ONLINE CURRENTS VOL3 - Flipbook - Page 35
The poet came to say that there did not exist
a victim or a perpetrator
called the meeting in the town's soccer field
that had once served as a butchery
but only the tiger and the tree came
with their memories
sliced by machete
Damage to territory is also perpetrated on its inhabitants.
1
In Uitoto thinking, territory "is not only physical space, ‘natural resources’ or ‘nature’” (Western
cultural constructs based on the perceived oppositions between society/nature and
civilized/wildness) but is also “the body of the shaman, the body of the woman, the dainueño
2
force, the mother-earth-life-giver".
For the ethnic people and communities who depart from this profound and broad meaning
of the concept, territory becomes a victim. In the Colombian Truth Commission’s decree
concerning victims belonging to indigenous groups, it was explicitly stated that “taking into
account their worldview and the special and collective bond that unites them with mother
earth, the territory is a victim," and moreover, that comprehensive reparations must be made,
“for damages associated with environmental degradation and misuse of natural resources,
in order to protect their right to exist as peoples.” In the decree concerning victims belonging
to black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal and Palanquero communities, the restoration of the natural
environment was considered fundamental "to guarantee the safeguarding of the
indissoluble relationship between territory, nature and cultural identity."
Recognizing the territory as a victim is important because it mandates the generation of
reparations and justice, compelling urgent actions to be taken that really protect the territory
and stop its devastation. The Truth Commission "recognises the diversity of socioecosystems; that is, the networks of relationships between human beings, other living
organisms and physical structures that make up ecosystems. This perspective is consistent
with the current social and legal recognition that ecosystems such as rivers, mountains or
territories are also subjects with rights, and that, to that extent, they should also be
considered victims of the internal armed conflict. In fact, the JEP 3 , within its competencies,
has recognized the Katsa Su territories of the Awá people, the large Nasa territory of the
35
