The Mystics of North Colombia | 2016

During July-September of 2016, we were invited by Otto, an Anthropologist working in North of Colombia to visit the indigenous communities there and help out with some simple building work, and think of ways of improving the soil for farming.

We visited the Wayuus of La Guajira and the Arhuacos of the Sierra Nevada. While the Arhuacos are traditionally an agriculturist community, the Wayuus are pastoralists, but political borders and conflict have forced them to settle down and learn how to farm.
We were heartbroken to see these ancient indigenous communities who hold the wisdom and mythology of the Americas, with no food. Changing climate, extraction of community resources in the name of development, and an inability to cope with rapidly changing times, have pushed these communities to the extremes and they now depend on international agencies for basic food like rice, flour, oil etc.

We were the silent observers on this journey, awestruck by the beauty and tragedy of life.

CASA INDIGENA, PALOMINO