Projects
We have different projects running and completed. For the running ones we are always in the search of donations.
Apart from that we sometimes need other forms of support such as contacts, skills or equipment.
Running Projects
Building the academy
We are currently supporting the Timeless Wisdom Academy. Filming with indigenous people and interviewing their elders we start to build a platform full of indigenous wisdom about different topics. We travel to different indigenous people all over the world and capture their knowledge.
Over time a whole library of knowledge will form and provide access for people to engage and learn from it. Have a look at: www.timeless-wisdom.com.
Please contact us if you have access to indigenous people and true elders or wisdom keepers and would like to share that contact with us.
Buying land in Europe
The Kogi have always pointed out that we should apply everything we learn from them on our lands. Therefore we are looking for land in Europe and the Kogi oracle has pointed out: Italy it is.
On a piece of land of around 100 hectares or more, we would like to find out together with the Mamos how land regeneration and cultivation can work in Europe including the sacred sites and invisible structure of a territory.
Therefore we are looking for pieces of land including buildings being sold in Italy (preferably middle and northern part). If you know of any, please let us know.
Creating a documento madre
We currently finance a young Kogi to interview the Mamos high in the mountains and record as well as transcribe the interviews. The Kogi plan to write a curriculum for their two internal schools focussing on their own traditional knowledge.
They have decided to educate a part of their children also in the western ways but want their education to be 50% western 50% traditional. For that purpose, a formalized curriculum is being created through the knowledge of the Mamos.
Buying a 108 hectare finca
The Kogi asked us to prioritize the buyback of a finca with 108 hectares. This finca is located near the village of Awiaka and costs roughly 275,000€. The land contains many sacred sites and has been degraded heavily over the last decades due to overgrazing.
On this piece of land, we plan to work together with the Mamos and a university and analyze in detail the land regeneration process of the Kogi. This is planned to be paralleled with the land regeneration project in Italy as a sister project. We are looking for donations for both the land buyback in Colombia and the research project.
Kogi youth learn English
Many of the Kogi generation growing up now speak Spanish, some better than others but all speak it to some degree. However, the world speaks English. Therefore we support Kogi children to learn English to be able to participate in the world, connect to other indigenous people and speak for themselves internationally if they choose to do so.
The next step is to bring them on a longer exchange to an English speaking country to live in a host family for a few weeks and go to a language school in the UK, USA, Australia or other countries. We need financial support for that project. If anyone has any ideas or feels called to support, please donate and get in contact.
Kogi youth learn from a Mamo
Some Kogi children live in the city to be educated in a Colombian school. However, they need to learn their traditional knowledge from a Mamo, where they have to travel once a week.
We cover their traveling costs, food and the compensation for the Mamos time so they can keep a strong contact with their ancestral knowledge while being educated in a western way. One of them wants to become a lawyer one day.
Completed Projects
2024
Kogi meet Sami
In 2022 the Sami elders asked the Kogi Mamos for spiritual support. In 2024 the Kogi Mamos were finally able to travel to Sapmi and meet the Sami elders. They went to sacred places where no rituals have been performed for over 100 years because of the oppression from the Swedish state. But now, with the assistance of the Kogi Mamos, the Sami elders could perform it again.
Sacred reindeer antlers were returned to places where they had been stolen and a lot of good conversations about how to deal with many of the challenges like mining and tourism that are the same in the mountains of Colombia or the Arctic circle in Sweden have happened.
Finca of 4 hectares
Next to the Kogi village of Awiaka is a small piece of land that has a very high value to the Kogi. Not only is it located in an area that has been heavily logged by their previous Columbian owners and used for their cattle, there lie a few very important sacred sites in that piece of land. We have been able to raise the money to buy back that important piece of land and hand it over to their rightful guardians once more: the Kogi.
School exchange 2024
A group of 6 people from the Kogi school in the village of Dumingueka came to Germany for 10 days of school exchange. 2 Kogi students, 2 Kogi teachers, 1 Columbian teacher and 1 Mamo had a wonderful exchange at the Freie Schule Tempelhof. For the first time a school exchange between indigenous Kogi and Europe has been made possible.
This however is only the first step. The plan is to keep the connection between the two schools growing and enrich both learning ecosystems – the Kogi one and the one in Germany – with further exchanges in the future.
2023
Finca of 59 hectares
On the steep mountain slope lies a piece of land that is very biodivers. Apart from the sacred sites in this place, it is home to many of the precious wild animals that live in the lower ranges of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. We have been able to raise the money to buy back that important piece of land and hand it over to their rightful guardians once more: the Kogi. Now they leave it mostly alone and don’t settle there due to its string inclination. Only the Mamos come to give their offerings at the sacred sites.
Tour of Kogi elders in Europe 2023
The highlight of the tour with the Kogi elders in 2023 was the visit of the PAUA conference in Paris. There the Kogi spoke at two occasions and interacted with the other speakers, partly coming from the field of artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship. The meeting of people from these very different backgrounds and very different perspectives was an eye opening experience for many.
Territorial analysis 2023
In 2023 the Kogi mamos came again to Germany. In the community of Tempelhof, as well as in Frankfurt we went to look at sacred sites in urban or rural contexts. In both cases the importance of water got their attention. The Kogi pointed out the special importance between rivers, streams and ponds and the trees growing by their side.
They have a deep spiritual connection nurturing one another and according to the Kogi, one of the most dangerous things is to remove the guardian trees from the waters they are growing next to. More to be analyzed in the future.
Kogi go to Cop28 UAE
An invitation to speak at the COP28 led us and the Kogi to Dubai. The megacities of the United Arab Emirates truly contrasted the Kogi and their understanding of the world. However, once we reached the desert and sat down for a tea with one of the last Bedouin families, still living traditionally, the understanding of their respective views on nature happened instantly.
The sky bars amongst the highest skyscrapers in the world however left the Kogi with question marks regarding the future of humanity. Their speech at COP28 was well received even though only a moderately sized audience showed up.
Building Classrooms 2023
The Kogi school in Dumingueka needed new classrooms. The old ones had been eaten up by termites and were close to collapsing endangering the education and the health of the children in it. Luckily we were able to support the Kogi in the construction of new classrooms that are now all up and fully usable.
The Kogi are very content with the new buildings and more Kogi children can now attend the school that the Mamos decided is necessary for the future of the Kogi people. Thank you to everyone who made that project possible.
2022
Tour of Kogi elders in Europe 2022
With our organization just starting, we organized a big tour of three Kogi elders and their translator through Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden. With 28 days of journey and over 40 conferences it was a huge project for such a young organization.
From conferences, to workshops, to the visits of ancient and sacred sites to territorial analyses and meetings with impact investors, the tour was a huge success and an important step for bringing indigenous Kogi wisdom to Europe. We are very grateful to everyone who has made this incredible journey possible.
Territorial analysis 2022
In Switzerland, the Kogi mamos and Swiss foresters went together to analyze a forest. Soon the mamos pointed out that there are some species in the forest that are not native to that area. They picked on one type of tree especially and asked the foresters where it came from. After some time of discussion they explained that it was indeed a foreign species and was introduced to the area approximately 200 years ago.
Upon the question how the mamos got that information, they replied that they had asked the trees. It is obvious that it is a great achievement to identify foreign species on a continent they had partly never been and in an ecosystem they knew nothing about. A lot to learn from!