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Legal Rights and Spiritual Responsibilities: Indigenous Land Struggles in Costa Rica

Indigenous Peoples fight for their land rights to uphold their inherent responsibilities to the earth. WORDS Felipe Montoya, Gilbert González, Ana María Martínez, Julie Hard, and Mathieu Poirier | IMAGES Felipe Montoya . “Many people call her Mother Earth, but for us Bribri, she is the Girl Iriria. When Sibö made the Creation, he made

Gone with the Tide

Rising sea levels threaten a local community’s biocultural heritage and the residents’ right to an ecologically responsible way of life. WORDS AND IMAGES Thor Morales   . Coconut palm trees stand tall, their roots kissed by the sea in its incessant going back and forth. Soon these tropical palms will be wiped out by the

Weaving Reverence, Respect, and Resilience into the Amazon Forest

Indigenous Heritage

Indigenous artisans rekindle reverence for a plant that has been traditionally used for centuries. WORDS Clare Dowd, Isabel Carrió, and Leah Struzenski | IMAGES Tulio Dávila     Armed with long black spines, the chambira plant, a canopy palm that grows throughout the Amazon rainforest, is integral to the economy of the Bora, an Indigenous

Deep Questions to Ask Planet Ocean

eelgrass

The search for a sea grain known for centuries to an Indigenous people provokes deep questions and insights. WORDS Gary Paul Nabhan | IMAGES Juan Martín   We come back to the sea, humbly, not with answers but with deep questions. Our eight-meter-long boat sets out into the emerald waters of the Sea of Cortés

The Wild Symphony: Making Music with the Ancient Voices of the Amazon

The Wild Symphony

In the Colombian Amazon, musicians listen to the forest and create music that resonates with it. WORDS, IMAGES, AND VIDEO    Diego Samper     Calanoa is a place of encounters. Encounters with the other and with the Wild. It is a laboratory of applied creativity, a lab of alternative educational processes, a lab where art is understood as

Mangroves, Education, and Recovery of the Territory: Biocultural Diversity in Bahía Solano, Colombia

mangroves

WORDS Felipe Rodríguez Moreno and Norma Constanza Castaño Cuéllar IMAGES Felipe Rodríguez Moreno Bahía Solano is a municipality located in the Chocó District on the Pacific coast of Colombia, which over the past decades has undergone profound social and cultural transformations. A decree by the Colombian government created Bahía Solano as an agricultural colony in

The Sweeping Dance: Cultural Revival, Environmental Conservation, and the Art of Broom Making in St. Lucia

brooms

WORDS Laurent Jean Pierre IMAGES Nadge Augustin and Laurent Jean Pierre “What is it that one has in one’s dwelling place, that until you dance with it, it does not work for you?” “The broom.” —Traditional St. Lucian Tim Tim riddle Latanyé brooms (brooms made from the indigenous palm Coccothrinax barbadensis, locally known as Latanyé)

Pintando La Raya: Indigenous Resistance and Biocultural Conservation through Participatory Video

biocultural diversity

WORDS AND IMAGES Thor Morales At the onset of this decade, members of three ethnic groups gathered in the state of Sonora, northwestern Mexico. Seri (Comcaac), Rarámuri, and Yaqui participants went to the Yaqui village of Vicam to get their first exposure to participatory video (PV), with training provided by the U.K.-based organization InsightShare. Three

Drawing the Line at the Black Line: The Indigenous Sages and Stewards of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia

Community meeting

Guillermo Rodríguez Navarro “Imagine a pyramid standing alone by the sea, each side a hundred miles long. It’s a mountain nearly four miles high. In its folds imagine every different climate on earth. This is the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and the people hidden here call the Sierra the Heart of the World and

Pura Vida: Costa Rican Peasants Fight for a World That Contains Many Worlds

harlequin toad

Felipe Montoya-Greenheck Southern Costa Rica is one of the country’s most biodiverse regions, with ecosystems ranging from the highest tropical alpine peaks and glacial lakes in the Talamanca mountain range, to the lowland rainforests and Pacific mangroves, with an endless network of streams and rivers forming the Great Terraba River watershed. The region is home