While Colombia’s urban population is struggling, the national indigenous organizations consider the coronavirus pandemic a wake-up call from Mother Earth to “return to the origin.”
According to national indigenous organization ONIC, the coronavirus is not just a threat, but also an opportunity for communities to improve social bonds and ancestral self sustenance practices.
Furthermore, indigenous communities in remote regions cannot rely on Colombia’s public healthcare system, forcing them to rely on their ancestral survival skills.
The mother is calling us to unite as peoples, to live as communities and highlight our own based on our ancestral knowledge and wisdom.
“It’s time to return to our origins”
In an extensive document, “It’s time to return to our origins,” the ONIC shared both practical, social and spiritual knowledge to the dozens of nations and peoples that inhabit Colombia together with their “younger brother.”
The document contains both recommendations of “western” medical experts on the prevention of contagion, but also indigenous knowledge on region-specific agriculture to increase individual communities” capacity to sustain themselves.
The ONIC, for example, urged the stepping up of cattle ranging and the cultivation of region-specific crops that would not just allow the indigenous peoples and nations to sustain themselves if prolonged isolation is necessary, but also strengthen their immune system.
Recommendations for indigenous peoples
- Spiritual protection as indicated by your elders
- Use medicinal plants and fruits to cleanse your home, your family and yourself
- Stay inside your reserve, territory and community
- Fully protect “Abya Yala”(the Americas)
Strengthening the indigenous social fabric
The organization also advised to strengthen social order and ancestral hierarchies by optimizing the transfer of knowledge from community elders to younger generations and the protection of their territory.
Last but not least, the ONIC urged the promotion of order and harmony within the community and with their “younger brother” from outside the indigenous communities.
At the same time, the indigenous organization urged the strengthening of the communities’ indigenous guard to prevent the unauthorized entry of outsiders.
Recommendations for indigenous peoples
- Remain in your territory, within your private or communal space, in order to reduce exposure to the risk of contagion
- Strengthen the resistance of the indigenous guards by eating home-grown food, with native products, prepared in the traditional way. We are what we eat.
- Implement actions to avoid leaving their territories in order to reduce exposure to the risk of contagion.
- Limit the entry of people from outside the communities, such as tourists, visitors from private institutions, delegates from NGOs or international cooperation agencies, who develop processes or activities in the ethnic territories, wiith the exception of extreme need.
The mother’s spiritual teachings
Apart from the medical advice, the practical recommendations, the indigenous organization also stressed to fortify spiritual strength.
We must remember that everything we do has a consequence, so we must analyze the capacity we have for solidarity and unity, the beautiful thoughts from the peoples to the whole continent, take away all that’s bad (words, offenses, bad acts, among others), patch and heal it from the inside, raise our heads and look beyond. The world wants to embolish and confuse the indigenous people. We call on them to truly sit down and not be afraid. Everything will be fine.
We invite you to have indigenous mastery, to be more conscious that ancestral wisdom is something very serious and important for the peoples and communities. Let’s promote harmony and balance based on the world view of the four elements, the four seasons. All that is distorted — the disorder we have with sex, with fertility, with food — all must be leveled to again listen to the birds singing, to the wind, to the rain, to return to the origin.
Colombia’s indigenous communities are preparing practically, socially and mentally for the times ahead, and have decided to erase the name of humanity’s latest pandemic from their vocabulary.
Notwithstanding, the ONIC is closely monitoring the spread of the virus in case further action is needed to protect or assist the country’s indigenous people and nations.