Luis Aureliano Yonda Yuluçx
Resguardo nasasa de Caldono, Cauca, Colombia
yulucx45@gmail.com
Josef Drexler
Universidad de Munich, Alemania
josef.drexler@gmx.de
Jairo Tocancipá-Falla
Universidad del Cauca, Colombia
jtocancipa@unicauca.edu.co
Abstract:
In the last few years “La Liberación de la Madre Tierra” – “Freedom for Mother Earth” —a popular expression, coined by several indigenous communities in the department of Cauca, southwestern Colombia— has become a hot topic of debate. Some renderings done by scholars and non-scholars have lacked reflection and depth of analysis on the genealogy of this idea. This paper intends to fill this gap, by entering into an intercultural dialogue between Thê’ Wala o Kiwe thê’ —an ancestral wise man— from Nasa people in Caldono (Northeastern village in the department of Cauca, southwestern Colombia), a German anthropologist, and a Colombian anthropologist. This joint reflection proves to be a highly useful methodological tool to unravel the meaning of expressions we often fail to ponder upon in their formulation and development. To propose this dialogue, relying upon those authors’ experience and interactions, allows us to approach the domain/space of the local and the global.
Keywords: freedom for mother earth, intercultural dialogue, Nasa, indigenous people, South America, southwestern Colombia.
