The Arhuaco tribe is one of four Tairona indigenous groups that inhabit the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta of Northwestern Colombia. This community of approximately 27,000 people lives a traditional and spiritual lifestyle guided by its ancient “Law of Origin” passed down through the centuries. The traditional legend emphasizes the balance and protection of nature above all things, stressing equality among people and giving thanks to the spirits which have provided humans with the earth and all of its resources.
Nabusimake, Colombia
The Arhuaco consider themselves protectors of the Sierra Nevada, a location which they hold to be the heart of the world. Arhuaco society is guided by tribal leaders and spiritual leaders known as Mamu (male) and Aku Mamu (female). Daily activities for Arhuaco villagers consist of giving offerings to the spirits, cultivating the forests and harvesting coffee and the coca leaf. The coca leaf holds great spiritual significance in Arhuaco legend and practice- it is harvested by the women and consumed by Arhuaco men to givethem energy and decrease altitude sickness. The tribe also makes traditional crafts for sale such as the TuTu bag which uses traditional patterns with spiritual significance. The Sierra Nevada’s indigenous tribes live in nationally-recognized Indian reservations with Nabusimake serving as the Arhuaco capital.
While the government of Colombia recognizes Arhuaco territory and has even made recent moves to protect it[1], the Arhuaco are quickly becoming one of Colombia’s 27 indigenous groups[2] at risk for extinction[3]. Indigenous peoples are uprooted from their traditional lands every year due to violent conflict in Colombia and they currently account for 7% of Colombia’s recorded 3 million internally displaced persons[4]. The Colombian military, paramilitary and guerilla forces all partake in various levels of armed conflict, narco-trafficking and competition for land and natural resources in Colombia – activities which threaten the Arhuaco way of life and their traditional territory. Fertile Arhuaco land and coca crops are sought after by narco-terrorists and many Arhuacos have been murdered, displaced, assaulted or forcibly recruited into armed groups.
Arhuaca women in Nabusimake
In particular, Arhuaca women are an extremely vulnerable group who are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their traditional lifestyle. In recent years, these women have faced increased risk for sexual assault and gender-based violence at the hands of armed actors. They are offered little protection and no justice or reparation for these crimes. In addition, Arhuaca women have been combating discrimination within their own community in an attempt to reclaim the traditional beliefs of the Arhuaco Law of Origin. While the original Law of Origin emphasized the balance of nature and the sexes and promoted complete equality between men and women, decades of colonization, foreign missionaries and the ideologies of armed groups have tainted those beliefs and influenced the subjugation of women’s participation in the Arhuaco community. Arhuaca women were discouraged from participating in tribal council meetings, discouraged from becoming Aku Mamu spiritual leaders and were told that all financial activities should be handled by men. For years Arhuaca women’s concerns were left unheard and their needs unmet; they no longer were offered opportunities for financial independence nor positions of political or spiritual leadership. Thus, many Arhuaca women have been abandoning the reservations in notable numbers to find work in urban informal sectors, leaving the indigenous communities with skewed sex ratios and dwindling populations.
Recognizing the internal and external threats to women in the Arhuaco community, WCI began work with a Colombian anthropological organization in 2007 to address these issues. WCI and the Corporation for Socio-Economic Research and Action (CIASE) forged a partnership to match WCI’s core competencies in gender analysis and awareness trainings with CIASE’s expertise on the Arhuaco culture. WCI and CIASE thus developed a program that would bring to the surface the original Arhuaco beliefs about gender equality, promote gender analysis and increase women’s participation in the Arhuaco community. WCI and CIASE organized open forum discussions on gender within the indigenous community for 100 Arhuaco men and women in Nabusimake and any visiting members of nearby tribes. WCI and CIASE also implemented five three-day trainings with the Arhuaco Women’s Collective, provided them with gender analysis curricula and helped increase the number of women on the Council for Tairona Indians and the number of female spiritual leaders, or Aku Mamu. Discussions and training materials were implemented in Spanish and Iku, the Arhuaco language.
Arhuaca women at a WCI-CIASE training
Despite the success of these activities, one concern that was left unresolved by the program activities was gender analysis and women’s participation in the Arhuaco legal system. This topic became far more urgent as a relevant case was brought to the Arhuaco court during the WCI-CIASE program. The case involved a victim of incest within the community; a young Arhuaca girl who had been brutally raped, abused and impregnated by her father. WCI and CIASE’s female program participants requested a session to discuss this case, and concluded that this could not be a fair trial – for the young girl or the community in general – if Arhuaca women were not also hearing the case. They added that it was also unacceptable that only male judges had presided over various domestic abuse cases within the community in the past. Thus, it was a combination of WCI’s gender analysis programs and the incest case which has now inspired nine female program participants to ask that they be trained as judges to serve on the currently all-male Arhuaco legal Council. WCI is currently seeking additional funds to launch an anthropological assessment on the Arhuaco legal system with CIASE and then to create a training program for female judges within Colombia’s indigenous community of the Sierra Nevada. WCI believes that developing a gender-focused component to the Arhuaco legal system: its laws, judges, enforcement and retribution processes, is critical to preserving the presence of women within the Arhuaco community and the entire survival of this indigenous tribe.
Arhuaco men at a WCI-CIASE training for community gender analysis
[1] 29-March 2009: Brodzinsky, Sibylla, “Dispatch from Colombia’s Newest Village,” The Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0328/p25s11-woam.html
[2] There are 84 Colombian indigenous groups in total, ibid, 2009
[3] 15-August 2008: Moloney, Anastasia, “Colombia’s Indians risk extinction from conflict, drugs war and multinationals,” Reuters: http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/46655/2008/07/15-140558-1.htm.
[4] Ibid, 2008