U’wa Nation (Colombia) Indigenous Declaration: ancestral territory and sacred site Zizuma (El Cocuy National Park)

Summary

On March 18, 2016, the U’wa people – the 17 Indigenous communities in the northeast Colombian Andes – ratified their position of defense and protection of their ancestral territory and sacred site Mt. Zizuma (called the El Cocuy National Park) and of Mother Earth. Two days after the Statement was released, Bladimir Moreno Torres, President of Asou’wa (an organization representing the 17 U’wa communities), delivered a letter titled “U’wa letter to the white man” to the Colombian Minister of Environment, the Colombian National Parks authority, the Governor of Boyacá, the Director of Corpoboyacá, and the Municipal Mayor of Guican, in which the U’wa Nation reiterates their Statement regarding Mt. Zizuma and El Cocuy National Park. The Statement reads: “As the U’wa Nation and as defenders of our Mother Earth we want to state publicly to the national and international community that:

1. ZIZUMA is sacred territory for the U’wa, a place where divine beings of our nation, and the ancestral and cultural knowledge of our traditional authorities (werjayás) materialize.

2. Mismanagement of Colombia’s National Parks affect the U’wa people physically, culturally and cosmologically. It also affects the natural and spiritual balance of our Mother Earth.

3. The people of the U’wa nation have decided to mobilize in defense of our ancestral territory ZIZUMA. Therefore, from this date onwards tourism will not be allowed in our sacred place.

4. We invite the national and international communities, environmental rights defense organizations to be in solidarity with our struggle to defend the Kera Chikara.

5. We ratify our position of defense and protection of Mother Earth, respect for our sacred sites, life and our survival as an ancestral people. The closure of tourism in the area of ​Cocuy National Park is just one step toward guaranteeing the protection of life, our culture and Mother Earth.”