Diaguita Strive To Heal 'Colonial Wounds' By Reconnecting With Their Identity, History

Like many others during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lourdes Albornoz, a 33-year-old social worker and Indigenous Diaguita woman, found time among her community abruptly halted.The coronavirus outbreak forced her to socially distance from other female members of her Indigenous community, and to remedy the situation, Albornoz founded the TransAndean Network of Diaguita Women, Ancestors of the Future.

"It was really a way to stay in contact between different sisters and people who were close, who we got to know," she told Anadolu Agency.The non-profit has grown to include around 100 members seeking to revitalize their native spirituality and "focuses on our territorial, cultural and life struggles." Community elders in Argentina's northwestern province of Tucuman suggested the name to pay homage to the ancestrality of the network's world view.

With the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples being commemorated on Aug. 9, Albornoz said she wished to underscore the resilience of native peoples worldwide and celebrate their ancestral practices, culture and knowledge amid ongoing colonial practices and extractivist activities like mining and industrial agriculture that drive climate change, environmental degradation and contribute to human rights abuses."We are going to share the ways in which the world continues to be suppressed by the interests of a few, across our networks," said Albornoz, referencing the community's Instagram, Facebook and YouTube accounts.

"We want people who live in cities, in the developed world, to understand the cost of climate change -- the social cost of everything that they use."During the month of August, various Indigenous peoples across Latin America pay homage to Pachamama, or Mother Earth, a revered goddess of the Indigenous peoples of the Andes which Albornoz said allows the land to "awaken" to be "sowed.""That's why for us, August is very meaningful, because it is a month of offerings. It is a month to strengthen oneself, to perfume with incense, to clean everything which has remained from winter, within our hearts, at home in our communities. Coincidentally, Aug. 9 internationally recognizes Indigenous peoples as subjects with rights," she said.The Diaguita refer to their ancestral lands as Qullasuyu, where they lived alongside other first nations like the Quechua, the Aymara, the Chicha and the Mapuche.Qullasuyu incorporates swathes of land once inhabited by the Inca that today traverse Argentina's provinces of Salta and San Juan to the Chilean Sea."The first nations did not know of borders but of partnerships to exchange work, food and culture," said Albornoz.Today, around 67,000 Diaguita live in Argentina, while over 88,000 reside in Chile.On social media, the network highlights the negative environmental footprint driven by extracting minerals like lithium, gold and copper."All the minerals which are extracted by open pit mega-mining are part of this chain of consumption which starts with our sacrifice, with our death, and finishes with our commodities that can be bought at a market," said Albornoz.

"A bike with a lithium battery or a car with a lithium battery are produced with the blood of our sacred birds, of our communities."According to Amnesty International, "evidence from South America has pointed to lithium extraction damaging Indigenous peoples' water resources and fragile ecosystems."Albornoz said such unsustainable practices have led her to conclude that overexploiting natural resources means sustainable development is unachievable.

"The industrial revolution, colonialism and all these forms of overexploitation of nature and its children are what have brought us the global warming crisis today," she said. 



To combat the environmental crisis, she said, societies worldwide must diminish their development model "to reduce the need for transport, to reduce fossil, nuclear (and) electric energies."Amid the threats Indigenous people face worldwide, Albornoz said the network "has been very meaningful, because to find myself alongside other sisters, it has allowed me to find myself and rediscover my roots and my ancestors."

Across both sides of the Cordillera Andean mountain range, the network has held gatherings "to get to know each other more, to share our history, to share our memories, our experiences, our ways of life," said Albornoz."For all of us, it has given the tools, the support, in moments in which perhaps territorial defense becomes difficult, where the violence which our people suffer is really tremendous."The case of Javier Chocobar, a Diaguita activist killed by Dario Amin, a white businessman, amid a land dispute and with the complicity of two former police officers in 2009 has been a dark chapter for the community.Amin was sentenced to 22 years in prison, and 12 years later, his conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court of Tucuman.Historically, the Diaguita have faced long-standing forms of discrimination, racism, violence and other oppressive measures.Albornoz described the legacy as "a colonial wound which we have not healed."The Kakan language, which the Diaguita spoke, was banned and has since died out, leading Albornoz to combat this by "working on the recuperation of some words, expressions, melodies and language revitalization."In 2016, then-UN Special Rapporteur Mutuma Ruteere visited Argentina, describing the situation that Indigenous people face as "appalling, as they live in extreme poverty, isolation from others, and without access to basic services."Ruteere's observations described how Indigenous people "are denied access to basic needs such as drinkable water, adequate housing, quality health care, employment opportunities, and appropriate and quality education."Ruteere said they are "excluded from mainstream social and political life" and are "absent in key decision-making positions, even in bodies specifically dedicated to their issues."The "methods of consultation," according to Ruteere, "are not in adequacy with their culture and understanding of life. Access to land titles remains challenging and new provisions need to rapidly be adopted to protect communities from being evicted."As such, the network is drawing attention to those "fighting to defend their territories" in Argentina -- from Andalgala, Fiambala, Hualfin, Santa Marin and Choya to Tucuman.Chile's 1980 dictatorship-era constitution instituted an extractivist economic model that draws heavily on mining and logging, impacting Indigenous ways of life.With this in mind, Albornoz is honoring her "brothers fighting on the Chilean side" against mining and to defend land amid what she describes as "the interest of money, of power, above the survival of our species."Ultimately, Albornoz wishes to acknowledge the Diaguita's resilience, notably their "longstanding knowledge and invaluable wisdom, which has allowed their survival during all of this time in harmony with nature in a manner which doesn't generate negative impacts over others."Albornoz said such wisdom bestowed by their ancestors has ensured their survival -- from knowing when the rains are coming, when the sun is emerging, when to plant crops, when to take care of oneself from illness, how to hunt and how to survive in such extreme environments like deserts, valleys, altitudes and at sea."They are wisdoms which don't have an economic value and can't be owned. They belong to the intellectual integrity of the (Indigenous) peoples. They derive from the knowledge and wisdom of the four elements -- fire, air, land and water." -