COLOMBIA:
Indians Neither Museum
Exhibits Nor Tourist
Attractions
By Gloria Helena Rey
BOGOTA, (IPS) -
Indigenous people in
Colombia today are
elected to office as
legislators, governors,
mayors and city
councillors. But their
communities continue to
be seen as marginal,
ignorant or mired in the
deepest poverty.
Many are actually
professionals in a wide
range of disciplines and
others are renowned
painters, writers or
poets.
Nevertheless, the
majority live under the
tyranny of not only "the
greatest of evils and
the worst of crimes" --
as Irish writer Bernard
Shaw (1856-1950)
described poverty -- but
also marginalisation,
racism and virtual
invisibility.
According to figures
from the National
Department of
Statistics, there are
currently around 800,000
indigenous people living
in the 32 departments
(provinces) of Colombia,
mainly in the country’s
tropical rainforest
region.
Like the other 43
million inhabitants of
Colombia, the members of
the 84 existing
indigenous communities,
who speak 64 languages
and 300 dialects, are
represented in the
Colombian Congress.
Senators Jesús Piñacué,
of the southern Nasa
people, and Ramiro
Estacio, of the
southwestern Pasto
people, were elected to
office as candidates of
the Indigenous Social
Alliance and Indigenous
People for Colombia,
respectively.
Orsinia Polanco, a Wayúu
indigenous woman and
member of the leftist
Alternative Democratic
Pole, represents
indigenous Colombians in
the Chamber of Deputies.
Indigenous people also
have a prominent
presence in Colombian
arts and literature.
Painter Kindi Llajtu is
from Manoy in the
southern department of
Putumayo and speaks Inga,
a Quechua dialect. She
is a fine arts graduate
of the National
University of Colombia
and has received
numerous national and
international prizes.
Poet Fredy Chicangana,
of the Yanacona people
of southwest Colombia,
won the National
University Poetry Prize
in 1995, in addition to
a number of other
prestigious awards.
"We have excelled in
many sectors of
Colombian life, but we
continue to be treated
as ignorant, marginal or
victims of ‘absolute
poverty’, as we were
defined in Law 89 of
1890, which is still in
force," said Rafael
Epiayú, a member of the
executive committee of
the Colombian National
Indigenous Organisation
(ONIC).
A MERE CRACK
The 1991 constitution
allowed for more active
participation by
indigenous people in
Colombian political
life, but it merely
opened up a crack in the
barriers they face. Many
of the landmark gains
achieved through the new
constitution "have never
amounted to more than
paper," Epiayú told IPS.
With the incorporation
of indigenous
representatives in the
Constituent Assembly
that drafted the 1991
constitution and their
subsequent
constitutional
recognition, indigenous
ethnic groups obtained a
number of historic
victories.
They were able to gain
access to the national
Congress, departmental
assemblies, mayor’s
offices and municipal
councils through public
elections.
They were granted
recognition of the
ownership of their
lands, the establishment
of indigenous
reservations, and the
right to exercise their
traditional forms of
self-government in their
own territories. In
addition, they won
recognition of their
ethnic and cultural
rights and the right to
autonomy and
participation.
Other achievements
included the designation
of indigenous languages
and dialects as official
languages in the
territories where they
are spoken, respect for
the right to bilingual
and intercultural
education, and dual
citizenship for those
who live in border
regions.
Nevertheless, "serious
problems persist in
health and education,
and the state funds
earmarked to maintain
the 567 indigenous
reservations in Colombia
grow smaller every day,"
maintained Epiayú.
"While state funding
amounted to eight
billion pesos annually
(just over four million
dollars) 10 years ago,
today it has been
reduced to one eighth of
that," he said.
Moreover, indigenous
representation in
Congress has had little
impact because "most of
the bills put forward to
benefit indigenous
communities have not
been passed," he added.
In Epiayú’s opinion, the
government has
progressively undermined
the victories achieved
in the constitution. "It
has adopted reforms to
the law on land, forests
and the environment that
in most cases have
benefited multinational
corporations that
exploit the country’s
resources," he said.
Meanwhile, the ongoing
armed conflict has
forced indigenous
populations into a
corner and made them
targets for right-wing
paramilitary groups,
left-wing rebel forces
and the army.
"Forced displacement
puts them in danger, not
only as individuals, but
also as communities,"
IPS was told by a source
from the United Nations
Office of the High
Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) who
asked to remain
anonymous.
Culturally, contact with
outsiders "also
challenges the customs
of these communities." A
prime example is that of
the Nukak Makú,
considered one of the
last surviving nomadic
peoples in the world,
who live in the southern
jungles of Guaviare.
The growing colonisation
of their territory by
farmers seeking to cash
in on the coca boom has
had a devastating impact
on their communities,
according to the Human
Genetics Institute at
the Javeriana University
of Bogotá.
UNDER CONSTANT ATTACK
The quality of life of
indigenous people today
does not reflect the
rights they have
achieved on paper. Their
territories continue to
be usurped by settlers,
large landholders and
drug traffickers; the
land they have ownership
over is largely of poor
quality; and basic needs
such as health care,
education, food and
housing are not met,
according to the
multidisciplinary Hemera
Foundation.
The also live under
"constant physical and
cultural attack from the
state, the Catholic
Church and international
religious missions," it
adds.
In Colombia, the most
critical rates of
poverty are found in
black and indigenous
communities, yet there
is no awareness of the
fact that this
constitutes racial
discrimination, says
African-Colombian
community leader Juan de
Dios Mosquera. In his
view, there are two
forms of segregation:
one is concrete and
objective, while the
other is ideological and
subjective.
The first is practiced
by the state and the
ruling classes, who have
kept the country’s black
and indigenous
communities in a state
of physical isolation,
backwardness and
inequality since the
abolition of slavery, he
said.
The second resides in
the attitudes of
Colombians and the
persistence of prejudice
and verbal racism
against African
descendants and
indigenous people, added
Mosquera.
THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES
Colombia’s indigenous
peoples refuse to be
viewed as museum
exhibits or
archaeological,
historical or tourist
attractions.
"We are not descendants
of forgotten legends. We
are alive and our
culture has never
perished despite
centuries of attack,"
Alfonso Fonseca, head of
the Muisca town council
in Cota, located half an
hour north of Bogotá,
told IPS.
For his part, Luis
Evelis Andrade,
president of ONIC, told
IPS: "We are waging a
fierce battle to keep
from being absorbed by
mainstream society and
to keep our territories
from becoming a pie to
be sliced up and shared
around."
ONIC, which recently
celebrated its 25th
anniversary, reaffirmed
its call for an
"inclusive and
multicultural country"
at a meeting of more
than 2,000 delegates in
early December.
Indigenous Colombians
are seeking "multiethnic
and multicultural
coexistence, in
solidarity with the
construction of an
autonomous national
project," according to
an official ONIC
statement.
A number of indigenous
leaders told IPS that
they want to strengthen
self-government based on
their own laws.
"The whites have their
laws, and we need laws
that do not destroy our
cultures, that
strengthen them and
respect our
millennia-old of
history," stressed
Epiayú.
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