CONTEXT: March 4, 2009 marks a decade after the murder in Colombia of Terence Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok and Lahe’ena’e Gay, who were all passionate advocates of indigenous rights around the world. The three activists were kidnapped by armed men during a visit to the territory of Colombia’s U’wa indigenous people.
The U’wa struggle to protect their ancestral territory from oil exploration continues to this day.
The U’wa and Amazon Watch continue to honor Ingrid, Lahe’ena’e and Terence and members from the U’wa community who have lost their lives in service of justice for the U’wa people. The U’wa continue to need our support as they face down ongoing threats to their territory, culture, and survival.
STATEMENT #1: FROM THE U’WA TRIBAL COUNCIL
Homage to Terry Freitas, our tireless friend who walked mountains and plains, and to our dear friends Ingrid Washinawatok and Lahe’ena’e Gay, who are still present with the U’wa people.
On this anniversary we acknowledge the lives, their memory and spirit sacrificed in honor of our culture and our lives as U’wa people and sacrificed in honor of our territory, Mother Earth, sacred and untouchable.
After ten years – the Indigenous communities, authorities, leaders, and members from the regions of Santander, Boyacá, and Northern Santander – would like to express our grief and join with the different voices, recognizing the extra-ordinary situation that led us to begin and encourage resistance against those who came here to seize control of our territory and our Mother Earth. We remember all the places they visited, the workshops they gave us, their words, the events we participated in, their faces. . . They helped us understand our rights under the law and we gave them our full trust for contributing to national and international political support for our struggle, which was also their struggle.
We are proud they were in our land, where they confided in us and dedicated themselves to defending our culture anytime, anywhere, and to show the world a people’s history and resistance unlike anything before.
We know that the war and the armed conflict that surrounds us is ultimately at fault, not us, the U’wa. We ask for forgiveness still, and join in the pain being felt on this anniversary. For us, they are not dead – their life work and their memory live on. We thank them for their dedication and time offered for our culture, for our spiritual leaders, and for the balance of Planet Earth and Mother Nature.
We remember their path, their words, their joy, their passion, their dance, their wails, their songs, and their humor. U’wa children and elders remember them at every sunset. We will always carry with us the joy that we felt as we saw their enthusiasm, their songs and the way they expressed themselves to all of creation.
Everything they said in English made us laugh. Their shadows still walk with us, accompanying us along the path of resistance. As U’wa People, we maintain the same way of thinking and our feelings have the same power and courage. What separates us now from you, from their families, is the physical distance, but our hearts and spirits are with you. Through this whole tragedy we appreciate you, their families and want to tell you that their memory is written here with the blood of our Mother Earth. There are 30 pages here that recount the history of centuries, of life always. There are many more pages left un-written on paper, but marked forever in our memory and in the memory of Mother Earth always.
Sincerely,
The U’wa People
4 March 2009
OFFICES OF THE U’WA TRIBAL COUNCIL (CABILDO MAYOR U’WA)
STATEMENT #2: FROM THE U’WA WOMEN’S GROUP
FROM OUR SACRED LANDS: A MESSAGE FROM THE U’WA WOMEN ACCOMPANYING OUR RIOWA RELATIVES
February 2009
Exactly ten years have passed since the horrific kidnapping, disappearance and murder of our relatives, our companions and friends, Terry Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok (O’Peqtaw-Metamoh) and Lahe’ena’e Gay. With hands covering our faces and with sadness, we also celebrate the lives of these three who were so special for us, and remember the reasons they gave us so much – including the most valuable thing they had: their lives.
Our collective memory can remember every wonderful moment of every beautiful day that our three friends were able to spend with us during their trip to the U’wa sacred lands that we call “Kera-Chikará”. The first day they arrived they were welcomed by Berito Cobaria and Roberto Pérez who was at that time the President of the Cabildo (U’wa Tribal Council). They then drove to Chuscal in the Cubará municipality in Boyacá state. They stayed with an U’wa family, where, with their characteristic broad and warm smiles they presented shell necklaces, beads and other sacred gifts, touching the deepest part of our hearts as U’wa People.
The days passed, we analyzed issues while walking along covered jungle paths, through green branches, rocks and dry leaves. We visited a place called “Sikurkesa” which is almost at the epicenter of our ancestral lands where our most powerful medicine people and the spiritual leaders who guide our people reside: the “Werjaya” chiefs. During their meeting with these leaders, we discussed the following:
1. Land, legal unification of our territory, allowing
us to put a stop to any exploration and
exploitation of oil in our sacred motherland.
2. Health, to prevent our entire people from
disappearing.
3. Education, to enable us to defend our lives and
territory in the Western World and well as U’wa
education, conserving the U’wa language and the
teachings that accompany it.
4. Support, for our organizing around our cause as
U’was.
With this in mind, we moved forward in a good way. Our Medicine People admired the presence of these three important people in our land as they saw their willingness to take on responsibilities.
The huge void the three left, which to this day we carry with heavy hearts, is hard to rise above. A decade later, we still feel powerless over what happened. The U’wa still carry this burden on our shoulders, a burden which was caused by the civil war in Colombia. It is precisely because of this war that we are able to understand and sympathize even more with the suffering experienced by each of the families of our friends – the cultural, social, emotional and emotional parts that make up the very core of a family. We feel alone and orphaned when we think of the loss of all we had.
What we had with our three friends was a new survival-plan, one with socio-cultural, territorial, environmental, economic and political components, all in defense of the principles that characterize our people in this fight. Today, our just and noble fight is in serious crisis. With the loss of these three lives we were robbed of the opportunity and the right to say what we think, to make our dreams a reality, to defend what is ours, to build a different world, to be free. Our people are today condemned to live under the dominance and financial interests of the Government, augmented by the different armed actors who are responsible for the current war and all the other problems in Colombian society.
Today, more than ever, we want to express our words of encouragement, during the difficult time that we are facing, knowing that our father God Sira has permitted it to be so. We still hope to be able to share [with the US families] certain sacred spaces and teachings that our ancestors have passed on to us. We also want to reiterate that their spirits still live in our sacred lands and live in the hearts of each and every one of us.
May Sira God accompany you and illuminate your path.
From our sacred lands,
The U’wa Women’s Group
MUJER UWA “We women are the defenders of our culture”
