A Lesson from the Kogi

By: Julia Hedelman

Climate change, myth or fact? Living in our modern society, many people have been exposed to a vast amount of evidence that global warming is happening—yet many are still sceptical. An ancient tribe living in the Sierra Nevada, the Kogi, do not need scientific evidence to realize that climate change is one of the biggest problems in the world.

Liliana Madrigal, co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), has been working with the Kogi to preserve their ancient land. Liliana was inspired to begin the ACT because she felt that, “we wanted to… focus on working with indigenous people because we felt that that was a huge unserved area that was an extraordinary opportunity for working in the Amazon.” The ACT “seeks to steadily increase the number of indigenous peoples in Amazonia able to monitor, sustainably manage and protect their traditional forestlands, and by extension significantly increase the area of Amazonian rainforest enjoying considerably improved protection.”

The Kogi tribe are direct descendants of the Tairona civilization. They have survived as a culture because the Kogi have focused all of their energy on the life of the mind and spirit instead of the life of an individual. Over these last five centuries the Kogi have lived in almost total isolation with their language, traditions, and culture still intact. The Kogi believe that they are the “Elder Brothers,” the guardians of Mother Earth, and stay deeply connected with the nature around them. But over the last decade, the Kogi have begun to notice an imbalance around them. The Kogi have witnessed climate change first-hand and have begun to learn Spanish because they have realized how important it is to communicate with the outside world about the huge crisis of climate change. This is where the Amazon Conservation Team comes in, supporting the acquisition of the Kogi’s ancestral land, but more importantly, they are helping the Kogi communicate their concerns about human-caused climate change and the effect it is having and going to have on our only home.  

Liliana believes that the Kogi “are the ultimate scientists.” They are the ones actually observing the changes of weather, animal behavior, their planting ceremonies need to be changed because some sprouts are growing much earlier or later than normally, some of the pollinators are not reaching certain higher altitude areas anymore. “There are just all of these indicators that are not only purely from observation but they [the Kogi] are dealing with them on a daily basis.”

The Kogi have a lot to teach us, and I have been very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to interview someone who has extensive knowledge about this unique tribe. To learn more about the Kogi tribe, click here or to learn more about Liliana and the Amazon Conservation Team you can visit http://www.amazonteam.org.