Representatives of the Kogis, an indigenous people of Colombia, are in France for three weeks to exchange and transmit their ancestral knowledge on the preservation of the environment, classified as UNESCO intangible heritage. They were in Grenoble at the start of the week where they spoke with scientists, elected officials, but also high school students.
They come from the Andes, a mountain range located in Colombia where their people live at an altitude of nearly 5,800 meters. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is their “Mother Earth”, their country and their sanctuary.
Hunted by the Conquistadors, the Kogi took refuge in the remote high valleys of Colombia, on the edge of the Caribbean Sea, almost 500 years ago, to survive and safeguard their ancestral environmental knowledge. Their knowledge is so valuable that it has been listed in the intangible cultural heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2022.
Since September 25, five representatives of this Native American people have been traveling through the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region to provide their diagnosis, under scientific cooperation born in 2009 with France. After Lyon, they went to Grenoble to talk in particular with elected officials and high school students.
Arregoces Conchacala Zaeabata, le gouverneur des Kogis • © France 3 Alpes / JC. Solari
“The objective of my trip is to meet the new generation, to exchange with them, because they are the future”explains Arregoces Conchacala Zaeabata, the governor of the Kogis.
For them, the mountain is not just a territory, it is a living “body”, with which it is important to remain in contact. “It is not men who make the laws and rules, it is the mountain which decides what to do”he continues in front of an audience of students gathered at the Mounier high school.
Struck by the grandiose landscape that surrounds the capital of the Alps, Arregoces Conchacala Zaeabata invites its inhabitants to reconnect with the local and universal history of the mountain.
“It’s an ancient story, but we must make it a permanent story. Even if our languages or our customs are different, the mountain and this entire landscape are the same, unique struggle”, he said. The students seem to hear the speech of these men from the other side of the world.
“I find it very inspiring that they are in communion with what they call ‘sacred sites’, that is to say the springs, the rivers, the mountains and nature in general”reacts Laurelei Odin, second grade student.
“We have to be aware that we live on the same planet. So, it’s very good to all protect it. Plus, they’re not asking for the moon”estimates Yolaine Sodatonou, first year student at Mounier high school.
For several years, the Kogis have come to share their knowledge in our region. Meetings facilitated by the association “Tchendukua Here and Elsewhere” of which Eric Julien is the co-founder.
“The Kogis and other indigenous peoples have never lost this intimate connection with nature. They do not come to lecture us or moralize, they come to tell us: ‘wake up nature in your home’ and nature in us , there is no need to twist, it’s a practice”indicates Eric Julien.
Representatives of the Kogis during their conference in front of students from the Mounier high school in Grenoble • © France 3 Alpes / JC. Solari
“You have to go to the mountains, you have to go near the rivers, you have to go to the forests. So their essential message is: ‘get the students out of the four walls of your schools’. It’s not just that “It’s bad, but give them moments where they can find their breathing again in the mountains.”he adds.
“We need to make them aware of nature, not as a degraded, damaged, artificialized nature. We need to put them back in phase with the rivers, the glaciers for what remains, the forest, the mountains, to rebalance a little It’s not against science and against modernity, it’s how to put a little nature back into our artificial world to find another path, and that can give young people a little perspective, a little hope.“, continues Eric Julien.
Representatives of the Kogis were received at Grenoble City Hall, where they presented their philosophy of nature during a conference this Monday, October 9. “We are here to discuss and exchange our knowledgeinsists the governor of Kogis, do pedagogy with young people and respect both forms of knowledge.” The two knowledges in question: theirs and Western scientific knowledge.
Alongside them, Cédric Villani, winner of the Fields Medal in 2010, salutes their courage. The mathematician spent two weeks in Colombia with other scientists in contact with them, in their territory, “for great conversations, some scholarly, others very practical”he says.
“These are a people who are fighting against environmental threats at a higher level than what we can experience here. There, they risk assassination, poisoning, cultural crushing. They are confronted with racism, to phenomenal mining projects. Seeing the courage of these people who fight to preserve their culture, their way of life, it is very inspiring and it convinces me that we have a duty to help them in their struggle.”adds the former LREM deputy who joined the Ecology Democracy Solidarity movement.
“To overcome the problems we face, it will not only take technology and science, it will also take spiritual work, a change of outlook and state of mind in relation to the world in which we live”adds the scientist.
For forty years, Eric Julien has helped the Kogis to buy back ancestral lands in Colombia and to pass on their knowledge on environmental preservation • © France 3 Alpes / JC. Solari
“We are finally engaging in a dialogue on two world views which have been at each other’s throats for five centuries and which could perhaps be reconciled”further deciphers the co-founder of the association “Tchendukua Ici etailleurs”.
Eric Julien has been supporting the Kogis in their fight to preserve their identity and their environment for decades. This former student of Sciences Po Grenoble went to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta 40 years ago to discover the highest coastal mountain range.
“I had pulmonary edema at 5,000 meters, I had water in my lungs and the inhabitants of this mountain, the Kogis and the Arhuacos, picked me up. They saved my life and I asked them what I could do to thank them. They told me: ‘we have our territories which are shriveling with drug traffickers, tourists, roads, mines, etc. Could you help find our ancestral lands?’ At the time, I think I was very young and very naive and I said yes,” says Eric Julien.
“So, for 40 years, we have been working together to buy land, to give them back their land, so that they can regenerate the forest. We have bought back 200,000 hectares of land”he said.
Despite this painful past and the stubborn opposition they still face, the Kogis have chosen dialogue with “white men”, rather than confrontation. They left aside hatred and the spirit of revenge to see further and preserve their “Mother Earth”.
“Otherness for them is a wealth. For us, they are conflicts. They try to invite us to reconciliation and I find that at this moment, that makes sense”concludes Eric Julien.
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