This story was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.

This story was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.
License: Creative Commons - Attributions/No Derivities[1]
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In the Colombian Amazon, Indigenous people resist threats to their territory
By: []
Date: None

Robin Elkin Díaz Miraña, an Indigenous Macuna, works to preserve the 'purity' of the knowledge of the people who live in the Yaigojé Apaporis reserve in Colombia’s Amazonas and Vaupés regions. Miraña has spent over a decade fighting against the multinational mining companies and illegal dredgers who come to the area in search of gold and other natural resources that he sees as part of his ancestral wealth.

Yaigojé Apaporis, a territory of 1,056,023 hectares, is home to seven Indigenous groups: the Cabillarí, Tanimukas, Letuamas Yahunas, Yuhup, Barazano, Yauna and Macunas. A total of 22 communities live together among the mighty Pirá Paraná, Apaporis, Mirití Paraná, Caquetá and Vaupés river basins.

This territory is a natural complex of waterfalls and streams, "through which all the knowledge of the peoples flows", according to Robin. It is part of a larger region known as Jaguares del Yuruparí, an area of the Amazon jungle that stretches over eight-million hectares of the basin formed by the Vaupés and Caquetá rivers. There, different ethnic groups share the traditional rituals of the Yurupari, the ‘Laguna de Leche’ origin myth, and customs such as planting, cultivation of the chagra, fishing and hunting.

Today, Robin warns that this territory is at risk. As well as the threat of illegal gold mining, he worries that the Colombian government will grant a multinational company permission to mine, as it has done in the past. What’s more, COVID-19 is spreading among the region’s communities.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/colombian-amazon-indigenous-people-resist-threats-to-their-territory/