The Power of Sharing Stories

When I read stories on World Pulse I read to learn, to know and to remember all that everyone is doing to create the global community that we know is possible. I read especially to know how my sisters are doing, as despite efforts over many years, women’s voices are still sidelined in conventional news, silenced intentionally because we are challenging the current system, challenging it for what it is, patriarchal control, justifying the control of men over women, still being taught generation to generation. I read to celebrate the different message being given to the next generation, getting the message to girls that we are working to change this system, this system built on the suppression of women and the expected free labour by women.  Sharing news with the girls that as women we have been and continue to work for a different world society in which all women and girls are respected. 

I read to gain strength from the progress being made, the many ways women are creating a different world society. A world with no violence. A world in which women are respected leaders. A world in which there is no poverty, no discrimination, no hunger, no ruining this precious planet we live on. I read on World Pulse about all of the work being done by everyone here, glad for the men here too, who understand and are also committed to ending all of this violence toward women and toward people who live outside these soul crushing norms we are expected to obey, who respect the lifting of the leadership of women to rebalance and heal this ongoing disaster we are living through. I love being one of the Encouragers, for Storytellers to know that your work is important and inspiring, that your words have been taken to heart. 

When I read on World Pulse I read to find ways to build our connections, work together and create change. I look to connect with other daring women, knowing that it is the leadership of women that continues to be suppressed precisely because of our priorities, and the work we do to bring change. I celebrate the work being done, the bonds we continually form and grow with each other, the ways we find to collaborate and to send each others’ news forward, strengthening our global network. 

I read to know what you are doing so that I can carry the news to other like hearted people and organizations, so that they can know what we have here, know that they are welcome to be part of our World Pulse community, and that we are all stronger the closer we work together.

I also read to bring information posted here to other like-hearted groups so that we can strengthen our connections and move forward together. Treesisters is an organization of women determined to protect our Earth. Recently they filmed a video with the ASOMI women in Colombia speaking out to to us all, everywhere. ASOMI exists in a number of countries. This video is in Spanish and English, both audio and text. When I learned that the video would be available for just one week, I decided to transcribe it and send it to all of you here. This way the words of these Grandmothers are safely kept here within World Pulse. I will also be in touch with Treesisters and these ASOMI women. ASOMI women and Treesisters may well be here as members of World Pulse already,  but I was so moved to hear their voices I want to be sure that this occasion is preserved here, for the inspiration in their message and for the possibilities in linking arms all the more strongly together.

ASOMI - Indigenous Wisdom for the Earth 

Interviewed by Tree Sisters Team treesisters.org

This is the link to the video, available for this week: https://treesisters.org/grow-yourself/indigenous-wisdom-for-the-earth

“It is a great privilege and honour to welcome the women of the Putumayo region, in the southern parts of Colombia by the Putumayo River, to the Indigenous wisdom call today for the Earth, on a recording that is being done on Earth Day, though it has already been noted that the women of Putumayo are celebrating Earth every day. Today we are greatly privileged to be joined by women from ASOMI, and they will explain who they are, and they will explain the extraordinary stories and work of the ASOMI, and we are also joined by Terra who facilitates the Indigenous wisdom for the Earth calls, Adrianna who has helped coordinate this call from the Fountain and the Mother Earth Delegation, and Vanessa, who is helping us today translate and will do half of the call and then it will switch over to Adrianna.

I cannot underestimate how everything around this call today, the work that these Grandmothers have been holding on behalf of all life in this region and globally, I think is not to be underestimated. Together with the greater weaving of all those being held by the landscape of Colombia at this time, it is a great privilege and honour to be facilitating and hearing…and we will go through a list of the different things that will be talked about, but it will cover the origins and the members of the ASOMI including the very important work they are doing with the plants and the garden that they have seeded for All Beings, and also some of the impacts that are happening in relation to mining and the other infractions that are happening at this time that are affecting the essential work that is being done. And so it is a privilege and honour that the Treesisters and the wider network have the opportunity to be part of this sharing. 

And I am going to pass over now to Paola. 

Paolo says, Thank you very much. We are going to start our program today. We are going to start with a message from Mother Earth and a harmonization, and then they are going present to us the knowledge acquired from their very wise elders, grandfathers and grandmothers of the community. Vanessa: I’m here with several other women from ASOMI and other grandmothers, right now I am going to pass you over to Grandmother Luz, who is going to give  the opening to our talk today.

Hello everybody, my name is Luz Meri Becerra. I am a member of the Board of Directors of ASOMI and I’m very happy to be speaking with you today. With asking permission of my other sisters and grandmothers gathered here today and asking permission from the Earth Itself, I would like to carry out a ritual which is from our Indigenous culture. It is a practise we use to bring ourselves all together to come into our bodies, to feel connected and relaxed. And to honour those who have gone before us, to honour our communities and to honour our guides, our Spirit Guides. (Thank you)

So I would like to introduce here Mama Charito who has been a very, very central person to our whole organization. My niece Paolo and also there is Dorita here, so asking their permission to come to their feet, and we will carry out the harmonization ritual.

So please to enjoy this ritual the invitation is that everybody comes to their feet. We will stand up, please to participate.

Hello I am wishing you a very good day all my sisters, and welcome to the ASOMI Association. On this day, on this very special day of the International Day of the celebrating Mother Earth we send you a very, very warm greeting full of love eternal love and harmony. So we would like to, now that we are all reunited here around the fire and harmonized, we would like to send out a special greeting to join together all of those who are in communities around the world that are suffering issues and problems. 

We are experiencing particularly threats from all of the extractive industries. All of those who come here to extract the resources. And particularly those who are the most affected are us the women. The Givers, the providers and the carers of life.

We would like to send out a special greetings to all of the women who have lost loved ones, who have lost those who have been defending our Mother Earth. We would like to send out a message of real solidarity to all of the women of the world.

So, now I am going to hand over to my other colleagues and they are going to move through the agenda of the other conversations we have planned for you today about our activities with ASOMA. 

Paolo:

So we are just going to ask for two minutes. We’re going to prepare a presentation for you now to let you know everything about what is ASOMI and all of the activities we have been doing here near the Putamayo River in Colombia.

Association de Mujeres Indigenas Chora de la Vida-ASOMI

We are about to share with a presentation of ASOMI, the association of indigenous women for the life, from Chagras. But first of all, Grandmother Luz would like to share a message with us.

Hello everybody, my name is Luz Angelica. I’m really sending you a warm message to all the women of the world, this International Earth Day from the women of ASOMI. It may look like we are in a very, very far away place, but we are connected, and we are sending all of our love to the women of the world. 

So as Indigenous people and as women of Putumayo we are defending and communicating with Mother Earth every day. We are honouring Mother Earth every minute of every day. we are at the moment coordinating many activities to defend and protect Earth as taught to us by our Elders. 

Our mother is really our mother. She loves us, she takes care of us and she gives to us. But she also keeps us safe, so we have to take care of her too.That is why we also love and take care of our Mother Earth.

Now I am going to pass to another of our members who is going to explain ASOMI and what we do.

Luz Mary: Our mission is to strengthen indigenous medicine, recuperate all the skills of our medicinal practise, and the knowledge and the work of the women of Colombia. The relationship between women is with nature, and with life. Our constant work is to take care of the managing of our environment, aways looking for the holistic health of humanity. Our vision is to be an association of Indigenous women, but integrated into the ethnic and cultural diversity where we find ourselves. This allows us to maintain the law of origin of the communities to protect the environment and safeguard ancestral knowledge whilst looking at the same time to guarantee holistic health to humanity. 

Another general objective is to recuperate traditional medicine of Indigenous women through and from the traditional and ancestral knowledge. Another general objective is that we transmit our knowledge in our day to day life from the Indigenous women to the children and the family members so that the knowledgable and wise grandmothers are working with their young apprentices. 

What have we done: We have generated several spaces for motivational leadership where the wise women can share their wisdom. The people of our communities learn about the plants, how to work with them, how to cultivate them. And the basis is all within our ancestral knowledge. We recognize the constant work it is that the women are developing in our territories to achieve spiritual harmony between humans and nature. Unity between the indigenous women and the ethnic diversity sharing a common basis in our land and our spirituality. 

We are made up of sixty seven women in the association, from five different Indigenous peoples. These are some photos showing you the community of Cofan. The interaction between the wise elder women and the young apprentices. Here they are doing things like making jewellery, cultivating the medicinal plants, also making products like soap and shampoo. These workshops of transmitting our knowledge to younger generations we carry out in every community. So here you can see more images of similar activities in the community Siona where the wise elder women are spending time with the younger children to transmit knowledge about the plants and how to take care of them. 

In this community Inga Yurayaco,  here are some more photos of how their elder grandmothers are sharing their wisdom with the children. Here they have been doing a lot of work planting. They are also learning the harmonization ritual that we did together. And it’s really important because we see that this is the way not to lose our ancestral knowledge. This community Kamensta is in the region of the Upper Putumayo region. It shows again more of the activities by our elder grandmothers working with young community members to transmit our knowledge. This is how we see that we can advance and move forward together. 

So thank you very much for your attention. This is a small introduction to our work. Here we are, the women of our community, really feeling the effects of the mining activities here. The grandmothers here, we are actually pretty worried. We worry for our young people because we see the planet that they are inheriting and we are worried that they will be without air and without water. So we feel it really important to work together to defend our planet Earth. And we are really worried about this, and especially the women are worried about this because the more the planet is destroyed, we are actually destroying life itself. Our own life.

Thank you.