Dear readers:
I recently received this intriguing and moving letter from Mariella
Rebora, who is directing an attempt to re-inculcate thousand year old
artisan and bioregional management skills in the Chancay region of Perú
(coastal region north of Lima). She is looking for program sponsors and
collaborators. I believe this is a very important project, potentially
a model for similar projects all over the world. As you read her story,
I am sure it will resonate with your knowledge of the struggles and
ambitions of aboriginal peoples in our own countries, and globally. Please
let me, or Mariella, know if you know of (a) organizations that might
have the resources and interest to sponsor this initiative, or at least
(b) people who Mariella might contact to explore opportunities for
sponsorship and collaboration. This is beyond my area of knowledge and
expertise, but I'd love to help any way I can!
/-/ Dave
Following is Mariella's story in her own words.
It's
interesting to see that when it comes to sharing knowledge or making
political decisions, there is very little "attitude" difference between
people of "developed" and "non developed" countries. I feel the
difference is actually between the thoughts of modern versus non-modern
cultures.
Pueblos de Arena ("Sand Towns") is a non-profit 'school' to enable,
facilitate and revitalize community development processes in the
Chancay area. Our proposal is to work out the appropriate attitude that
leads to well-being (including economic prosperity) by reframing
poverty concepts, learning and teaching cognitive strategies, concepts,
and introducing alternative money as a way of generating internal
community-based commerce.
Six years ago I moved (with my family) from the city to the
country. My husband works in agriculture, we have a farm here in
Chancay, a small town on the central coast of Perú. From the 10th to
15th centuries the Chancay pre-Incan culture developed here. Fine
artists they were, not warriors: textiles, ceramics, feather crafts,
wood, dyes, and bone carvings. Being a potter myself, when I arrived in
Chancay, I fancied I would find the local potters here heirs of this
fine culture. But I
found none, just a couple of guys churning out false copies and selling
them as originals.
So I thought it would be great to start a ceramics school, rescuing the
Chancay ceramic techniques, but little by little I met
other artisans who worked with tapestries, gauzes, and all the
pre-Incan arts. There is a Chancay necropolis (ancient cemetery) nearby
that was damaged
and looted by this people (really poor people – immigrants
from the Andes communities), and as they had to repair what they found
the tombs, they learned, and developed very fine skills in these
arts. So, I thought, why limit our project to pottery? Let's create a
pre-Incan handcrafts school with modern arts too. But what would we do
with these re-learned crafts? We would need to create a commercial
management facility, and develop modern designs with quality standards.
The challenge was (and is) the 'poverty inertia' that governs the
spirit of the people. There is a resignation and feeling of
hopelessness about projects in which the community helps themselves, a
sense that the only way to live is through government subsidies or
through illegal activities or menial, low-quality work. Local workers
are lucky to earn $4/day, far too little to encourage learning, hard
work and true craftsmanship.
So we must create an environment that encourages personal development
and local-culture community-based social welfare (independent of the
local government), rescuing what it is now called "social capital".
This means that the community must 'remember' that it knows how to provide itself
with most of the things it needs, through communal works, alternative
and preventive medicine, houses for the old and needy. The community
must re-learn to transfer their remarkable knowledge and culture, to
remember they have a "knowledge" that is truly their own, and which for centuries allowed them to be self-sufficient and prosperous.
In searching for the methodology that could help us translate the cultural and linguistic differences (in Peru we have several etnias, native communities with different dialects and languages, and our
pilot
project is with a community of immigrants from the Andes on the coast)
we've been investigating the cognitive sciences, cognitive linguistics,
neurolinguistics, anthropology, and, on the other hand,
everything that is related to alternative currencies.
The idea is to give the tools to the community as a whole that will
enable them to raise their standard of living, their perspective of
their chance for self-sufficiency and prosperity, and at the same time
demystify modernity (today they are surrounded by modern advertising
and marketing, but none of the prosperity that makes it meaningful),
while rescuing their cultural identity and traditional knowledge and
wisdom, so they can manage successfully in this modern world.
Once the methodology is developed we plan to implement it bottom-up
through small neighbourhood groups, what you called 'cells' in your
recent cellular organization article
(though we prefer not to use the term 'cells', because in Perú we had
some
very traumatic years of terrorist activity and the terrorists were
organized in 'cells').
Our proposal takes the form of a 'school' -- we do not want to be seen
as a non-government organization (NGO), because people in these
communities distrust NGOs), nor do we want to link with any political
or religious group. 'Schools' are well received and accepted by
everyone.
At the moment we have some support from the Universidad del
Pacífico related to the development of educational materials for the introduction of alternative currencies.
We
are looking for sponsors for the research we will need to do to develop
the
methodology (attitude and strategies) and its appropriate teaching and
implementation. We would appreciate your comments on how we might
identify and attract such sponsors.
Sometimes I feel this ambitious project is possible, and at other
times I have many doubts. I want to believe that it is possible. Thanks
for reading.
Mariella Rebora (pueblosdearena@gmail.com)
Pueblos de Arena, Chancay, Perú |
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
