JAGUA
Marta belongs to the Emberá Katío community of Alto Sinú in my country, Colombia; community strongly affected by forced displacement and deforestation, which is why it faces a marked loss of identity. Marta is part of 210 families that have decided to take part in programs that contribute to reforesting their territory and their culture.
According to legend, Jagua was a goddess possessing knowledge about life and plants that arose from the abundance of the fruit of a tree that bears her name and that today is considered sacred. Jagua shared with the Emberá their wisdom and how to transmit and preserve their cosmogony in a symbolic way through body painting using a dye resulting from a process to which the fruit of the Jagua tree is subjected.
Marta, as well as the women of her community, transmit and maintain their cultural heritage through the practice of the jagua, among others. The look of her granddaughter Valentina, unconscious bearer of historical memory, made me wish that when she reaches adulthood and as a consequence of the reforestation, the animals that her grandmother represents in drawings and that she is proud of are also returning to the territory.\" Jagua” transmitter of ancestral wisdom giving shape to its community.
Claudia Ruiz, Colombia, Bogota
