1. The Trust: A New Remit
It was decided that a new remit was needed for
the Trust. As a small charity we should no
longer be engaged in land purchase; other,
deeper pockets have been very active. We decided
to work alongside others with the same
objective.
Jean-Paul Mertinez, our Chairman and Trustees
Felicity Nock and Graham Townsley discussed the
new remit with the Kogi Mamas themselves in
Colombia during the summer. The Kogi asked us to
continue our work to make the world more aware
of their message and understand it, as the
planet is in crisis. It was suggested that
as many trustees came from a media background,
we had the skills and expertise to concentrate
on communication rather than land purchase.
Therefore, we could assist the Mamas in
spreading their message concerning the health of
the environment which was a natural follow on to
the 2 films Alan Ereira had made with them.
"We are fighting for understanding of the
world to be heard. We know where and how the
trees and water and animals all began. The Mamos
say everything – fish, plants, animals,
water have their place – in contrast the
younger brother notices but does not see or
respect this natural order, less do they respect
other people or themselves."
José de los Santos Sauna, Kogi Cabildo governor,
Santa Marta, 2018.
Having accepted the challenge, we also met with
with representatives of Tchenduka in Colombia, a
French NGO which has been successfully buying
back Kogi land and initiating with the Kogi on
the ground sustainable ecological development
projects. We had already been exploring with
Tchendukua ways to engage the Kogi with
scientific experts and work to feed their
indigenous knowledge into our academies.
The first joint initiative with Tchendukua was a
project in Drôme, southern France last
September.
2. The Drome project - September 2018
With the financial support of the Trust,
Tchendukua arranged for a small group of Kogi
Mamas and Sagas to come over from the Sierra to
meet with eminent European environmental
scientists and take part in a cross diagnosis of
the land in the Drôme valley.
Both parties would carry out an independent
examination then they would come together to
discuss the results. The aim was to find a way
of integrating indigenous knowledge with Western
science to better understand how to care for the
environment physically and if it was damaged
anywhere to identify ways to regenerate it, and
so develop a code of conduct that could be
adopted globally for future land management. We
put out an appeal to Trust supporters for funds
to invest in this project and as always, we
got a most positive response so a big thank you
to all of you who donated to make this diagnosis
possible!
You can read Alan Ereira’s field diary of
the event in our updates section.
3. Follow up Event - November 2018
A follow-up meeting in Lyon was organised by one
of the scientific representatives - Patrick
Desgorge - an academic philosopher from Lyon and
Paris and an ex-civil servant in the Dept. of
the Environment in France. He arranged the event
in association with the University of Lyon and
it was attended by many of the participants in
the Drôme diagnosis with the specific purpose of
developing spin-off projects.
Some of these projects have been taken up by
Tchendukua and they have just sent us an action
plan to take these forward.
4. Next Steps - March 2019
Project 1: Helping with Invasive Bees in the
Sierra
Mama Shibulata has agreed to start the bee
project and introduce it to their community. The
work team will have access to the high parts of
the Sierra, in the valleys where African,
non-native bees are located. The Kogi are
concerned about the introduction of African bees
which are attacking humans and affecting
agriculture. They are beginning to mutate and
become accustomed not only to their new
habitats, but also to higher and colder areas so
need to be eradicated or moved from the area.
Project 2: A Full Translation of the
Cross-Diagnosis Dialogues
One problem with dialogue is translation.
During the Drôme meeting we relied on ad-hoc
two-way translation which was obviously a huge
strain on the single Spanish-speaking Kogi
present. The recordings and now being carefully
translated and analysed in the Sierra in order
to establish accurately everything that was said
during the 10 days of cross-diagnosis, whether
during the field work or the discussions in the
conference room.
The Trust is directly supporting Tchenduka
with funding for these translations so if you
would like to make a donation towards this vital
work it’s easy to donate here.
There are three steps planned:
Step 1 / March 2019
Arregocces (the Kogi translator) works on his
notes, proofreads and corrects them. He will
then provide us with a first complete online
document.
Step 2 / May 2019
On the basis of this document, in collaboration
with his father, who speaks fluent Spanish,
Arregocces will work with Mama Shibulata and
Mama Bernardo in order to clarify, complete and
develop the points that are unclear or
incomplete in the first document. A second
online document will be produced.
Step 3 / July 2019
Arregocces will listen to the full audio
recordings in order to identify the points which
might have been forgotten or insufficiently
developed or translated. He will proofread the
document. If necessary, a third version of the
online document will be drawn up.
The estimated time required is 6 months, with
possible delivery of a final document in July
2019. The money needed to complete this project
is 3500 euros.
Project 3 Cross Diagnosis in Geneva
(2020)
Following the first diagnosis event Tchendukua
has received several proposals to repeat the
process in other French regions. A proposal from
the city of Geneva particularly stands out for
the following reasons:
a) The city has a particular and very
interesting "geological" history
b) This history seems to have been largely
concealed and marginalized
c) Tchendukua has a good network of contacts in
the region
d) Geneva is fairly high profile having many
international institutions. This will help
create publicity for the process which the Mamas
and the Cabildo Governor Santos would welcome.
Both Mama Shibulata and Mama Bernardo have
agreed in principle to this project provided
they are informed in advance so the proposal
will now be submitted to the Bureau and Board of
Tchendukua in order to take things forward.
Should the project be confirmed, Tchendukua say
it will be interesting to build on the first
collaboration with the Trust and plan this
future event together.
5. Committee to streamline Future
Collaborative Projects
Tchendukua is also suggesting that given the
diverse range of subjects, contacts, processes,
issues and the number of people involved not to
mention the miles between us, it would be a good
idea to set up a committee or alliance of
contributing academic organisations and
partners to co-ordinate future projects.
This committee could meet twice a year (once in
the UK, once in France) and bring together
representatives from the organisations involved
to:
- coordinate actions
- share information
- make decisions
- pool ideas, technology and skills
- clarify roles and responsibilities
We will keep you informed as this collaboration
develops.
6. STOP PRESS: Present threat
in the Sierra - March 2019
The political situation has suddenly
deteriorated on the Caribbean Coast especially
on the North side of the Sierra, where both the
Trust and Tchendukua has been working for 30
years. Several social leaders and an employee of
the Sierra Nevada National Park have been
assassinated in broad daylight. José de los
Santos Sauna, Kogi Cabildo governor, has been
directly threatened, which has led him to
withdraw to high-altitude villages for
protection.
The Colombian political situation has not
helped, as the peace treaty with FARC has been
repudiated. The return of armed paramilitary
groups makes the region once again unsafe. Two
field workers were directly threatened leading
Tchendukua to suspend their field missions in
the northern Sierra to focus on the South.
There has also been a major fire in two villages
near the peaks, with the total destruction of
homes, traditional and household materials and
crops. We are responding to an emergency
appeal for help. We are checking more details
about what has happened and will post more
information as soon as possible.
The Mayor of Santa Marta is deeply concerned by
the worsening situation and has appealed
directly to the Ministry of Interior to deal
with this worrying increase in violence.
We will keep you updated.
Again if you would like to help by making
a donation please click here.
7. Nature Walks
We had an excellent response to our nature walks
request, which was intended to encourage
supporters of the Trust to get outdoors with
friends for a walk in nature to help raise funds
to bring the Kogi Mamas to France.
One of our supporters Petra Gomersall invited
friends to walk with her barefoot on her
birthday in support of the Kogi. She
says ‘the Kogi walk barefoot everywhere and
that’s what inspired me.' They did a small walk through the park
behind her house. The ground was still warm
and soft and people were surprised how
comfortable and refreshing it can be walking
without shoes! Her objective was for
everyone to step into a connection with the
earth, feel the grass between their toes and
come to their senses in their bodies.
She said 'We live such busy lives and often forget
even to take a proper breath. Raising
awareness of our bodies leads to more
awareness of our surroundings and of nature in
general. My son said it was a birthday to
remember! I received a cake shaped like Sierra
Nevada and so many lovely messages afterwards
and donations instead of presents which was
brilliant because I really don’t need
any more stuff. We raised around £250
and over 20 people took part. Fantastic
result!’
Thanks to everyone who walked for nature. We
plan on organising this again later in 2019!
Would you like to organise your own nature walk?
Message us to find out more
8. Planned Events 2019
Each year the Trust likes to work on a new
project. Since we began working more closely
with Tchenduka we visited Arles in the South of
France to view a photo exhibition showing
indigenous Kogi life in the Sierra. This year we
are beginning work on bringing that exhibition
of photographs to the UK as a way to
continue to share the extraordinary lives and
message of the Kogi Mamas. If you
are interested in that project please do
get in touch with us or donate below.
The photographs will be accompanied by a talk
from our founder, Alan Ereira, who directed the
two Kogi films. We will keep you informed as
this idea develops and let you know about venue
and tickets.
That's all for now.
Thank you for all your support and please do
keep in touch.
The Tairona Heritage Trust
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