The Mamos of the Sierra Nevada, Colombia
Project Result: $169,263 USD Fundraised
In 2019, our partnership with the Mamos and Zagas of the Sierra Nevada reached a profound milestone: the restoration and creation of sacred spaces vital to cultural continuity, ceremony, and sacred water conservation stewardship. The Sierra Nevada, often called the “Heart of the World,” is home to the Kogi, Arhuaco, Wiwa, and Kankuamo peoples, who safeguard its ecosystems and spiritual balance.
Impact Areas
Project Overview
Through collective efforts, we supported the building of 19 sacred temples across multiple territories. Each temple serves as a site of teaching, healing, and ceremony, strengthening intergenerational knowledge transmission and ensuring the community’s connection to the land and cosmos remains unbroken.
PEOPLE
Ashaninka
LOCATION
Acre, Brazil
FUNDS RAISED
$169,263
DATE
2019
Key Milestones
Total funds raised and invested: $169,263, supporting the following initiatives:
108.73 acres of Landback, returning ancestral territory to Indigenous stewardship.
Reforestation of 2,000 native plants in previously degraded areas to restore biodiversity and ecosystem balance.
Installation of an 11-kilometer aqueduct (Kandumena, Dibulla)
19 sacred temples constructed across multiple territories, serving as centers of teaching, healing, and ceremony, including:
Clay pot temples (Kandunmake & Arimaka) – 4 built
Mamos & Zagas gathering temples (Güimbumaka) – 2 built
Teaching temples (Kadzhuimake & Yuingaga) – 7 built
Mamos & Zagas joint temples (Bunkuamake) – 2 built
Ceremonial temples in Kogi territory (Awingue) – 4 built
Construction of a concrete water storage tank with a capacity of 12,000 liters.
Making of traditional musical instruments, ensuring the transmission of ancestral arts and cultural identity.
In addition to these sacred spaces, we helped fund a new well and waterway projects that enhance improve access to clean water while honoring traditional ecological knowledge.
Together, these initiatives sustain keep sacred teachings, and ancestral ceremonies alive, and the protection of water, the lifeblood of the Sierra’s spirit. For the Mamos, every temple built is not just a structure, but a living space of reciprocity with the Earth. For Huya Aniwa, it stands as a reflection of many years of walking together in kinship and respect.