Taller de Indigena: Cuban Traditional Knowledge Gathering
This December 2019, we have been invited to attend the annual gathering: Cajobabo 2019 Cuban Indigeneity: Values of Traditional Knowledge "The Moon and the Earth: Values of our Peoples".
Comprising of ceremony, encounters and workshops, it is gathering in which the indigeneous families on the island gather to continue the sharing of knowledge, and also open it to others from other indigenous nations, and then some. It is a call from out last living hereditary chief of the Taíno people, Pachito Ramirez, to gather and pass on the oral knowledge of our people.
For us, it is a going home. It is a reconnection with our people and ancestral knowledge. It has been known that through the years, Cuba has maintained a sense of independence which for indigenous knowledge, it has preserved much of what there was. Of course, colonization occurred everywhere and it has most certainly touched the island of cuba.
Last year we were also invited, and it was the first year they opened it up to people outside of the island. When we made the trip, the gathering was about traditional plant knowledge, which for many was a re-awakening, a reaffirmation of what was handed down by grandparents and great-grandparents. We also were able to meet and connect with our last living hereditary chief for the first time. We also encountered places that are invaluable in our collective history, despite the pain associated with it. We visited the place where Columbus first touched the Americas, the first settlement, the first church. As an indigenous people, when we talk about intergenerational trauma, this type of experience cannot be described in words other than catalysts for deep healing.
This year, it is a significant theme, especially when we are one of the only local organizations that value and work to teach indigenous agricultural practices. When we talk about the moon, we talk about the water, and how our plants grow, the right times to cultivate our soil, but also it speaks of many other cycles that our ancestors lived by.
This year in our home garden, it has been our second year of using the lunar cycle to plant. We have been studying it and the movement of the stars in relation to our food, animal and plant life around us. The connection which it fosters with nature is immense, and a testament to why we are doing exactly what we are doing: healing trauma through returning to nature.
This is why we are asking for you to consider giving a donation so that we may be able to make it to this gathering in December. Four delegates from our organization will be attending, representing our small community and organization whose home is just south of Cayuga Lake. The total expense of “Cuban Indigeneity: Values of Traditional Knowledge” is estimated to be $5000.00, all expenses included.
Your gift will be supporting a lineage of traditional indigenous knowledge, and the cultural revitalization of a peoples that were first met with the onslaught of colonization in the late 15th century.
Thank you, Hahom,
The Directors
Traditional Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Healing