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Knowledge of the A’i Kofán nationality, in a meeting
Posted On 14 Aug 2018
Ecuadornews:
Sharing knowledge with representatives of the A’i Kofán nationality of Ecuador is the main objective of a meeting that will take place this week in Guayas. “This meeting was born as an option to cover a need for the Kofan nationality that has identified a lack of knowledge, in the national culture, with respect to the traditional knowledge of many of the peoples,” says Fausto Valero, organizer of this meeting.
He argues that it is important to know about this nationality, because “they reached a point where the knowledge of the grandparents was almost completely lost. Today is working, for several years to strengthen this knowledge.
The A’i Kofán nationality is located in the shared territory of the northern Amazon rainforest of Ecuador and southern Colombia, and despite strong Western pressure they maintain their language and traditions as cultural references that hold their people together.
The organizer mentions that the idea of this event, which will begin on Friday, at 6:30 p.m., at the National Institute of Cultural Heritage (INPC), in Guayaquil (in Las Peñas), is to bring “a little closer to the people who They may have an interest in knowing more about the nationalities that exist in Ecuador at first hand. “
Hence, the participation of Taita Major Alejandro Criollo and Fidel Aguinda (vice president of the base organization of the A’i Kofán nationality of Ecuador) is scheduled, with the conversation “Yajé (ayahuasca) Amazonian ancestral medicine in the context of postmodern shamanism’
In this talk we will talk about the true meaning of ayahuasca and how it is perceived and related to it. “We basically think that yajé, ayahuasca, naten, as it has several names according to the people that call it that, is basically the drink that unites all the Amazonian peoples,” explains Valero, who defends the ancestry of this infusion present in the rituals of these sets.
The following day, from 20:30 in the Fecaol-National Peasant Movement (Puente Lucía, via Daule), the traditional A’i Kofán de Yagé ceremony will be held. Valero says that the idea is to offer this ritual in the way “like Kofanes grandparents do”. (I)
Source: https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2018/08/14/nota/6904424/saberes-nacionalidad-ai-kofan-encuentro
