TECUN, DANIEL HERNANDEZ

Arcia Tecun (Daniel Hernandez) is a *Wīnak intellectual with K’iche’, Tz’utuhil, Mam, and Kaqchikel roots, who also holds Afro, Arab, Jewish, and European lineages. They were initially taught by their parents and family clan, and continues to learn through familial relation, and with a rich global Indigenous community. Tecun received their doctorate in ethnomusicology, housed in anthropology at Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland) in Aotearoa (New Zealand). They are currently an assistant professor in Indigenous communication and critical cultural studies at the University of Utah. Tecun has previously held an assistant professor appointment in anthropology at Utah Valley University, a cultural director position at Tracy Aviary and the Nature Center at Pia Okwai, and a Pouako (Permanent Lecturer) title at Waipapa Taumata Rau. 

Tecun’s experience spans across Te Moana Nui a Kiwa (Oceania; Pacific Ocean) and Turtle Island/Abya Yala (Americas), including Te Ika a Māui, Aotearoa (North Island, New Zealand), Soonkahni and Yutah (Salt Lake and Utah Valley, Utah, U.S.), the Kingdom of Tonga, and Iximulew (Guatemala). Their interests include global Indigeneities, kava, popular culture/music, eco/food justice, place-based pedagogy, metaphysics, religion, community research, critical theory and more. They ground this work in the Indigenous thought and relational ethics of Tā-Vā (Tongan tempo-spatiality), Mana/Tapu/Ngofua-Noa (Tongan and Māori relational knowledge), Maya Ilbal (Cosmovisíon Maya; holistic cosmic lens) concepts of Utz Kaslemal (plentiful/dignified life) and Nojib‘al (memory, thought, wisdom). Tecun’s work and interests are explored through the dynamic epistemological praxes carried in various Indigenous communication media of storying/talanoa/tzijonïk.

Tecun serves as a steering committee member for Global Mormon Studies, as an editorial board member for the Mormon Studies Review, a community advisory board member for the U of U's center for Pasifika Indigenous Knowledges, the Pacific Island Scholar Award Committee with the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, and as a Maya community consultant committee member for Southwestern Community College, and previously for the Museum of Us.

*Wīnak means both 'person' and 'people' simultaneously in many highland Maya languages. It is spelled ‘Wīnak’ in Anglophone orthography as a physical location marker where English is the dominant language, as opposed to ‘Winaq,' which is the Hispanophone orthography which identifies a location where Spanish is the dominant language.