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We watched this film before starting the afternoon session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COkqj5zcqj4

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Afternoon harvest of Company Tactics and Community Strategies (tools) to defend the territory

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Afternoon harvest of Company Tactics and Community Strategies (tools) to defend the territory

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Link to padlet harvest: https://padlet.com/lifemosaic_/CompanyTacticsHarvest

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Johan:

Do you have your own indigenous names, or do you also use Western names when you name your children? And how do you choose indigenous names for your children?

Abadio:

We have more than 150 students from across Colombia. So the first question is exactly to find out about your question. Because the majority are names that have been imposed, they are in Spanish. They should have our own names, but then we learned that in the register office they didn’t allow original names. So that’s why it’s so important to ask this question. We need to put our own names - my name is Manibinigdiginya, but it wasn’t recognized so I was given Abadio. Our names need to reflect our culture, and will guide us in our journeys through life. That is why the placenta is so important.

Jawalla:

The presenter was saying that he doesn’t recognize God, but hold Mother Earth as a supreme being, so I’m just curious about how you worship.

Abadio:

I’m not saying that the Earth is the supreme being - I’m saying that the earth is the daughter of the supreme mother and father. The second thing is that all beings are living beings, that’s where our spirituality comes from. We say that there are beings, other beings that govern with us. For us everything has a spirit - the tree has a spirit, the water. We are the last ones to arrive. Amongst all these are the medicinal plants, yagé, peyote. I can’t do a healing ritual without all the plants, the dances, the fire. So in my culture we have a long house, we are from the cacao culture. So our spirituality comes from listening to the elders, by being in the ceremonies, by asking for forgiveness from the Mother Earth. Look at so much tragedy that’s happened in the world because we have taken resources from the sacred spaces.

One of the key points of the pedagogy of the Mother Earth is that the students don’t come to the university, but that the university needs to go to the communities. Because the pedagogy is in the territory. So this has been a great advance - the university, so rational, so European, has understood and accepted our pedagogy, and now we’re sharing within Colombia and across the region.

Alma:

I would like to say that it is quite true that Mother Earth is important for us. I’m happy to say that it is a supreme being. I’m proud to say it, the indigenous peoples have loved and cherished Mother Earth. There are other nations who are destroying the world.

Abadio:

I’d like to say goodbye by saying thank you to the ancestors, and thank you to the many peoples I have learned from. If I take care of the mother earth I am taking care of myself - if I take care of myself I am taking care of Mother Earth.

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So, to come back - we have to put Mother Earth at the centre of our education. Our education system is centred on individualism, is anti-rural, is capitalist, consumerist, it is Christian. So our education doesn’t fit into that - because we don’t think like that. So we need to find a way of breaking out of the egocentric education system. So we thought, what do we need to do?  If we put mother earth at the centre, this love will be at the centre. I’m not saying that rationalism doesn’t have a place, but needs to be in conversation with the heart. If Mother Earth is in the centre it can’t be racist, but maternal, because we all come from the womb. My father left a little thing, but my mother made me as a human.

The calendars are very important because they teach us where we are from - the Maya teachings. So I found that across the world there are so many similarities - which is why we need to put the mother at the centre.

The principles are silence, weaving, beautiful words, a good heart. What yagé told you will help you define your curriculum. I want to say that we often look to books for answers, but own cultures gives us answers. For example, the number 1, one, comes from the latin, meaning unique, or omnipotent - but the number 1 in my language is the only mother who does it perfectly.

So taking into account all this we constructed this curriculum over the last 20 years. But to convince the university to bring this into their classes - they didn’t understand. But little by little we were able to understand each other - that we need the Mother Earth in the centre - we need to unlearn many things. I was trained as a linguist, but when I understood that language is an elder, is our grandmother. That’s why we say mother tongue, not the father tongue.

So we found a pedagogic path, called ‘stories of the womb’, to give importance to the woman, to the grandmother. Because there is a lot of machismo here in America. Was this ancestral? Was this from our culture? Why are so many women and girls killed and raped? Why does nothing happen? Because machismo was naturalized in our culture. But we discovered that this wasn’t natural. We have to give our women importance. The way to do this is to go back to the stories of womb. We all have these stories of the womb. We have all been in the womb, so we are all related, we all come from the same place.

So, on the first day of classes, I always ask 4 questions to the students:

1. What is the story of your name? This is important because we realize the racism that exists in our communities - there are very strange names given to our people.

2. What is the story of your womb? What do you remember from being in your mother’s womb?

3. Where is your umbilical cord? Where is your placenta?

4. What do these 3 questions have to do with your life?

The first thing we need to do is feel proud of where we are from - what is our origin? Why are we like today? Why are we embarrassed to speak our language? But then we need to heal - which is not just with plants, but with yourself. It’s about conversing with yourself, your body, to understand what we’re missing. Education starts in your own body, in your mother’s womb.

We have to question. I first need to know who I am to be able to learn. So I am able to criticize. Also to realize that we are part of humanity, we are not apart - we are all children of the Mother Earth.

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From this place where I am, Medellin, I want to greet and ask for permission from all our ancestors who are in the cosmos. For us, those who are in the sky are our ancestors, to which we will return one day. I want to ask permission from the grandfather sun, the mother moon, the winds, the water than falls from the sky. I also want to ask permission from all the beings on the earth, because we are part of the mother’s womb.

All the traces on earth are our ancestors' traces. But we also have grandparents on earth - the plants, the rivers, the stones. I want to ask Mother Earth for permission for my voice to be perfume of basil, so it is like honey. Today is a special day in our calendar, it’s dedicated to the creators. In our languages the word God doesn’t exist, it was brought from over the sea. So I want to ask mother, father, that my voice is like the color of cotton. When cotton is worked by people, we put a color - red, green, blue, and a beautiful hammock, bag arrives. From there it is impossible to break.

I hope my voice arrives to you. Thanks for everyone who have made this event possible, and for the invitation.

I want to say that making the pedagogy of the Mother Earth was an experience that took years. I was president of the ONIC (National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia) and of the OIA (Indigenous Organisation of Antioquia), made up of peoples in Antioquia - there are not many of us, but we have great memories. I was able to travel as well, from which I learned a lot as well. I have travelled from Patagonia to Alaska, and everywhere people talk about bilingual education, intercultural education. These sound the same, but aren’t the same. We think it should be bilingual, but the Colombian government didn’t want to listen and said it was ethno-education.

But none of these forms are based on a different order which colonialism brought us. So we began to think, what type of education do we want? 35 years ago during a congress we asked the elders, what do you think about education here in our country? They asked us, is education based on our values? Why did you come to the world? So we began to think about this - we realized that all of us, not just the indigenous, came to protect and love the world. Because the world is our mother. I began to investigate, and I found that in no place do we say ‘father’ to the world, we all say ‘mother’. I read about other places in the world, and I realized that we all speak of the mother. So the Mother Earth belongs to everyone in the world.

So keeping this in mind, I began to investigate - what are the stories? I found out that our mother tongues, when we speak of the earth we say Mother Earth. In our languages we don’t have gender for articles - we say ‘man lake, woman lake’ - so all the beings in the world and universe are the same as us. The other thing is ceremony - these ceremonies lead us to the womb and fire. I asked the grandfather yagé (ayahuasca) - even if I am from the tobacco or cacao tradition - and the yagé gave me 4 components for the construction of the curriculum.

The origin - we have to ask the question, where do we come from? From the womb, so what does the womb mean, the placenta. In the womb we are all the same, we all come into the world connected to the placenta, the belly button. And where do we come from? So I carried on investigating, by going into solitude in my community, with medicinal plants. After 17 days I was tired and wanted to leave. But then 3 elders came to me, we will show you something they said. I saw when we are born, the womb, when the sperm arrives at the egg - the sperm goes in a spiral - not each one arrives, just the best dancer. When this arrives, a spark happens, and this seed goes in a spiral growing and growing until we become a whole person. The elders told me that what you’re seeing is the problem of humanity, we are trapped in rationalism, but we need to concentrate on love.

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Abadio Green (his name in his own language is Manibinigdiginya) is from the Gunadule people who live in the rainforests of North West Colombia, and is a highly respected indigenous leader known for his work as a political and cultural mediator. He was one of the first from an indigenous community to complete a doctorate, and has served as President of the OIA (Organizacion Indigena de Antioquia) and ONIC (Organizacion Nacional Indigena de Colombia). He has been instrumental in creating the 'Pedagogy of Mother Earth' university degree at the University of Antioquia in Medellin, a model which is designed to help indigenous people live and act in both traditional and modern worlds.

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Jawalla:

I’d like to ask who made the fight for the SRDC as a legal body?

Judy:

It was the village leaders who fought for the SRDC to be legalized, along with teachers and full support of the villages. Actually it was one of my grandfathers who was very active in it all.

Jawalla:

What strategies to get young people interested - what are you doing there to make sure the youth are involved? This is something I find hard here.

Judy:

One of the most effective ways was from the youth conference - that’s where I got motivated. Every year we’d organize conference and youth from across South Rupunini would come with their stories, songs, skits to share with others at the youth conference. The SRDC would organize collaborations with organizations like WWF. We tried to make it fun, would have activities, have field trips, camp fires in the evenings. So we’ve seen so many positive steps coming from that. So every year the youth would ask, when is the youth conference? They’d leave happy, with new friends, and would be really motivated, spreading the word with their friends.

Also when there are activities we try to bring youth the the SRDC quarterly meetings. After these meetings they’d say, I never thought about it this way.

Sherry:

This is very interesting, I am your neighbor here up in region 8, in North Pacaraimas. One of the ideas for our next meeting is to invite someone from the SRDC to our meetings. So I understood that your motivation started with the youth conference. Due to the pandemic we’ve experienced a great problem as can’t organize conferences. So I’d like to know what activities you’re having in these Covid times? And also, how do the elders participate?

Judy:

We all know the pandemic has caused problems, we haven’t done much work in 2021. But at the end of 2021 we realized we had to start working, so we had a small youth conference - it wasn’t the usual 187 participants, it was smaller. We also visited the main villages - you can do it in small gatherings rather than bringing everyone together.

At the youth conferences the elders would tell stories to the youth, go on the field trips passing on their knowledge. Also at SRDC meetings we always have elders there, whatever the event. They interact with the youth, and the youth learn from them. The youth are very much interested in traditional knowledge. I would just go to my grandmother with my porridge, sit with her, learn from her. The elders are always willing to share their knowledge with us, they are always there for us.

Sherry:

I would just like to say thank you for responding my questions, I really appreciate that in my neighboring region things are going so well. I will be writing to the SRDC to invite them to come this way and share with us. So a big hello from North Pac to the SRDC. Thank you.

Judy:

In terms of education we’ve been fully supportive of the bilingual education program - so we are trying to incorporate some of the Wapichan language into the schools. For the youths we are currently looking at livelihood projects, to bring some sort of income to them, because that’s one of the reasons youths are moving away, so we’ve recognized that and are trying to find ways of making sure the youth stay. We’ve also been giving educational chats in schools so kids can learn more about our environment. And we’ll be coming up with more ideas as time goes on! Finance is often a barrier to our works, but we are working continuously for the benefit of the Wapichan people.

Serge:

What keeps you inspired, what’s your source of strength?

Judy:

I just love my culture so much, when I see the dances, I would feel so happy and motivated. My people inspire me, their stories inspire me, my ancestors inspire me.

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Please click above to download Judy's presentation.

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Judy Winter is from Deep South Rupununi village of Aishalton, and she is a youth from the Wapichan Nation. Judy started working with the South Rupununi District Council in 2017 aged 15 after attending the first SRDC youth council held in Maruranau village, where youth from the 21 villages in the South Rupununi were present. There she was (in her words) impressed and awed by the knowledge she learnt of her culture and from that moment knew which field she wanted to work in.
She was elected to serve as the co-chair of the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC) youth arm at the age of 15. Since then, she has been involved in activities of the SRDC, as well as completing her schooling. Judy worked as the youth coordinator with the South Central Peoples Development Association (SCPDA) which is the Secretariat to the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC). She was on the Tenure Facility (TF) team in 2019, going into villages to engage with the people. At the end of 2019, she organised the 3rd annual youth conference with the help of her colleagues in Karaudarnau village for 4 days. She tries to reach out to the Toshaos and learn from their experiences.

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Jawalla:

I heard from Dario that they have their indigenous schools. How do they balance the education of their children in the indigenous way and also the universal way?

Dario:

A very interesting question - we have been thinking about this, how to bring our own education and outside education together? The first step is to train bilingual teachers, so we have our own indigenous teachers, so they understand both worlds in order to bring a new focus. We’ve also worked on our education curriculum. The constitution here in Colombia gives indigenous peoples the right to build their own curriculum.

We found a problem - our own education isn’t in a 4 walls space though, it can’t be put in a school - our education is in all spaces, in the river, dances, farming. So this was why the struggle was with the church too. So our own education should be in its spaces, and the outside education complements this in the school. The teachers in these more formal schools are also trained in both education systems. It’s important to design our own school calendar - for example the state and church education systems go against our own ways, which is why this education should complement our own education.

When we talk about history, we need to talk about our own history, when we speak about animals it needs to be the animals where we live that we should learn about.

Jawalla:

When he talks about the calendar, is that about how we live seasonally?

Dario:

When you speak about the calendar you think about dates, etc. But for us the calendar is more about the cycle of life - different times of the year, harvest, dances, the rainy season etc. All indigenous peoples have a cycle of life. However, these cycles are changing because of climate change. So here, the government can’t impose a school calendar which doesn’t fit with our own cycles of life. So we have designed our own calendars to better reflect our need and beliefs, and our cycle of life. This calendar allows us to pursue our own education system.

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To the statement, 'Fellows and Peers!' we all replied 'I see you' in our mother tongues:

Enehwa - Akawaio
Keng yeng aik - Akawaio
Kuwene jai - Wayana
Jiajme or Wainjame - Achuar

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Good morning! I’m a leader from Colombia. Thank you for the invitation here. The communications is difficult here, but let’s give it a go through the WhatsApp.

Colombia as a country, because of the constitution of 1991, recognizes that there is diversity in the country, that we have fundamental rights as indigenous peoples. There are 32 departments in the country, 6 of which cover the Amazonian area.

As indigenous peoples in the Amazon, using that constitution, we have the right to organize as indigenous authorities. AATIS have demanded a number of things such as autonomy, territory - to have control over health, education, territory, from our cosmovision. So there was created a region where the indigenous governments have guarantees for their rights, and a permanent council between indigenous governments and regional governments, where we work together to make sure for example our own health system is implemented.

For example in education, we have been able to strengthen this system so it reflects our worldview. We have our own teachers, we have a study plan, our own school calendar. This is autonomy! A decentralized education system. A problem that still exists is to do with indigenous teachers who have been trained by the church.

When it comes to indigenous management of the environment, everything related to our territory, economy, rituals, are part of our plan. It will include land management, the origin of our peoples, including how we have been managing our environment, what we have been doing in terms of deforestation. Now in terms of education and environment we’ve been working with the government to include indigenous practices throughout.

So that’s what we’re talking about, our own government, to think who makes decisions around justice. In 2014 there was a Colombian decree related to indigenous peoples, which established the decentralization of the systems I’ve previously mentioned. In 2018 the 3032 decree was passed for the Amazon region, guaranteeing decentralization and strengthening of indigenous authorities. So those are the commitments in relation to the Amazon and indigenous peoples.

We have been working with grassroots organizations, with our youth. The last decree relates to indigenous peoples in self-isolation, which defends and protects these groups. We have been working together with the state to protect these groups.

Indigenous peoples, through our own governance structures have defined our own health, education, gender issues, justice is moving more slowly, working to stop illegal mining and logging and cattle ranching, to work with the Colombian government on deforestation issues. We’ve also been working with COICA.

So that’s what we’ve been doing in our territories around autonomy and self-determination.

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Dario Silva is the legal representative and coordinator of the of the Indigenous Association of La Pedrera Amazonas (AIPEA), of the Lower Caquetá River. He is currently accompanying the development of the Decree on Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation in Colombia. He has represented indigenous associations on national and international stages. He is based in the city of Leticia, as spokesperson for the ASSOCIATIONS OF TRADITIONAL INDIGENOUS AUTHORITIES OF THE AMAZONAS – AATIS within the framework of the Permanent Coordination Table with the Department of Amazonas in Colombia.

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Serge question:

What has been the impact of the Wampis autonomous territorial government?

Gil:

The state doesn’t accept our right to free determination - they believe that their functionaries should be those who decide on laws. For example - in Wampis territory there are illegal miners - the Wampis authority asked the interior ministry to intervene. But nothing happened, so the Wampis decided they had to expulse the miners themselves, to which the interior ministry told them not to do as it would be illegal. The Wampis replied that the irresponsible actor here is the state because they’re not doing anything, so we will do it ourselves. 1000 Wampis went and removed the miners themselves, peacefully.

During the pandemic the Wampis helped a lot to close the frontiers with Ecuador in their lands. Then the state also wanted to create a reserve within their lands, which the Wampis rejected, saying that these lands are conserved because of the Wampis, not because of the state.

So the Wampis nation is showing by example its right to its self-determination, stating that they should control and manage their territories. The state haven’t replied yet.

Jawalla:

Does the Government support the Indigenous policies, recognise their rights territory etc?

Gil:

There are generic campaigns against discrimination - but this isn’t enough, they don’t make concrete changes, the state resists. They make publications saying indigenous communities exist and they should be respected, but in reality, when talking about indigenous peoples administering their lands, no, there is a lot of resistance.

Jawalla:

I asked that question because we are experiencing the same.

Serge:

Gil has been voted as Pamuk of the Awajun people - whose territory is very large and complicated. How are you going to start this complicated task?

Gil:

Awajun territory is very complicated, many challenges, and there are non-indigenous people who live in these lands. However, we will work with them to work out how to live together, we are thinking that the non-indigenous will have 2 representatives in the Awajun government (they represent roughly 5% of our population). The other thing we want to start with is education - so we are starting conversations to change the curriculum, reorient it, to make it an Awajun education. We will be the ones to decide our school directors, we will decide the curriculum and the pedagogy that we will use. We will also speak to local judges so that they understand our justice system, and will change them if they don’t want to do this.

The state should be present, but through our authority. We may bring a lot of scandal, but it’s the only way, we have to demand our rights.

Serge:

Thank you Gil - your example is inspiring, showing you need to demand your rights, rather than just waiting for them.

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Serge: Today is a day we’re both completing the module about self-determined development, and then moving into sessions this afternoon about countering the threats in the territory. We have Gil Inoach from the Awajun, Dario Silva in the Colombian Amazon, Abadio Green who has a lot of experience around indigenous education and Judy Winter from the Wapichan. We’re really excited about hearing from them all.

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Good morning to everyone - thanks to the organizers. My name is Gil Inoach Shawit, I’m from the Awajun nation. I’ve now the honour of leading the Awajun Autonomous Territorial Government. I’m going to share a few experiences from Peru from communities located in the North-West Peruvian Amazon, stories about territory and what we’ve been doing for governance. In Peru we need two conditions to keep existing - the first is judicial protection, the second is territorial governance.

Indigenous peoples, if we want to protect our territories, if we want to have security, we need to find legal security for our peoples. The Awajun have 3 million hectares of territory. The state’s responsibility is to recognize our right for territory. So the combination of these two forces, external and internal, will allow us to exist towards the future, with our own culture, our own cosmovision, our own territory and model of development.

But it isn’t so simple to arrive at this condition. There are many obstacles and limitations from the part of the state - this doesn’t just happen in Peru but across the world. So I’m going to tell you a little bit about our reality here in Peru. In Peru our territories are recognized as ‘native communities’ - communities ask for this status to get education and health services from the state. These communities have their lands titled, with some hectares, but with the forest resources given ‘in use’. The problem with this way of titling territories is that it doesn’t reflect our understanding of territory - the totality of territory that we have occupied ancestrally doesn’t reflect this fractured nature that ‘native communities’ brings.

For example, the Wampis Nation has over 1 million ha in its ancestral territory. But if you add up the hectares of the titled communities it doesn’t go over 400,000 hectares. So the state, over this area which isn’t titled, considers these lands as up for grabs. This is the great problem we have in Peru.

So, what have we done here? There is no administrative method to title the whole territory, only the method of titling through native communities. In 1994 the peoples of the North West Amazon in Peru decided that through the native communities method we’d never consolidate our territory. The only way forward was to conceive of the territory in its entirety. So we have demarcated our territories ourselves - and these are the lands that we will defend, because this is the only way to survive as a people.

ILO169 entered into Peruvian law in 1995, giving us a huge support to our territorial claims. But then we realized that there were no indigenous authorities to represent our ancestral territories. We were fractured into many different organizations. We realized that if we weren’t represented by a sole authority, we would be divided, and exterminated (socially, culturally, spiritually).

In ancient times we had an authority, so each people went back to its historical memory and found their own organizational structures and authorities. So, once we’d got our demarcated territory, our authorities, our statutes, the moment arrived to declare ourselves as autonomous governments, based in fundamantal principles - territory, identity, self-governance, self-determined development. So with these principles, 9 indigenous peoples in this region have constituted their own Autonomous Territorial Governments.

Does this mean leaving the state? No, it means governing within our territory. This is within the mark of self-determination. So we are demanding that the state allows us to legislate in our territory, control our education, health, in our hands. Of course, we have problems with the state, because they don’t want to lose power, they want to continue giving our territory to concessions, decide what happens with the resources in our lands.

We have based what we’ve done in international and national law - such as ILO169 and UNDRIP, among others - which speak of the free determination of indigenous peoples. So even if the state is opposed to us, if we don’t demand our rights, the state will never do so. So if we, united, start making changes from the inside, then perhaps the state will change to support us.

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Gil Inoach is the current Pamuk, or leader, of the newly formed Autonomous Territorial Government of the Awajun Nation. He is also trained as a lawyer, in recent years supporting the formation of indigenous youth from across the North-West Peruvian Amazon as well as serving as legal advisor to the Wampis Autonomous Territorial Government. He has also held a number of leadership roles in regional indigenous organizations such as CORPI and AIDESEP.

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Temi:

The exercise of drawing the roots was very important to me, because when we were drawing the roots I didn’t know I had so much knowledge!

Nantu:

The trunk for is the jungle, from which everything starts - without the jungle there is no possibility of talking about development. There are some short term ideas, for example in education, to improve, to make some inter institutional alliances, not just with the district, to improve English skills. In terms of protecting the jungle, I’m thinking about some production activities, for families, to take advantage of solar energy. We’ve seen that there are communities who still don’t have this form of energy - so we need to move from using generators to solar energy. Then also the drinking of guayusa, which is a way we can think through things before the day starts. Then also doing assemblies every month or two. It would be great to do some work thinking through what self-determination means for Achuar communities - often it’s the organizations who have this vision, but the communities themselves often don’t understand or know about this principle. It’s also important to bring back fasting - as a way of communal justice.

Jawalla:

We will try our best to practice the Life Plan, the most interesting part for me was the roots.

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Mash winiajai, chiram tsawarcharumeash = Good day to everyone, I hope you have woken up well! (Buenos dias a todos espero que hayan amanecido bien)

This face painting is the centre of the universe, and the stars which are always illuminating us, so each face painting has its interpretation. I painted it myself. The paint is made from coal and some plants that our grandmothers teach us about. The painting is a sign of leadership.

This meeting is very important for the youth - I’m thankful to the universe, to Arutam, that we are all healthy, and let’s keep working with the same enthusiasm. Makete!

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STARTING THE DAY

Welcome prayer and gratitude.

Check-in.

Outline of today.

TALKSHOW

Inspiring stories of self-determination and self-determined development as ways of safeguarding culture and territory, countering threats, and putting in place a vision of the future.

COMPANY TACTICS

Video & discussion to think about what communities can do to counter the company tactics

TOOLS AND STRATEGIES TO DEFEND THE TERRITORY

Participants reflect on and identify a wide range of tools and strategies to protect and look after indigenous territories