Our “myth of origin” is far away. Within the linear conception of time in Western culture, this process begins in the 1980s, when the Indigenous movement started to organize around the fight for rights and land. For us, time moves in a circle, like the changing seasons, carrying with it the presence of our ancestors and the new generations in the ongoing act of creation.
And at the beginning of that time, the wise old men of the villages said “nobody respects what they don’t know”. They pointed to the need to protect and value the cultures within the villages and to build closer connections to the country’s non-indigenous population, revealing the beauty and strength of their traditions to win allies, weaving a territory of respectful coexistence.
Since then, cultural projects and actions have transcended village boundaries to “soften the non-indigenous” with beauty, wisdom, knowledge, history and art.
Through the Núcleo de Cultura Indígena, a journey took shape and followed the many paths of tradition, rich in diversity and depth. A search for a connection between the original peoples and a country that was built on their territories but struggled, and still struggles to look at and accept their origins.
Despite the challenging times we live in, with intolerance and disrespect, the indigenous peoples who have withstood wars and policies of extermination over the centuries are our contemporaries. They are the guardians of the “places where the earth rests”, where the diversity of life forms is still preserved and respected as the greatest asset and legacy for generations yet to come.
And here we are, to revere and shine a light on this treasure, helping seeds of knowledge to spread and take root.