain ecological balance (Moseley 2001).

1.6 Andean Spiritual Lineages and Ritual Specialists

Within Andean cosmology, spiritual knowledge is safeguarded and transmitted through distinct yet interconnected roles. Paqos, Andean ritual specialists, served as mediators between the human, natural and sacred realms, working with the Apus, Pachamama and ancestral energies to restore balance and reciprocity (Apffel-Marglin et al. 2010). Although translated as ‘shamans’, paqos differed from generic or Westernised notions of shamanism; their practice was embedded in ayllu, ayni and lineage-specific cosmologies rather than in individualistic healing models. Complementing their work were the ñustas, high priestesses who embody feminine spiritual authority and transmit teachings linked to water, fertility, intuition and lunar cycles. These roles predate colonisation and remain central in contemporary Q'ero communities (Webb 2012). Historically, acllas (‘chosen women’) were selected for their ceremonial, weaving and spiritual expertise, serving in temples dedicated to Inti and Pachamama and safeguarding ritual knowledge essential to Inca religious life (Moseley 2001). Together, paqos, ñustas and acllas formed a sophisticated relational system of spiritual stewardship, each contributing to the maintenance of ecological, communal and cosmic harmony.

1.7 Venerating Pachamama and Inti

Andean communities maintain an enduring connection to spirituality, culture and land through veneration of Pachamama (Mother Earth) and Inti (the Sun God), alongside deities such as Wiraqocha (supreme creator), Mama Killa (goddess of the moon and femininity) and the Apus (protective mountain spirits). Pachamama embodies the animating force of life within soil, rivers, animals and plants, blessing communities with fertility and abundance. Inti offers golden rays that Pachamama receives and channels to nourish the land. This reciprocity is expressed through ceremonies such as Pachamama offerings (coca leaves, grains, symbolic items) and Inti Raymi (Festival of the Sun), which honours seasonal transitions and the return of light. These practices underscore the responsibility to care for Pachamama, the Apus and the qocha (lakes and lagoons), maintaining harmony between humans and the natural world (Duche-Pérez et al. 2024).

1.8 Ancestral Indigenous Knowledge: Yachay

The Andean cosmovisión embodies holistic ways of knowing (epistemology) and being (ontology), reflecting an inherited affinity with the natural world—passed down through generations and bestowed by nature itself. Cultural knowledge is lived, embodied and continually renewed. The Andean notion of Yachay/aprenderes denotes an experiential epistemology: learning emerges through perception, interaction and mutually supportive relationships, as part of a synchronous, ongoing conversation among people, land, ancestors, animals, spirits and the cosmos. Knowledge arises from being in right relationship with all that exists (Apffel-Marglin et al. 2010).

1.9 Machu Picchu as a School of Life

Mystery still surrounds Machu Picchu; however, it is known as a sacred fortress and a place of profound spiritual learning. Oral histories suggest it may have been a temple where high priests and priestesses (Ñustas or ‘Acllas’) lived, studied and practiced. Many Andean communities regard Machu Picchu as a ‘university’ of higher consciousness, where individuals connected deeply with ancestral Yachay. Learning was immersive, people lived in synchrony with the energies of heaven and earth, engaging ritual and the supernatural. Recent purported discoveries of sealed, unexplored chambers have prompted theories that Machu Picchu may have housed a repository of encoded knowledge, wisdom and science spanning past, present and future. Although still speculative, such theories align with a broader Andean understanding that dormant ancestral knowledge can transform human consciousness.

1.10 Cultivating Ayllu and the Law of Ayni

The ayllu is the traditional social unit among Indigenous peoples of the Andes, an interconnected, kinship-based community. To cultivate ayllu is to sustain a collective way of life grounded in reciprocity, relationality and balance across three realms: Runa Ayllu (humans and domesticated plants/animals), Sallka Ayllu (the wild realm—untamed animals, plants, rivers, ecosystems) and Auki Ayllu (the sacred realm of ancestors, spirits, guardians). Together, they form an ecological and spiritual system of harmony, accountability and interdependence.

At the heart of Andean relational life lies ayni—the sacred law of reciprocity, often phrased as today for you, tomorrow for me. Unlike abstract Western notions of exchange, ayni is a living flow of energy, responsibility and care. Nothing is given without receiving something in return, and nothing is received without offering something back. To live in ayni is to participate consciously in a continuous cycle that sustains families, communities and ecosystems. I recall the spirit of ayni that was instilled in me by my mother and grandmother and vividly felt and practiced through my upbringing. This involved an exchange, which had interconnected ‘kinship sharing’ at the core. I was able to reconnect with it again as an adult, a mother, on one of my visits back to my home country, while in Taquile Island (located on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca) with my family. Whatever gifts my children and I brought, or whatever crafts we purchased, we would be offered something in return, such as a handmade object crafted with care. This reciprocal exchange, which was now also felt by my own children, affirmed the importance of our shared commitment to keeping the flow of ayni alive, sustaining balance in our world and our relationships.

1.11 The Chakana: A Symbol of Meaning and Interconnectedness

The Inca Cross, or Chakana, is a sacred symbol that maps existence and encodes a sophisticated ethics of living, derived from chakay, ‘to cross’. It represents the bridge between the three worlds and embodies Allin Kawsay (‘good living’), where spiritual, ecological and social balance shape daily practice. Its teachings are animated through three interdependent principles: Munay (love enacted as relational care and sustainability), Yuyay (wisdom grounded in ancestral teachings and the rhythms of nature) and Yachay (knowledge as humble, practical learning oral traditions). The Inca moral code Ama Sua (do not steal), Ama Llulla (do not lie) and Ama Quella (do not be idle) reinforced communal integrity, honesty and diligence essential for survival and cohesion.

1.12 The Peruvian Trilogy

Peruvian Andean cosmology conceives the universe as three interconnected worlds: Hanan Pacha (the heavens or upper world), Kay Pacha (the earthly, human world) and Ukhu Pacha (the inner or lower world). The elements earth, air, fire, water are personified, and animals embody spiritual attributes. The sacred trilogy of totem animals mirrors these realms: the condor (Hanan Pacha) as a divine messenger linked to Inti; the puma (Kay Pacha) symbolising strength, resilience and grounded vitality; and the serpent (Ukhu Pacha) embodying wisdom, regeneration and transformation (Lopez and Wolf 2020). As with the systemic metaphor of the tree, roots (lower), trunk (middle), branches (upper), each realm supports the others in a continuous cycle of interdependence. This holistic epistemology centres relationality across nature, humans and the spirit world.

1.13 The Four Sacred Quadrants: Unity and Connection

Each quadrant of the Chakana carries concepts central to Andean life, community and cosmology. Andean labour is organised through three forms of collective responsibility: ayni (reciprocal support among kin), minka (collaborative work for community wellbeing) and mita (labour as public contribution, for shared infrastructure).

Around the four directions, the Chakana holds 12 symbolic ‘steps’, which are understood as living energies that bring contentment and wholeness when held in balance. From the northern point moving eastward arise Present, Productivity and Responsibility. From east to south emerge Expression, Passion and Happiness. From south to west unfold Awareness, Protection and Acknowledgment. And from west to north the energies of Connection, Trust and Love are emitted.

At the centre lies an open portal symbolising Qosqo—the ‘navel of the world’—a doorway leading into Ukhu Pacha, Kay Pacha and Hanan Pacha. In meditation and ceremony, practitioners engage this centre to journey across dimensions working with the 12 principles for balance and harmony.

1.14 Qosqo as the Navel of the World

In Andean cosmology, Qosqo (Cusco) is revered as the wiksa—the navel of the world—a sacred centre where the three realms of existence converge. This designation reflects more than geography; it expresses a relational ontology in which life, knowledge and spiritual energy flow outwards from a single cosmic centre. The navel symbolises humanity's first relational bond, reminding us that existence begins in connection and interdependence with each other and the world. The Inca organised their empire around this principle, with ceque lines radiating from Qosqo to hundreds of shrines, linking communities, ecological zones and spiritual sites into a vast relational network. To understand Qosqo as the world's navel is to recognise an ancestral worldview in which belonging, reciprocity and connection to land and others form the foundation of wellbeing.

1.15 Cultivating Feminine Wisdom: The Wisdom of the Heart

Indigenous Andean teachings hold that the peoples of Peru are represented by the Condor of the South, whereas the peoples of North America are represented by the Eagle of the North—complementary polar energies (Webb 2012). The condor symbolises the feminine principle and the wisdom of the heart; the eagle symbolises the masculine principle and the wisdom of the mind. For generations, the North has leaned towards rationality and dominance, distancing itself from the feminine ways of the South. Andean prophecy and Indigenous wisdom keepers suggest that humanity has reached a moment requiring reunion: a re-balancing of mind and heart. In Quechua, this union is expressed as Yanantin–Masintin. Yanantin describes complementary opposites that are inherently interdependent, seeking one another to create and sustain life; Masintin is the generative process by which their meeting brings something new into being (Webb 2012). The union of eagle and condor thus represents not only reconciliation but also emergence—an integrated way of living in which logic is guided by compassion, strength by intuition and structure by flow.

2 Discussion

2.1 Application to Family Therapy and Systemic Ecological Practice

This approach is not solely applicable in cases where Indigenous voices are unvoiced; it may be applied in all contexts, including with clients who are thoroughly Westernised and individualised. This paper is intentionally polyphonic. It carries my voice as a mestiza Peruvian migrant, but it also carries the voices of those who have been silenced, excluded or rendered invisible by colonial histories, but are re-awakening. It is autoethnographic, descriptive and story-driven, a brief guided tour through Peruvian Andean cosmology, ancestral yachay and the relational principles that have shaped my own becoming. My intention is not simply to describe these teachings but to invite the reader into experiencing, even briefly, the interconnectedness that Andean spirituality cultivates, the sense of ayllu-based belonging to land, to community, to ancestors and to the more-than-human world.

The relational principles embedded in Andean cosmology offer a profound and timely contribution to contemporary systemic and family therapy. As practitioners respond to cultural identity complexities, ecological distress, intergenerational trauma, global migration, displacement, conflict and war, Indigenous epistemologies provide relational frameworks that extend systemic thinking. Rather than functioning as cultural ‘add-ons’, these teachings illuminate relational ontologies that can reshape therapeutic practice and ethics, particularly those grounded in ayni (reciprocity), munay (committed love) and allin kawsay (balanced living). Systemic therapists need to contemplate the intertwined concepts of cultural awareness and sensitivity. Through this process, they can gain understanding of the traditions, customs, values and language acquired through cultural sensitivity as they engage with respect, curiosity and humility. Working with cultural diversity through a culturally sensitive lens is an ongoing process that ‘does not have an expiry date’ and involves a respectful exchange dipped in gentle curiosity, coming from a place of ‘knowing’ and ‘not knowing’ (Amorin-Woods 2020). The approach I developed ‘MI CVLTVRE’ that stands for Meaning, Identity, Community, Views, Language, Traditions, Values, Roles & Religion, Rituals, Ecology/environment recognises the profound importance of ancestral wisdom located in culture and the nuances inherent in language, which is in itself soaked in culture (Amorin-Woods 2025).

2.2 Recentring Relational Ontology in Clinical Practice

Systemic therapy has long-emphasised relationality, yet Western models often remain anthropocentric, privileging interpersonal dynamics while overlooking ecological, ancestral and spiritual systems. Andean cosmology repositions families within a living web of land, ancestors, non-human beings and spiritual forces (de la Cadena 2015; Gonzales and Gonzales 2010).

This Andean worldview is anchored in Qosqo as the ‘navel of the world’, or Wiksa (navel) symbolising our first relational bond, the site of our earliest symbiosis and a reminder that life begins in tinkuy (sacred meeting/connection). Qosqo, as the Earth's navel, teaches that humanity is similarly tethered to the land, to each other and to the cosmos. To reconnect with wiksa is to return to the beginning, before the fracture and remember that our survival depends on staying connected to the three ayllus: the human community, the natural world and the spiritual realm.

In practice, this orientation invites therapists to explore how place, history, land and cultural belonging shape family life. Mapping ecological and ancestral connections through genograms, ecomaps or narrative inquiry (Amorin-Woods 2024; McGoldrick et al. 2008) helps families situate their experiences within broader relational ecosystems and supports more holistic formulations—particularly when grounded in yuyay (ancestral remembering), ayni (reciprocity) and ayllu-based relationality.

2.3 Ecological Attachment as a Therapeutic Resource

Ecological attachment—the sense of belonging and identity derived from connection to land and ecological rhythms—offers a valuable lens for understanding distress and resilience. For many clients, particularly migrants and Indigenous peoples, ecological disconnection contributes to fragmentation and emotional pain (Kirmayer et al. 2011).

In Andean thought, disconnection from Pachamama is not merely environmental loss; it is a relational rupture. To heal, we must remember to appreciate her endless gifts, to give back and to restore ayni. For therapists, attending to ecological attachment may involve exploring clients' relationships with home and land, incorporating nature-based or sensory-grounded interventions or supporting reconnection with meaningful landscapes. Such work strengthens identity, embodied regulation and relational grounding, particularly when framed through yuyay, munay and allin kawsay.

2.4 Reciprocity (Ayni) as Relational Ethics in Therapy

Ayni, the Andean principle of reciprocity, offers a relational ethic that resonates with systemic practice. Although therapy is not strictly reciprocal in a literal sense, ayni emphasises balance, humility and relational accountability; qualities central to therapeutic presence (McDowell et al. 2022).

Ayni challenges the notion of the therapist as a neutral expert and instead positions practitioners within webs of mutual responsibility. It invites us to reconnect with the lore of ayni, to give back to communities, to honour the land and to act as agents of reconnection. This stance encourages reflection on power, privilege and impact, and supports collaborative, culturally humble therapeutic engagement.

2.5 Complementary Dualism (Yanantin) and Relational Balance

Yanantin reframes difference as generative rather than conflictual, aligning with systemic understandings of differentiation and complementarity (Minuchin 1974; Nichols and Davis 2021). Clinically, yanantin helps families reframe conflict as a dynamic interplay of complementary forces, supports couples in recognising the value of contrasting roles, and assists individuals in integrating seemingly contradictory aspects of themselves. Yanantin also reminds us that balance is not achieved through dominance but through relational harmony, a principle urgently needed in a world shaped by separatism, conflict and war, and one that is deeply aligned with masintin (the creative emergence that arises from complementary union).

2.6 Ritual, Symbol and Embodied Practice in Therapeutic Work

Andean traditions emphasise ritual, symbol and embodied action in sustaining relational systems (Apffel-Marglin et al. 2010). Family therapy similarly recognises the power of ritual in marking transitions, repairing ruptures and strengthening bonds (Amorin-Woods and Imber-Black 2024).

Rituals help us reconnect with the wiksa age, a time before industrialisation, conquest and colonising ideas, when humanity lived in ayni with human, land and spirit. Therapists may co-create rituals with families, incorporate symbolic objects or metaphors, or support engagement with cultural or spiritual practices that hold personal meaning. Rituals anchor therapeutic change in embodied experience and reinforce relational continuity (Amorin-Woods and Imber-Black 2024; Imber-Black and Roberts 1998), particularly when grounded in munay, yuyay and allin kawsay.

2.7 Decolonising Engagement and Ethical Practice

Engaging with Indigenous teachings requires a decolonising stance grounded in respect, humility and ayni (Mignolo 2011; Tuck and Yang 2012). This involves acknowledging historical and ongoing injustices, recognising the sovereignty of Indigenous yachay holders and avoiding the extraction or commodification of cultural teachings.

For systemic therapists, a decolonising approach includes examining Western assumptions embedded in clinical training, seeking guidance from cultural yachay holders and ensuring Indigenous epistemologies are engaged with, ethically and contextually. Such a stance strengthens cultural safety and supports equitable therapeutic relationships (Amorin-Woods et al. 2021), particularly when grounded in ayllu-based relationality, munay and allin kawsay.

2.8 Integrating Andean Teachings into Contemporary Systemic Practice

The Andean teachings explored in this paper, ayllu, ayni, yachay, the Chakana and the cosmological trilogy, offer a relational ontology that predates and enriches systemic theory. They challenge Western tendencies towards individualism, linear causality and human exceptionalism. Bateson's critique of the ‘epistemological error’ of human separation from ecological systems resonates strongly here (Bateson 1979): Indigenous cosmologies illuminate the systemic insight that disconnection from land, community and yuyay generates fragmentation and suffering (de la Cadena 2015).

For migrant practitioners, especially those carrying Indigenous or mixed heritage identities, these teachings speak to the tensions that arise when ancestral yachay is marginalised within dominant therapeutic paradigms. Reclaiming Indigenous relational practices becomes an act of healing and epistemic justice (Huambachano 2019), expanding the therapeutic space to include forms of wisdom long-excluded from clinical discourse.

Ultimately, integrating Indigenous relational worldviews into systemic practice is not cultural appropriation, but rather a respect for ancestral knowledge, teachings and learning and a response to contemporary clinical realities. Families today grapple with ecological anxiety, cultural fragmentation, intergenerational trauma and the impacts of colonisation (Kirmayer et al. 2011). Andean teachings offer pathways towards reconnection, balance and collective healing. They remind us that wellbeing is not solely psychological but relational, sustained through ayni with land, community and spirit.

To survive, as families, as communities, as a species, we can return to the beginning, reconnect with the three ayllus, honour Pachamama and revive the ancestral yachay that sustained our peoples for millennia. As systemic practitioners, our task is not to invent new theories, but to reconnect with ancient ones: to bring back munay (the way of the heart), the way of the condor and unity. Unity connects. Connectedness heals, and through reconnection, we become agents of change, not through complexity, but through remembering who we are, where we come from, and what we owe to each other and to the Earth.

2.9 Andean Spiritual Roles and Systemic Practice

Within systemic therapy, these Andean roles offer more than cultural description; they provide relational templates that expand how practitioners can conceptualise healing, knowledge and connection. The paqo's work of mediating between human, ecological and spiritual systems mirrors systemic therapy's movement towards multisystemic formulations, inviting clinicians to consider land, ancestors and non-human kin as active participants in family life. The paqo orientation towards restoring balance rather than ‘treating symptoms’ resonates with systemic principles of circularity, pattern and relational accountability. Ñustas, as carriers of feminine spiritual authority, illuminate the importance of intuition, embodiment and the sacred feminine in therapeutic presence; dimensions often marginalised in Western clinical training and practice. Meanwhile, the historical role of acllas as custodians of ritual, weaving and communal meaning-making offers a powerful metaphor for therapeutic work: weaving stories, relationships and identities back into coherence. Together, these roles encourage systemic practitioners to adopt a stance of humility, relational attunement and ecological awareness, recognising that healing emerges not only within families but also within the wider webs of land, culture and spirit that sustain them.

For systemic and family therapy, the symbolism of Qosqo as the navel of the world offers a compelling metaphor for relational health and disconnection (Amorin-Woods and Saccu 2023). The navel represents origin, nourishment and the flow of relational energy, concepts that parallel systemic understandings of attachment, circularity and interdependence. When families experience cultural, ecological or interpersonal rupture, they often describe feeling far from centre, echoing Andean notions of being disconnected from one's source of belonging. Integrating the symbolism of Qosqo invites therapists to explore where clients locate their own centres and how reconnection with land, ancestry and community can restore coherence. This perspective expands systemic practice beyond interpersonal dynamics, encouraging practitioners to consider the broader relational ecosystems that sustain identity and resilience (Amorin-Woods and Telfener 2024).

In this way, Qosqo becomes a therapeutic guidepost, reminding us that healing emerges when individuals and families are re-rooted in the relationships—human and more-than-human—that give life meaning.

Final Thoughts …

As systemic thinkers and family therapists, we may ask ourselves what a decolonising approach looks like in clinical practice and what it requires of us individually and collectively. It begins with a shared commitment to being authentic agents of change by becoming more consciously aware of colonising approaches, spaces and systems as we encounter and name them; bringing these dynamics to the attention of others; and intentionally creating safe, respectful decolonising spaces that honour ancestral wisdom and principles of inclusivity and interconnectedness. This commitment applies across research, education, organisations, institutions, clinical practice and supervision, but it starts with us modelling these practices and attitudes as individuals.

2.10 Epilogue

When I close my eyes, I find myself once again on the peak of Huayna Picchu. Not in body, my feet are still planted firmly on Australian soil, but in the quiet landscape of my youth. The air is thin and cool there, carrying the scent of earth and eucalyptus. The stones beneath my hands feel warm, familiar, as if they have been waiting for me to return. Below, Machu Picchu unfurls in the morning light, ancient and alive, its terraces breathing in a slow, steady rhythm.

In this inner vision, I am not alone. I sense my beloved mother, my Ochi, my grandmother, my mama Maria, I sense the presence of all those who walked these paths long before me, the Ñustas, the healers, the farmers, the wisdom keepers. Their footsteps echo softly across time. Their voices rise like wind through the ichu grass, steady and unmistakable. They speak not in commands, but in reminders:

Remember who you are Deisita,

Remember where you come from,

Remember that you belong to everything

And everything belongs to you.

Standing there in my imagination, I feel the weight and warmth of these teachings. These teachings from my mother, and her mother, way back to Pachamama, settle into my being. I understand that this place, memory and inheritance travels with me wherever I go. It shapes how I see families, how I listen and how I practice. It reminds me that my work is not only to support healing within relationships, but also to help restore the threads of connection that colonisation has frayed. Even from across an ocean, my mother and the Andes continue to teach me how to walk with reciprocity, humility and heart.

And as the vision fades, I carry its truth back into the present: that the wisdom of my family and my ancestors is not behind me, but within me—alive, insistent and guiding my path ahead as a person, as a systems thinker and practitioner.

3 Conclusion

To write this paper is to refuse silence. It is to speak back to the systems that have, for generations, dismissed Indigenous cosmologies as superstition, folklore or cultural ‘colouring’. It is to insist that these knowledges are not peripheral but essential—especially now, as ecological collapse, cultural erasure and social inequity intensify around us. The Andean teachings explored are not simply cultural artefacts; they are blueprints for survival, relational justice and collective healing. They challenge the Western therapeutic gaze to expand, to decolonise and to recognise that wellbeing cannot be separated from land, ancestry or the more-than-human world.

As a Peruvian mestiza migrant practitioner to Australia, I have lived the slow abrasion of my cultural self, an erosion produced not by forgetting, but by the relentless pressure to assimilate into systems that privilege Western epistemologies. To fit in, to be tolerated. Re-examining my ancestral teachings has therefore been both a personal act of resistance and a professional imperative. It has required me to confront the ways in which therapeutic spaces continue to reproduce colonial hierarchies, even when claiming multicultural inclusivity. And it has reminded me that systemic practice becomes truly systemic only when it acknowledges the full ecology of relationships that sustain life.

The principles of ayllu, ayni and the Chakana offer more than metaphors; they offer ethical and constitutional commitments. They call practitioners to move beyond cultural competence towards cultural attunement and accountability. They demand that we interrogate the structures that shape our work, training institutions, organisations, research agendas, funding bodies and clinical norms, and ask who they serve, who they silence and who they exclude. They urge us to recognise that healing is inseparable from justice and that justice is inseparable from reciprocity with land, community and spirit.

We are living in a moment that requires courage: courage to unlearn, to listen differently, to centre Indigenous voices and to challenge the epistemic dominance that has shaped our field. The teachings shared in this paper are not mine alone; they belong to generations of Andean peoples who have safeguarded them despite colonisation, displacement and ongoing marginalisation. My responsibility as a practitioner, a migrant and a daughter of the Andes is to carry them forward with integrity, humility and fierce love.

If systemic therapy is to remain relevant in a world marked by ecological grief, cultural fragmentation and widening inequities, it must embrace the relational, ecological and spiritual wisdom that Indigenous cultures have carried for millennia. This is not an optional enrichment; it is a necessary transformation. And it begins with the willingness to see that the path forward may, in fact, be a path back—back to reciprocity, back to balance, back to the ancestral wisdom and teachings that remind all of us what it means to be human.

Appendix A: Glossary of Andean Terms/Rimaykuna/Vocabulario

Alphabetised by Quechua term. Pronunciations follow standard Quechua phonetics.

This appendix provides contextual grounding for some key Andean cosmological and spiritual words and concepts referenced throughout the manuscript. Terms are presented in Quechua, Spanish and English to honour linguistic continuity and support accessibility for diverse readers.

Glossary Table