By Mariluz Ascuntar Urbano (Awá) and Robinson Padilla Rodríguez (Awá), INKUAPIT Collective
Ma kawiraruz pianaizpa sakamnu wat uzk+ntimtan Awa sukin
We’re seeds that germinate in the course of the tropical jungle, in southwest Colombia, within the municipality of Barbacoas, division of Nariño. This space is traditionally identified to the Awá Peoples as cuaiquer (kwaiker). We, Awá, additionally reside all through the territory that now consists of Colombia and Ecuador.
We’re Inkal Awa (mountain individuals) and we nonetheless preserve our language, Awapit, in addition to the customs and traditions of our ancestors. We weave hygras and baskets, studying from our mother and father, who information our stroll. We dance to the sound of the marimba, Mom Nature cares for us and feeds us and in reciprocity, we respect her and care for her.
We’re younger individuals who comply with the trail of our Elders and battle each day to maintain our traditions alive within the midst of the adversities that life throws our approach. In an effort to face these adversities, a undertaking emerged targeted on kids and youth, as a result of we wished to have a voice. We would like you to hearken to us once we share data on the radio.
In 2014, we shaped a communication crew of Indigenous college students, on the amenities of the Awá Bilingual Agro-Environmental Technical Indigenous Academic Establishment (IETABA). The target was to create areas for communication and analysis that enable the exploration of various expertise for the manufacturing of audiovisual and radio media primarily based on Indigenous worldviews and our struggles to say our human rights.
We referred to as it “Inkuapit,” which implies “winds” in Awapit and it has been an area that has allowed us to be taught extra in-depth concerning the actuality of our territory, to get to know and strengthen our customs identified via the tales that our Elders inform us. It’s a approach of stewarding our Awa identities from the views of youthful generations. It’s a area the place curiosity can transcend what’s round us, to free ourselves from the troublesome conditions that afflict our territory each day.
Our imaginative and prescient is to contribute to the frequent effectively being of our communities via informative processes that promote the participation of youth, ladies, males, and Elders. We intention to strengthen our values, cultural id, and worldview. The goals that we set for ourselves are to strengthen the usage of Awapit and our customs and traditions in addition to promote areas to advertise human rights via audiovisual and radio media in our territory.
The institution of our radio station, Radio Escolar Comunitaria Inkua Pit, is aimed toward strengthening our tradition and language and sharing tales from our Indigenous territory over time. We’re accumulating tales concerning the conditions which have contributed to the survival of Awá Peoples over time and concerning the power wanted to face completely different conditions of violence and violation of human rights within the Inkal Awá territory.
We now have at all times shared dialogues with our Elders, leaders, and data keepers, which have allowed us to replicate and find out about governance in our territory. We’re clear that our grandmothers, moms, and sisters, are elementary pillars on this course of and that the position of Awá ladies has been important.
By way of interviews with ladies leaders, we have now realized that girls are those who create life, data, order, care, and schooling. “Moms are the primary academics. Previously, ladies didn’t have entry to areas and participation in organizational life, nevertheless, lately, they’ve managed to interrupt limitations,” as acknowledged by instructor Marleny Canticus, who instructed us concerning the significance of schooling for ladies, in addition to the relevance of getting a phrase, voice, and vote within the completely different assemblies and mingas (gatherings) that happen in our territory.
We now have additionally realized about points related to ladies in our communities, amongst them weaving, because the instructor Carmela Pascal affirms, “The girl is the one who teaches her kids to weave higras, baskets, followers, and likewise they train their kids via these instruments to weave the trail of their lives.”
In the identical approach, the instructing of our language falls because the accountability of moms, since it’s they who’re in command of passing on data within the first years of a kid’s life. We realized that there are beliefs and customs during which ladies actively take part. Girls aren’t solely moms and wives, they’re additionally midwives, leaders, and counselors, amongst many different roles.
Picture: Inkal Awá ladies talking out.
Culturally, Awá Elders are our most valuable oral libraries to grasp the world and to respect all beings. They maintain the data and knowledge which might be communicated within the household and group. For that reason, as broadcasters, our curiosity is to be a medium for this data to transcend present and future generations and talk this to the complete world.
As Indigenous Peoples, we’re an oral tradition due to this fact because of the unfavorable impacts of globalization and technological advances a lot of our conventional data has been misplaced. Nonetheless, we’re absolutely satisfied that collectively because the Awá Peoples, we’ll proceed to outlive and coexist with Mom Earth, with our customs and traditions, and our scholar group radio station can be one of many means to speak our voices in our language and guarantee our cultural survival.
In 2021, Radio Escolar Comunitaria Inkua Pit acquired a grant from Cultural Survival’s Indigenous Community Fund, which supplies alternatives for worldwide Indigenous radio stations to strengthen their infrastructure and broadcast methods and creates coaching alternatives for journalism, broadcasting, audio enhancing, technical expertise, and extra for radio journalists from Indigenous communities all over the world. In 2022, the Indigenous Neighborhood Media Fund supported communities with 23 grants totaling $138,000 to Indigenous group media retailers from 13 nations.
