Thank you so much Caro, I have planned this for March 15!!<br><br>Michel<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 3:40 AM, carolina botero <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:carobotero@gmail.com">carobotero@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">Sorry for the delay, I hope english is good enough<br><br>carolina<br><br><br><br>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">Steps towards
a new legal framework for indigenous communities</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">Carolina Botero</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">Karisma Foundation</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">@carobotero</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">�</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">�</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">In 2010</span><span lang="EN-US">�<span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">UNESCO recognized Colombia�s Amazon </span><span>traditional indigenous</span><span> knowledge as
"intangible cultural heritage� (<a href="http://www.gaiafoundation.org/content/highlights-2010-and-path-ahead" target="_blank">http://www.gaiafoundation.org/content/highlights-2010-and-path-ahead</a>). </span><span>Without a doubt</span><span> </span><span>the latter represents an invaluable move towards
the community�s establishment of their own legal framework; empowering them with
new tools to fight pounding threats (such as mining projects, a fashionable
trend in Colombia). Most importantly it contributes to the building of the traditional
indigenous community�s history that we will read about in a few years time. However,
one must acknowledge that indigenous community�s legal framework is a
historical process �that needs time and space to fully develop. </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">�</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US"><i>"History belongs to those
who write it"</i> </span><span>a true statement which exemplifies society�s where
the written form prevails over oral traditions</span><span> </span><span>and that is suffered�</span><span lang="EN-US">by indigenous peoples inhabiting countries like Colombia�<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span>regarding their own history</span><span>.</span></span>�However, when listening to indigenous people, it can
be seen that these communities have built and "write" their own history
through their oral tradition, one to which the new context (legal, social,
technological, etc.) allows us to glimpse today.�</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">�</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">The change towards indigenos is
also evident in Colombia�s constitutional reforms. In the new 1991 Constitutional
Chart the nation</span><span> is defined as multiethnic and multicultural, </span><span>in contrast to the policy contained in the 1886 Charter </span><span>that embodied the idea of a Colombian nation under a Unitarian Hispanic
rule: </span><span>predominantly</span><span> </span><span>white</span><span>, Spanish </span>speaking<span> and</span><span lang="EN-US">�Catholic.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">�</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">Indigenous communities cultural
production has been ignored and devaluated. This community production has been
considered as public domain,</span><span> </span><span>in fact, Colombia's Lew 23/1982 states that indigenous art is in the public
domain.</span> <span lang="EN-US">Labeling
indigenous communities production as �public� <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">carries
with it the social negative connotation of �public" as worthless, as well
as, not deserving protection. Parallel to this situation and with the
complicity of a legal framework that has until recently ignored them, over the
past century the community�s exploitation extends beyond their lands to their
biological and genetic resources, art, culture, etc.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">�</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">However, developments in the
twentieth century have shed a light on the injustices that these communities
have had to endure. </span><span>Thus constitutional reforms
are beginning to recognize and accommodate other views; international emerging
concepts like "cultural heritage" seek to give substance and value to
these items beyond the idea of public domain </span><span>with the intention to
develop them on a local level</span><span>;</span><span lang="EN-US">�and, of course local
characters have emerged from these communities and began to place their own
history over the carpet.�</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">�</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;" lang="EN-US">I personally believe that
concepts such as "cultural heritage" are falling short: they are
built on individual logics; they are usually associated with the State (not the
community) and in general they conflict with local legal structures that may
not allow</span><span lang="EN-US">�<span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">them to</span></span>�<span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">develop beyond a well-deserved recognition. The historical process is a slow but sure process that will change the legal framework for good.</span></span></span></p>
<br><font color="#888888"><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><a href="http://www.karisma.org.co/carobotero" target="_blank">http://www.karisma.org.co/carobotero</a><br><a href="http://twitter.com/carobotero" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/carobotero</a><br>
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