We’ve been so busy since you last
heard from us and have so much to share with
you. So thank you for staying with
us.
The Trust has participated in several
international dialogues with the Kogi Mamas
to share knowledge and information in an
attempt to better understand how we can
learn from their indigenous perspectives and
to offer them support for new Kogi
related projects or respond to their
requests. We have outlined an overview of
these different activities below:
This morning the Chairman of the Tairona Heritage Trust,
Jean-Paul Mertinez, the Kogi-speaking anthropologist Falk
Parra-Witte and I met for a long breakfast in London with
the Cabildo of the Organisación Gonawindua Tayrona, José
Santos Sauna.
The visit to the Sierra coincided with a follow up
meeting arising from the Cross diagnosis in Drôme, southern
France last September in which the Trust collaborated with
the French NGO Tchendukua. One of the science delegates
Patrick Degeorges has been involved with UNESCO and a
working party was set up with the aim of establishing a
cross-disciplinary coalition (called BRIDGES: Building
Resilience in Defense of Global Environments and Societies)
to launch projects connecting academic and non-academic
authorities that can develop more effective global
strategies to combat climate change.
Happy New Year to all our donors and supporters! The start
of a new decade seems the ideal time to update you on our
current activities.
In October Kogi Mama Shibulata and translator
Sylvestre flew to Sweden for the first presentation of
projects to the new Unesco BRIDGES commission. The meeting
took place in Sigtuna and the Kogi were invited for the
occasion as Unesco’s special guests.
We hope you are all keeping well and staying out of
harm’s way in these difficult times. With much of our
lives put on hold we thought we would just share with you
the details of an important event for the Trust and the Kogi
which took place between Sunday 23 February and Tuesday 03
March 2020 just before we all went into lockdown and the
world stood still.
Thank you so much to all of you who have been donating
generously to the Trust over the last few weeks. We hope you
are all well and gradually emerging after lockdown into what
they are now calling the ‘ new normal’ which
seems to mean a gradual resumption of a limited range of
activities at whatever recommended distance your country
advises. It has been a terrible period in world
history but let's hope countries can continue to slowly
open up again with a better understanding of how precious
our natural resources are.
We would like to offer you the latest news from Colombia and
the work of the Trust over the last few months. To say the
least, it has been a rather tumultuous time.
New Cabildo for Gonawindua Tairona
Following the death of Santos Sauna, the Cabildo (Governor)
of Gonawinduúa Tayrona, from Covid-19 in August, the
Mamas have selected a new Cabildo, Arregoces
Conchacala. Arregoces has been known to the Trust
since 1989 when Alan Ereira and Felicity Nock first visited
the Sierra to make 'From the Heart of the World' for
the BBC. Here he is pictured with Alan who is showing
him a handicam and explaining the filming process. At
that time he was a rather rebellious young man who had been
instructed by the Mamas to take care of the BBC visitors. He
wore a watch to symbolise his interest in connecting with
Younger Brother and he spoke some Spanish. Subsequently
Arregoces became a political leader engaged with all the
people of the Sierra. The modern picture below shows him
last year at an important meeting.
It has taken a long time, but the Trust is now able to
report that our long-prepared plan for a land restoration
project with the Kogi is able to move ahead. After two
years of planning, the project has been enthusiastically
endorsed as a pilot by a new UNESCO initiative called
BRIDGES, and a joint committee has been established by the
Trust and the Kogis’ Organización Gonawindúa Tayrona
(OGT) to run it.
We are sorry for the long delay in letting you know how the
donations you made last year have been spent but it has
taken a long while to get a full report back from OGT due to
a reorganisation following the death of Santos Sauna and the
election of their new Cabildo Arregoces Conchacala.
This newsletter includes the latest updates on:
the Food Campaign, an Emergency Response in 2020;
a series of four meetings proposed across the Kogi
Communities and their results;
the acquisition of computers and Internet installation;
the acquisition of materials and utensils for 20 Kogi
families in Maldaka affected by fire In March 2021.
Aluna (consciousness) is universal. Thinking is not
restricted to individual humans.
Support Us
The Kogi message is important for us all. They consider
themselves to be the guardians of the earth and are worried by
our attempts to destroy it. They want their voice and knowledge
to be heard around the world and for us to take action to
protect the planet that we all share.