Interwoven Rosewood

Collaborative Ecologies, Colonial Entanglements, and Indigenous Resistance

Julie Velásquez Runk

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9780816546060
  9780816556939
• eBook ISBN:
  9780816557417
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Globalisation
• Index: Social Sciences

Interwoven Rosewood is a collaborative exploration of the global rosewood trade and its entanglements with Indigenous lifeways, colonial histories, and environmental crises. Co-authored by Julie Velásquez Runk and members of the Wounaan National Congress and its Local Congress of the Majé community, this book traces the story of cocobolo rosewood from Wounaan lands in Panama to international markets, revealing how centuries of settler colonialism and extractive capitalism continue to shape landscapes, livelihoods, and relationships. At its heart, the book is a meditation on well-being and belonging—how people live in relation to land, each other, and the more-than-human world.
 
Drawing on more than a decade of community-based research and six collaborative book workshops, the authors weave together first-person narratives, ecological analysis, historical context, and Indigenous knowledge. The result is a richly textured account that challenges dominant narratives of environmental degradation by centering Wounaan experiences of joy, resistance, and conviviality. The book's structure reflects its method: interwoven chapters authored or spoken by Wounaan colleagues, grounded in consent protocols and shaped by ancestral storytelling traditions.
 
Accessibly written, Interwoven Rosewood is ideal for courses in environmental conservation, Indigenous studies, anthropology, Latin American studies, and political ecology. With its interdisciplinary reach and classroom-ready discussion questions, the book invites readers to reflect on the global forces behind environmental catastrophe—and the enduring power of Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and becoming.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Interweaving Rosewood
• Rosewood Pillage
• Wounaan HompaatarrW / Creation of The People
• Cocobolo Rosewood
• Haaihí Jëeu NʌmW / Communicating with the Creator
• A Cosmopolitan Botany
• Dödöjö P′ie NʌmW / Traditional Medical Ceremonies
• Wonderful Traits of Rosewood
• Wounaan and the Isthmo-Colombiano Area
• Wounaan Nem JirãaW / Wounaan Cultivation
• Indigenous America
• JapW / Pirogue
• Classic Chinese Furniture
• WaakõoW / Laughing Falcon
• Invasion
• Gold
• China’s Timbering Expansion
• Wounaanau Hãwãrr T′õojẽW / Fishing
• Resisting
• Hichk′umW / Agouti
• Tonewoods
• Hõor HäapjemW / Those Who Heal People
• Extractivism
• PënaaW / Go On
• Colonial Timbering
• CimarronesS / Searchers of Forested Autonomy
• Höoidar Ma NʌmW / Going Hunting
• Colombian Independence and Indigenous Land Rights
• Chaai HaudeejemW / Helping Give a Child
• Panama’s Independence, Constitution, and Early Indigenous Laws
• Twentieth-Century Cocobolo Logging
• ¿P′idk′aawaiW? / Working?
• Steady Warmth of the Tropics
• Inter-American Highway
• K′ayamW / Nurtured Spirits
• Erland and Olga Nordenskiöld
• K′ipaar Pëe NʌmW / Painting Genipa
• “La MarináaS”
• Social Movements and Ley 18 of 1934
• Egalitarianism
• Henry Wassén
• Indigenous Comarca and IndigenismoS
• Nourishing
• Jacob and Anne Loewen
• Los ClandestinosS
• Mid-Century Modern Furniture
• Dichaar Di Maach DiW / The True House, Our House
• Ley 18 de 1952
• Darien Subcommittee of the Pan-American Highway
• Reina Torres de Araúz
• ChihöoW and ChidchirW / Jewelry and Dangling Earrings
• Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff and Alicia Dussán de Reichel
• The Anglo-Colombian Recording Expedition
• HachpaW / To Ferment
• The Calima Valley Expedition
• Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Perry Kennedy
• China’s Cultural Revolution and Rosewoods
• Constructing the Pan-American Highway in Darien
• The Nuclear Canal
• Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
• Ron and Kathy Binder
• Getting Rid of the Canal Zone
• Fiebre AftosaS / Hoof and Mouth Disease
• Corporatism
• “Nail Your Right Foot”
• Panama’s 1972 Constitution and “Reserve of Necessary Land”
• Landsat
• Rights of Trees
• National Indigenous Congress
• U.S. Funding Blocked for the Pan-American Highway
• Torrijos-Carter Treaties
• Parks and Protected Areas
• Juaau Nem Waai K′aug SimW / With the Hand, One Knows Carving
• TrochaS / Cut Boundary
• Wiguierr K′ĩir K′amW / Weaving Tender Black Palm Leaves
• WiguierrW, WisiguirW / Black Palm, Black Palm Fiber
• ComarcaS Emberá and Wounaan
• Pan-American Highway Completed to Yaviza
• ILO 169 Not Ratified by Panama
• Initial Participatory Cartography
• Sustainable Wood
• Rio Earth Summit and Global Environmental Governance
• “Nothing Without Land” and Collective Lands
• Conservation and Development
• MulasS / Flatbed Logging Trucks
• Hapk′ajũaW / Wrap Skirts
• 1998 General Law on the Environment
• Wounaan Podpa Nʌm Pömaam and Foundation for the Development of Wounaan People (FUNDEPW)
• Human-Induced Climate Change
• DeeW / Giving
• Law 20 of 2000 on Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights
• China’s National Hongmu Standard
• Mapping Collective Lands and the Collective Lands Draft Bill
• Jʌ̈bëbëW / Walking Palm
• Cabildo “Abierto”S / “Open” Town Hall
• K′aW / Weaving, Body, Daughter
• Changes to the Environmental Law
• Maach Wounaan JʌgdeeW / Our Wounaan Fragrances
• Wounaan Land Rights Protests
• Maps and Data
• Forced Displacement
• Santos Palisander
• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Carbon
• Baiting and Switching on Dams and Collective Lands
• The U.S. Lacey Act Is Extended to Plants
• A Forest of Paradoxes
• Surging Global Rosewood Logging
• Panama REDD
• Cocaine
• 120 for 65
• ANATI, National Authority of Land Administration
• Roads
• Maach Durr T′ʌa NʌmW / Fighting for Our Territory
• Wounaan Kokobol Gaaimua Hi K′õr HootarrW / The Wounaan Conflict for Cocobolo
• Extractive Mining and Indigenous Rights
• Hiuk′a NʌmW / Laughing
• Cell Phones
• Forest Carbon Maps
• Rosewood Booms
• “Uncommitted Promises”: Indigenous Withdrawal from UNREDD
• CheleléS / Freshwater Snail
• EncuentroS / Encounter
• Reintegration into UNREDD
• Boat
• Monolith
• Jaau WaiW / Telling, Warning
• Cocobolo Fever
• Urban Life
• HaïF
• Blue Carbon
• Ministry of the Environment
• Dʌr Dʌr K′amW / Hiking
• Rosewood Networks
• “Chuk′umW” / Nothing
• Vitality
• Aruzam Jẽb Hoo P′ʌʌrd′ʌajem K′ʌʌnW / The Monitors of Aruza Lands
• Rights of Nature
• Río Majé on the Río Siguirisua
• Repatriating / Rematriating
• CITES Restrictions on Rosewood Commerce
• Indigenous Forest Conservation, Governance
• ChojõmieW / Sugarcane Larvae Spirit
• Convivial Care
• CITES Musical Instrument Exemption
• Jʌrk′aW / Feeling, Touching
• Laundering and Traceability
• Migration
• DilatarS / Delaying
• Hicharaucha BĩeW / Wailing
• Mosquitos
• Cultivating Cocobolo
• El Niño Southern Oscillation
• “Guardians of the Forest” and “Asymmetries of Power”
• Fighting for Collective Lands
• Hö Hãba P′öddʌtarrW / The Struggle of Wounaan People
• Registering Ancestral Knowledge of Wounaan People
• CITES and Rosewood Conservation
• The Avatar of a Country Without Mining
• Class or Reading Group Questions for Discussion
• Bibliography
• Index