Cineminga

THE MISSION

2010-01-26T08:58:00.000-08:00

Coca is a small town by the Napo river, in the Ecuadorian Amazonia, nine hours by bus from Quito. We spent two days there last week working with Ome Gompote Kiwigimoni Waorani. Pentibo Baihua (above, right) founded this organization to defend his people's territory from oil extractors, loggers, and other predators.

We had been introduced to Mr. Baihua by Judith Kimmerlin, a New York-based environmental rights attorney who has worked with the Waorani for over ten years.

When we got to Quito she was there accompanying a delegation. They were meeting government officials and doing press, inserting the voice of Waorani communities into the national debate over the managment of the Yasuní reserve, which is their home.

They are facing a hard legal battle.

Historically, outsider media has painted the Waorani as a violent and ignorant people.

Pejoratively referred to as Aucas ("enemy" in Kichua), they became the object of christian missionary zeal in the 1950's, with tragic results for four young protestant zealots.

The episode, which LIFE magazine covered in two issues, "propelled the evangelical missionary movement" in the US, according to their website.

For the Waorani, the encounter meant something different. It meant the start of the erosion of their culture and autonomy.

Naomi met Pentibo at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in April 2009. He inmediately wanted to start working with us.

It took us nine months to get to Coca. Mr. Baihua and his son Gawe live in Bameno, which is two days away into the jungle.

It should take us a few more months to get there, and do a longer workshop.

In the meantime, they have some new tools in their hands, lots of ideas, and a first exercise to shoot.

ROOTS

2010-01-24T04:44:00.000-08:00

We're almost finished shooting a 25 min piece about Manuel Quintin Lame (1880-1967). Working title is "Roots of Knowledge."

These pictures are from a reenactment we shot on January 20th.

It was fun. The footage came out fine and the cops didn't mind playing the bad guys.

FOUND IN THE TRANSLATION

2009-09-11T13:43:00.000-07:00

In October of 2008, Naomi visited Hokkaido for the first time to learn about the Ainu, the indigenous people of northern Japan. Less than a year later, the following August, I went with her. It was her third trip there, and my first to Japan.

Aside from Hokaido, an island where the language, agricultural practices, and ritual knowledge have survived, the Ainu inhabited areas that are now considered part of Russia. Ezo, the old Japanese name for Hokkaido, was invaded by the shogunate at the end of the Edo period, about two hundred years ago.

Forced assimilation policies nearly destroyed the culture in the hundred years that followed.

Like Nasa, the word Ainu means "person," or "human being."

But before heading to Hokkaido we spent a few days in Tokyo.

Peach and his wife Pe were our hosts there. Peach, as he likes to be called, is Naomi's friend. He is a filmmaker currently working on a narrative feature based on the real-life stories of the members of Ainu Rebels, a music and performance group based in Tokyo. Sato-san, his given name, is also an excellent cook; he has a fine taste in music, and is a bamboo expert.

On August 7th we met with Go-san and Aonishi-san, agronomists who work with indigenous peoples in Latin America. They are part of a non-profit organization called Agua y Tierra- Centro de Acción para el Desarrollo y el Derecho (Water and Land- Action Center for Rights and Development)

They had found out about our work through the internet, and offered to set up a screening in Tokyo. They speak spanish and were perfect gentlemen, it was a pleasure to meet them.

The following morning we visited the daunting offices of Kyodo News, Japan's prime news supplier, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

After seeing some of the exhibits, we had a nice macrobiotic lunch with Tasaka Hiroko-san, who works at the Museum and curates its yearly Yebisu International Festival for Art and Alternative Visions.

more to come...

INDEPENDENCE DAY

2009-08-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

July 20th is a Colombian national holiday that commemorates the "cry for independence." This year, as Colombia rolls drums for its bicentennial celebration, the indigenous peoples of Cauca turned the occasion into a gathering, a Minga, aimed at clearing military forces from sacred territories.

The site selected for this Minga was Tafxnú, where the Colombian army set up camp in February 2008. While a ritual was being held here, similar actions were taken by indigenous communities against FARC positions in the region.

Tafxnú (loosely translated from Nasa Yuwe, as House of the Sun) is where the Nasa traditionally held their most significant yearly ritual, the summer solstice celebration I described in a previous post. It is a high plateau with a privileged view. Tafxnú also happens to be where Cineminga began its work in Colombia, and where we started a modest community media center.

Cineminga's mission is to strengthen traditional cultures, our primary goal right now is to produce audio-visual materials that can be used in indigenous education programs. But it is impossible to do this work in Colombia without facing the brutality of the current armed conflict.

My short experience in Cauca gives a sense of how acute and the situation is.

Having been detained, tied up, and held at gunpoint by guerrilla fighters in my first week working in Tierradentro, in October of 2007, I had to drop everything and run one early morning four months later, as an army plane started bombing the area. Appeals from community leaders for the parties to engage in combat away from the village went unheard. A young man from the village died in crossed fire only days after I left.

In March of this year, I witnessed first hand how the entire community in Tafxnú was forced to leave its ancestral home. Troops had set up camp next to the spring from which the community drew its drinking water, and fecal matter started turning up in tested samples. Kids had started getting sick. Again, complaints were ignored and relief was never offered. Over 300 people had to dismantle their homes, and move elsewhere. These families are now being charged rent for the land where they have been living since, in a different reservation. They have unceremoniously joined Colombia's 3 to 5 million internally displaced.

The United Nations adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, which reads (in article 30, numeral 2), "States shall undertake effective consultations with the indigenous peoples concerned, through appropriate procedures and in particular through their representative institutions, prior to using their lands or territories for military activities."

The Colombian government abstained from voting to ratify this Declaration, and defends its right to send the army anywhere in the country in order to fight terrorism, with or without the consent of indigenous institutions. No one in Colombia ignores the difficult challenges faced by the administration, but indigenous peoples are paying a disproportionately high price in a conflict that cannot be solved by force alone.

A recent report by ONIC (National Indigenous Organization of Colombia) includes these figures:

Between January 1st, 1998 and June 30th, 2009, 19,490 (nineteen-thousand, four-hundred and ninety) indigenous individuals have been killed. The deaths are attributed to the different forces as follows:

Guerrillas: 7,976
Paramilitary groups: 5,392
Armed Forces (State): 5,272
Others: 850

It is in this context that Cauca saw the birth of the Indigenous Guard, unarmed young men and women charged with the mission of assisting their leaders in protecting their communities, and "liberating Mother Earth." The Guard plays an important role in rituals like this one, that seek to kick the "military spirit" out of indigenous lands.

Over a thousand people came together for this Minga.

Some walked for two days to reach Tafxnú.

Taking a break, and moving on...

Upon arrival, at the threshold, each person's head was "refreshed" using medicinal plants.

The army had retreated to a higher spot, and stayed away for the length of the Minga.

Tunnels and trenches like this one were found and dismantled.

A uniform left behind was used to make this dummy, which was later buried during the ritual covering of the trenches.

Materials used to build the trenches were burned to clean the area.

The Guard, getting the job done.

There was a time for eating.

A time for music and celebration.

A time for drinking chicha...

Even a time for watching movies. We screened two Cineminga productions, and got very positive feedback.

And after an all night ritual, we welcomed the new sun joyfully.

The Cineminga team that covered this event consisted of Rossana, Inocencio, Geodiel and me. Additional photos were taken by Viyi Finscué.

Cineminga was the only media organization present in Tafxnú. Two of the three video cameras we used, and one of two still cameras, were donated by Cineminga supporters. The footage is being edited on a donated ibook that is moving between Tafxnú, Popayán and Bogotá. We need two more Macs for this team, they don't have to be fancy, just able to run Final Cut Pro. Join the Minga, don't be shy. If you value the work we are doing and wish to make a donation, please write to info@cineminga.org

BIG APPLE

2009-07-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure last week of delivering a computer we received as a donation from Jim Leff, of New York, to Huber Castro, of Tierradentro. Huber started collaborating with us in February, working on a story about a dream (watch trailer here). He needed a laptop to word process with, and with this gift he got it. Thanks Jim.

Now he'll be able to write at home and seize sudden inspiration, he told me, instead of having to walk two hours to a school that lets him use a computer sometimes. Huber is a linguist and an expert in traditional Nasa culture. He recently helped author a bilingual volume about Nasa mathematics published by the prestigious Instituto Caro y Cuervo. He is exploring new media with Cineminga looking for ways to energize the language, and we have a few projects in mind. We're starting by translating cineminga.org into Nasa Yuwe. Coming soon... in Tierradentro time ; )

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009-07-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

After a short vacation with Moises, my long haired heir, I'm back in Cauca where I'll spend most of July. This time I came to Popayán by plane. Moi returned to Brooklyn. The time we spent together went by flying.

But why the title for this post? Andean cultures, including the Nasa, traditionally celebrate the New Year at the end of June, on the longest day of the year. The summer solstice celebration has been known as San Pedro for a long time here in the Cauca region, and we were invited to take part in the event and document efforts being made by members of one particular community to give back the celebration its original form and meaning.

Some, like Julian Condori (left) who is from Machu Pichu but is working here and participated in a video workshop we did in February, believe the Inca federation used to include what is now the Muse Ukwe reservation, where we gathered over the weekend.

There are indeed Quechua words in the Nasa language, like minga, but I am told the linguistic structures of the two are completely different. It really isn't clear what the relationship was between these peoples. Like much about pre-columbian history, who the Incas were and how far their influence reached remain unanswered questions, even to their direct descendants. The current Inca derived New Year celebration is called Inti Raimi (Sun Celebration, in Quechua), and recently Andean countries like Colombia and Peru have witnessed a strong re-emergence of this tradition. The forms of the Inti Raimi have become popular among the young in Cauca, although many locals percieve it as a foreign influence. What we had here this year was a combination of many traditions.

Synchretism at any rate is a tradition of its own in Latin America. This image of San Isidro (patron saint of agriculture) in Nasa garb presided over the celebration in Muse Ukwe. The potatoes at his feet closely resembled people.

Following a ritual outdoors, food started being served at midday on Saturday. The music makers warmed up as the guests began arriving. The containers at the musicians feet in the picture below are full of chicha, the beverage of choice across the Andes.

And so the hours passed, day turning into night...

There was much dancing involved.

While the more traditionally inclined stayed in this area, many youths respectfully went to another spot to engage in the highly energetic "pan-Andean" style currently in vogue.

The little ones also got to stay up late and play.

The Nasa consider themselves "sons of thunder," as the Yanakona (another Indigenous group in Cauca) for instance, are "sons of water." So when lightning appears in the sky during a significant event, it is seen as a sign that the spirits of their ancestors are glad and are accompanying them. All through this night thunder roared in the distance.

A large group, many of them "non-Indigenous" guests from the area, danced to loud tropical beats less than a hundred yards away, much to the musicians' annoyance. But the community is proud to have its neighbors over every year to share in the merry-making. Over five-hundred by my count were offered food and drink in the two days we were there.

In olden times, according to colonial chronicles, this event lasted nine days. This year it lasted three.

As the night slowly reverted into day, the celebration continued. People simply took breaks at their convenience.

While electricity was lost at times, the live music flowed on uninterrupted. Inocencio couldn't film this time, so all the picture taking fell to me. He was busy leading Kwesh Kiwe (Our Land, in Nasa), the traditional music ensemble he founded over twenty years ago. The core group, which on this occation included his son Wepe on flutes, played for almost 48 hours straight.

The young man on the left (below) was responsible for organizing and covering the costs of this year's party in Muse Ukwe. A different individual or family is in charge each time, and taking on the role of fiestero is a very serious matter. The preparations for next year began during the celebration itself when, after long deliberation and cajoling, the "cage" (the colorful object hanging towards the top) was passed on to the new fiestera. She has a year to get it ready.

It could take decades for people in Muse Ukwe to fully reclaim the meaning behind this celebration and revive the rituals associated with it, a young man involved in trying to make this happen told me. "Five-hundred years of Christian imposition won't vanish overnight." But this year's event was a step in that direction. The video we are working on reflects this process and explores deeper layers of the tradition. It is to be used as an educational tool in Nasa communities like Muse Ukwe.

WHITE CITY

2009-06-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Popayan, the capital of Cauca province has this nickname, and its downtown is indeed freshly painted in bridal tones each year for Easter, when people from all over the country come to celebrate the Christian holiday. Ironically perhaps, in spite of the strong prejudice that still exists towards “indians,” and the historic prosecution of Indigenous leaders by illustrious “white” families that have held power in the region since colonial times, Popayan is a key urban center for the modern Indigenous movement in Colombia.

I have spent the last few days here working with with Inocencio Ramos. His son Nasnasa A’ has been keeping us company while we edit.

Inocencio is one of the first people I met when I came here close to two years ago and approached the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC), which is the oldest and arguably strongest Indigenous organization in the country. He began working with CRIC as a teacher when the organization was starting in the late 1970’s, pioneering educational programs developed for and by Indigenous peoples. When I met him in 2007 he was acting as coordinator of the Council’s education program, which by now runs around 500 schools and serves over 17,000 students.

When we met I found out he had taken video workshops and made documentaries years ago. Inocencio is not that innocent, as he likes to joke. He knows how powerful video can be for keeping a culture and a people alive, in his case the Nasa people. So when I told him about Cineminga, and our goals, he was excited to get back into filmmaking and we began collaborating right away.

The video we are editing now is about Rober de Jesus Guachetá, a Nasa leader murdered May 18th in the Honduras reservation, in the western part of Cauca. Rober, like Inocencio, was someone who believed in education. In 2000 he had a vision of building a community based social education center. That school now has 23 young students and teaches subjects like Family and Nasa World-View, Human Rights, and Development Models. He gathered a Council of Elders to guide the school, and to watch over a younger generation of political leaders exposed to the corrupting influence of drug cartels and paramilitary death squads surrounding the reservation. He was forty-one years old. He left three children.

On Monday we screened a 20 minute rough cut at the Intercultural Knowledge School (Escuela Intercultural de Saberes) that Rober helped found. It was a sobering experience for me, and a very emotional one for everyone there.

The remaining leaders involved in this project are in a very vulnerable situation, particularly Rober’s brother Antonino who was threatened before him and had not been back in the reservation since his brother’s death. It was the first time the school met after their last session was interrupted by news of the murder. The reservation is extremely isolated, as a dam project built in 1983 flooded part of it and barred access by car. People live hours by foot deep into the mountains after a boat ride crossing the dam, and some of the characters we encountered on the way were evidently militia trained men in civilian garb carrying the processed product of large coca plantations. People spoke of bodies turning up in the dam recently, product of gang wars. The nearest police station is about an hour away from the other shore, and there was a group of soldiers protecting the station when we drove through the town of Morales.

And yet Antonino and the others are determined to keep working in their territory and have accepted whatever fate may come their way.

SOUTHWEST BY BUS

2009-06-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I came to Cali, about a ten hour drive down from Bogota. Cali is the largest city in the country's south. The culture and economy of the Cauca valley, where the city is located, has been shaped in many ways by sugar cane plantations and the people who were brought here as slaves in colonial times. The city is most well known for its salsa orchestras and fancy dancing. But below the surface rests an ignored, dormant story. Along the way, nearing Cali, I passed the most important archeological find in Colombia in the last fifty years.

Notorious for the looting that took place there, the site known as Malagana was discovered by accident in a plantation in 1992, five hundred years after that other "discovery." Some of the objects found there date back over two thousand years, and their appearance shattered assumptions about the area's history. Specialists are still trying to understand the significance of this place, who were the people that lived there, and why they disappeared. The grounds today are covered up by sugar cane again, but local activists want a museum built instead. Scientists want to keep digging. Less than a month ago the construction of two roads in the area was halted when more remains turned up. I was told the Attorney General's Office is scheduled to visit the site tomorrow....

FROM BOGOTA WITH LOVE

2009-05-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

After working in Colombia over the last year and a half I feel I am only now starting to get a sense of how incredibly diverse and rich Indigenous cultures are in this country.

Daniel Meastre, who is Kankuamo as well as a committed and perceptive videomaker, told me yesterday that the government recognizes ninety-four different Indigenous peoples, and eight more are seeking recognition. So according to Indigenous organizations the number is one-hundred and two. About 1.3 million people.

I grew up in Bogota, where I lived until I was seventeen, thinking the "indians" had all but vanished in Colombia. Actually sixty-four native languages are still spoken here, and Indigenous peoples are making their voices heard now more than ever in the country's history.

But Daniel also gave me some alarming figures. Thirty groups are now considered to be in danger of disappearing. Eighteen of them have populations of less than five-hundred, they live in areas of intense conflict, and are being killed and pushed out of their land.

An emblematic case is that of the Nukak Maku, who 30 years ago numbered 1,800 and are now down to 400, of which 40% have been displaced.

Rosana Fuentes, Daniel's friend, is also a Kankuama videomaker. She is now finishing a project about how violence and displacement have affected her community. Self-representation through video and other media is important to young leaders like Daniel and Rosana, who are dedicated to producing relevant works and helping other communities learn how to use these tools.

Cineminga's mission is to further the efforts of those who, like them, are in the best position to tell their stories. Part of the reason we've started this blog is to reach out to the filmmaking community.

While Rosana still lives in the Sierra Nevada and is active in a community media project, Daniel was forced to move to Bogota. The Kankuamo people have been hit the hardest by drug war violence over the last decade, and many local leaders have been threatened and murdered.

Daniel has a small camera, but he needs a Mac to edit (Rosana is already working with FCP). If you have any equipment you can donate, let us know. They'll put it to good use.

Over the last six months Cineminga has collected two laptops, four camcorders, and five still cameras from individual donors. Thank you donors! The equipment has been used for workshops here in Colombia, and is now in the hands of our friends in the Nasa community.

Indigenous territories in Colombia in yellow.

2009-04-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome dear Cineminga readers. In this blog I'll write about people we meet and the projects we are working on.

Thanks for reading, and visit our website if you haven't yet.