Nasawe’sx ya’yu’cenxi – Weaving Our Own Justice

About the project

Justice and Authority in the Nasa Communities of the Sa’th Tama Kiwe Territory, Caldono, Colombia

This collaborative, polyvocal project responds to the needs identified by Nasa communities in the department of Cauca, Colombia, to strengthen their justicia propia (own paradigm of justice). The project’s diverse research collective, which brings together researchers from the Nasa communities, a Thê’wala (Nasa spiritual authority), Nasa artists, an activist-researcher in Colombia, and a UK-based academic, works specifically with the Nasa communities of the Sa’th Tama Kiwe Territory in Caldono, Cauca. Through our collaborative analysis of, and shared reflection on, justice practices, the project hopes to contribute to the revitalization of the justicia propia of the Sa’th Tama Kiwe Territory. In our work, we will attend to both past and present justice practices and explore how justice is experienced in Sa’th Tama Kiwe. In this vein, the project seeks to understand the harmonies and disharmonies that affect family, community, authority, and territory. Equally important, our work seeks to recover memories of Nasa modes of justice.

Our work is characterised by non-linear approaches which consider different temporalities, and we will use CRISSAC (an acronym for La Crianza y Siembra de Sabidurías y Conocimientos [the Nurturing and Sowing of Wisdom and Knowledge Systems]). CRISSAC, which has been created by Indigenous peoples of the department of Cauca, provides this project a framework for conducting research that encompasses spiritual, communal, artistic, and intercultural dimensions and orientations. By taking a CRISSAC approach, our project hopes to generate new pathways for scholarly enquiry and research. The overall aim is to open up fresh perspectives on the practices of the Sa’th Tama Kiwe’s justice systems by sharing with Nasa communities and their authorities insights gained from the project’s present-day and memory work.