pbicolombia

  • Home
  • Browse
  • Search
  2. In pictures

Land titling in Naya

Puerto Marizalde (Valle del Cauca), March 2016
Read More
At last, the moment arrived that the people from the Naya River had been waiting for years: the collective titling of their lands. A seventeen year legal battle. A thousand people came to the handover of the legal titles, by river or by walking through the jungle, in Puerto Marizalde, a small village on the banks of the Naya River.
1 / 27

At last, the moment arrived that the people from the Naya River had been waiting for years: the collective titling of their lands. A seventeen year legal battle. A thousand people came to the handover of the legal titles, by river or by walking through the jungle, in Puerto Marizalde, a small village on the banks of the Naya River.

LandtitlingNaya

  • At last, the moment arrived that the people from the Naya River had been waiting for years: the collective titling of their lands. A seventeen year legal battle. A thousand people came to the handover of the legal titles, by river or by walking through the jungle, in Puerto Marizalde, a small village on the banks of the Naya River.
  • Three days and three nights of celebration, dancing, poetry reading and speaking in the general assembly for the collective titling.
  • The highlight of the Assembly was the title giving: Rodrigo Castillo, the leader of the Naya River Community Council, spoke with a tremor in his voice, the emotion welling up in him.<br /> <br /> The church in Puerto Marizalde was full and in total silence; Rodrigo spoke of how he was a young man when the long process of this struggle began, and how many had lost hope along the way. He remembered words of discouragement, but there were also people who were convinced that another Naya was possible. “Whilst some lost their faith, others doubled their efforts to carry on resisting”.
  • In the church.
  • The Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission (CIJP) started accompanying the Nayan community in 2001. They are the petitioners for the community’s precautionary measures of protection from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights from 2002, and represent victims in criminal cases in the 2001 massacre; they also monitor the legal titling procedure. In the photograph is Father Alberto Franco of CIJP.
  • Children giving prizes to the women and men who give their lives for resistance and leadership.
  • Aida, one of the few women to receive the gesture of recognition.
  • Untitled photo
  • Between the speeches, the musicians played currulao for the people, the word alludes to cununao, which refers to the drums that came from Africa, which have an important part in the folklore of Colombia’s Pacific region.
  • Because the territory is vast, travelling to Puerto Marizalde (for some) is a day’s travel by boat.
  • 18,000 men, women and children from 52 different communities of the Naya River inherit the title for 178,000 hectares (roughly the same area as the city of Bogota).
  • The people of Naya have been on the land for 300 years. Mariana is 74 years old, from San Pedro, near Puerto Marizalde. Her husband died four years ago.
  • But the fight is not over once the titles are given. Now a long road begins in the search for a better quality of life.
  • Today, the reality for the people of Naya is dark, they live in the midst of armed conflict, violence and poverty. Economic development is needed to generate livelihoods for people to achieve their goals in life.
  • During the celebration, people got up at 4am to hear alabado, which is a choral alabanza chant, a hymn or religious offering to the saints. With the passage of time it was widely sung at wakes, after which it became a funeral chant for adults.
  • Women need to be more involved in leadership; in fact there are only men in the community councils. “We need more women making decisions here”. Aida is a leader and won an award for her leadership on the day the titles were given out.
  • Woman from the Naya River.
  • Woman from the Naya River.
  • Leidy, 16 years old, from the Naya River.
  • Untitled photo
  • No Comments
  • Photo Sharing
  • About SmugMug
  • Browse Photos
  • Prints & Gifts
  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Owner Log In
© 2023 SmugMug, Inc.