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Forced Migration
Colombia is the home for about 90 ethnic groups, which all have their own thoughts, beliefs, and culture. Some of them are vulnerable to armed conflict, which in this case is constituted by guerrillas like the FARC and ELN, also paramilitary groups and criminal groups. They are also fragile to the forced migration these people cause. According to a document presented by the United Nations, since 2009, the murder of indigenous people rose by 71%. The Colombian Constitutional Court states that at least 34 of these groups are being threatened, and the major cause of
vulnerability is the loss they have been through such migrations, causing them to lose their culture, too. For example, the Nukak Maku, and Guayaberos, which are both indigenous groups from the Guaviare, and the Hitnu, from Arauca, have been constant victims of forced migration and murder, which affects their traditional and ancestral modes of existence. It also affects education systems of the indigenous people, so you can find a high number of indigenous people who do not know how to write or read, or even to talk their own language. They also start having problems with their health systems. According to the Constitutional Court, at least 34 of these indigenous groups are at risk of extinction. Armed groups do these forced migration activities for various reasons, one of them might be because they found crops like coca or in their territories, which they could use to produce drugs or export them. Coca is a really important crop for some indigenous groups, because of its nutrients, and because it provides a lot of energy. Indigenous people use when they go hunting for long periods, of time, or even to make their traditional celebrations. The tobacco is also frequently used to get this energy, and also it is consumed because it is stimulating. In places like the Amazon forest, in Colombia, the Chamanes use specific crops to communicate with nature and to ask for permission to hunt. When indigenous lose their territory, this crops are also left behind, with all their ancestral knowledge. Ethnic groups being forced to migrate, makes them lose a part of their culture, and thus causing their knowledge and traditions to disappear, taking away a part of their culture, and ours too. We lose a part of what we are, a part of our ancestral knowledge, and our roots.
Sophia de la Rosa Gonzalez
Autor: Sophia de la Rosa
Técnica: Lápices de Colores
Alto: 21 cm - Ancho: 28 cm