RECOVERY OF FOUR SACRED SITES OF THE SIERRA NEVADA DE SANTA MARTA FOR STRENGTHENING OF THE CULTURE THROUGH THE MAMOS AND THE TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT OF THESE PLACES.
Download presentation by clicking here.
Status: This is an ongoing project with regular outputs and updates.
General Objective:
Recover, consolidate and preserve territorial, environmental and culturally four sacred sites located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, to strengthen the cultural tradition and re-empower the position and the spiritual, social and political work of the Mamos (priests) of the four indigenous groups that inhabit, the Koguis (Kaggaba), the Arhwacs (Ijkas), the Arsarios (Wiwas) and the Kankuamos.
Specific objectives:
- Characterize culturally and ecologically the current state of the four holy sites of the Ancestral Territory of the Indigenous of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
- Develop a proposal Management for the 4 holy sites marked with current owners or holders of the areas where the four sites are located.
- Build two cansamarías in each of the four holy sites
Project director: Guillermo Rodríguez, Mauricio Flores
For more information: Contact Guillermo Rodríguez CSVPA task force Co Leader. Also read the following article by Resurgence: The Law of the Mother
Location: Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Departaments of La Guajira, Cesar y Magdalena, República de Colombia.
An overview of the project: (Planteamiento general del proyecto:)
Indigenous peoples who inhabit the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the Koguis, the Arawhacs, the Wiwas or Arsarios and the Kankuamos, all of them descendants of civilization Tayrona, and since then heirs and custodians of their traditions, have handled in an ancestral way their territory through a series of cultural work, based on the Law of the Mother and conducted by the Mamos in some specific areas called Sacred Sites. Despite they speak different languages, the four groups share largely a system of beliefs and traditions surrounding the management and conservation of the environment in which they live, which is considered as the heart of the world and governed under the law of the Mother.
These sites, ranked in the territory as more important than others, are scattered in the Traditional Territory and are connected to one another through the "Black Line", a virtual line that connect the holy sites of the lower parts of the Sierra with others in the middle and upper parts of the same, because according to their tradition, a number of these sacred sites are outside the Indigenous reserves in the so-called zones of enlarging of the same and on the lower parts of the Sierra in where are the limits of Traditional Territory.
Some of these sites have Cansamarías, thinking, teaching and ceremonial houses in which the Mamos (traditional priests) perform these and other works by doing a number of offerings (“cultural work") to ensure the maintenance of its territory and its culture, and to ensure the flow of spiritual forces between those sites and the centre of the Sierra, as they believe in it are the origins of each and every element of nature, and a number of other events that govern life, as disease, exercise of authority, food, fertility, animals, and the existence of objects or events of their own culture, among others.However, now and for several years, the growing dispute over territory between the guerrillas and paramilitary groups in the lower and middle parts of the Sierra, has profoundly affected their ancestral culture, replacing some times, preventing other, that are performed many of the practices that are commonly made to solve the primary needs maintaining the ecological balance, as it is for example the system of agricultural production and its respective exchange between different ecosystems, or as incumbent on the case, the management of holy sites.
Today, many of these sites are not in possession of indigenous people and that is still whether or not, in many cases has been restricted, if not banned, access to these and other places of vital importance to their culture; causing with this, the displacement of the population to lower places of the Sierra where contact with Western culture is deeper and, in turn, that the weakening of their customs and ancestral leaders increasingly strong and inevitable.
From this definition, and taking into account the above, this project seeks to develop a work that permit, in addition to characterize culturally and ecologically these sites and raise their conservation and the possibilities for its use, re empower and strengthen the position of the Mamos within its culture, through the recovery of 4 holy or sacred sites, -one for each community-, and the subsequent construction of two cansamarías in each (one for men and one for women, respectively) so that they, as guardians of memory and knower’s (conocedores) of the spiritual, political and social laws and relations of the Mother, continue educating and transmitting the tradition of which they are heirs and protectors.
Justification:
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, as a mountainous mass of triangular shape with an area estimated 12,232 km2, is the highest coastal peak in the world, reaching an altitude of 5775 meters above sea level. It is located on the north of the Republic of Colombia in the departments of La Guajira, Cesar and Magdalena. From its shores are born 29 rivers that reach the Caribbean Sea, La Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta and the Rio Cesar, and also contains two National Parks (Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Tayrona), three indigenous reserves of the four groups that live there; namely, the Stewardship Kogui, Wiwa, Arhuaco with 3617 km2, the Stewardship Arhuaco with 1959 km2 and the Safeguard Kankuamo with 24 km2, hosting a total of 35000 indigenous people who are located generally from the peak of 500m in the north face and the 1000m on the south side, until snowy peaks(5000 meters).
Therefore, the Sierra Nevada is recognized as a place of great importance, not only for indigenous people that inhabit, considering it sacred and source of all life and order, both nationally and internationally is also recognized for its high ecological and echo systemic value because it contains all thermal floors and the nine Biomas of the Colombian territory[1]. And these are also other reasons that probably born of a more intimate link (traditional, cultural, spiritual) with this territory, but for whom live in it is a sacred land that must be protected to maintain the balance of the planet, among many other ways, through divination and the aforementioned cultural work (payments or concentration) in the so-called holy or sacred sites.
These places, in addition to being physical spaces that serve as a gateway to knowledge, communication and operation for the entire traditional territory, are areas of great vital and ethic significance as a way of being and acting, because there are inscribed the history, laws and regulations of Indigenous Peoples of the Sierra. At them, the traditional thinking become materialized (union of the material and spiritual), and it is recognized, administered, and exercised the law of the Mother to maintain balance of the territory and enable the continuity of life on Earth.
In this way, the physical and spiritual survival of the indigenous people of the Sierra and its territory is based precisely on the constancy and continuity of the work that the Mamos performed in furtherance of this purpose, and that is why the recovery of these sites is vital to the races in the Sierra, recalling that their use, ownership and management, not only guarantees the permanence of indigenous culture in the ancestral territory, but also guarantees the protection of water resources and biodiversity on which the indigenous communities, like the rest of the Colombian people who are seated in the lower and middle parts of the Sierra depends.
The residents that live in Santa Marta, Riohacha and Valledupar, the three capitals of the above-mentioned departments and 12 municipalities that represent a population of approximately 1,000,000 people depend of its water resources. Taking into account the above, we can point out that people directly benefit from the project would be in addition to the indigenous, all the people who lives across the surrounding territory or mentioned.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the proponent organization and the board of the Mamos, agreed on the need to raise an initial draft of recovery of 4 sacred sites in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, to serve as a pilot project with the potential to replicate it in the future.
For more information Contact Guillermo Rodríguez CSVPA task force Co Leader
[1] in 1979 UNESCO designated as a Biosphere Reserve.
|
