Projects

It’s our 5th year of working with the Kogi, Wiwa, Arhuaco and Kankuamo Elders at the Teyuna Foundation.

We’re in the process of launching Teyuna Foundation Colombia.

We’re grateful to our supporters for recognizing the importance of connecting to nature through those who live to support Her.

We’re grateful for the ever deepening relationships with Elders who have become family and for the teachings that have brought us so much closer to understanding our connection to all that is and to ourselves.

2022 Fundraising Goals:

• Teyku Reclamation: Indigenous territory and traditional practices have been compromised due to lack of resources and encroachment. An acquisition to liberate a 32-hectare sacred site in the SNSM supports reclamation and protection of a Kogi Esuama (critical point of sacred wisdom for the Kogi). A wisdom school at Teyku will fortify a resurgence of wisdom schools in 3 sites where Mamo and Zaga (traditional wisdom keepers) schools must be re-introduced. We’re in cooperation and communication with other organizations helping to reclaim an Arhuaco Kaduku (critical point of sacred wisdom for the Arhuaco) in Chimila; and a Wiwa Mamunua (critical point of sacred wisdom for the Wiwa) in Achintujkwa. Teyku will also provide for a self-supporting community that farms fruits, vegetables, coffee, cocoa, and traditional building and weaving materials. Why 3 sites and 4 families? The Kankuamo, the 4^th tribe, was decimated in the early days of colonialization as they were the runners between the tribes and the Spanish. They’ve, as far as we know, completely lost their language and culture. We mention them in our writings because we’ve joined the effort to reclaim the Kankuamo culture. We work with a Mamo who is Arhuaco-Kankuamo, but we’ve yet to locate a solely Kankuamo Mamo. $37,234.00 includes infrastructure and legal fees
• Kuivi Fund: The Kuivi Fund supports young initiates training to be mamos or zagas. Traditional training is an ongoing practice with a foundational time commitment similar to public primary and secondary institutions in the western world, but focused in personal growth and Earth Stewardship rather than in skills that serve the workforce in the industrialized world. Fiscal sponsorship encompasses what initiates would normally provide in the community (such as weaving and farming) but can’t be responsible for during training. Funding also provides for initiates’ living expenses and supports the travel and time of established mamos and zagas, wisdom keepers and teachers. Hundreds of teachings from the Law of Origin are passed to the initiates.  This is an essential aspect of cultural preservation. Planned to fund in the fall of 2022.  $15,000.00 per year. Ongoing
• Casa Salvaguarda: There are no Indian reservations in the capital of Colombia or in the surrounding area. Establishing a reservation in the vicinity of the capital will strengthen the ability of all Colombian Amerindians (102 ethnic groups) to share cultural values, practices and wisdom and give them a neutral environment where they can discuss challenges and get support. A community is already forming on site and an influx of indigenous seeking refuge and council from the mamo who resides there. $113,777.00 includes infrastructure and legal fees.
• Record and Transcribe Narration of Ancient Wisdom Teachings: Knowledge of The Origin, the creation story of Earth, the instructions for caring for Her and all flora and fauna, and explanation of universal law, has been passed via word of mouth from generation to generation for thousands of years. Cultural context needs to be understood for the teachings that will be translated from native languages to Spanish and English. Many stories require days to tell. Hundreds of stories, lessons and rules must be recorded, translated interpreted and transcribed from the 3 languages of the Kogi, Wiwa and Arhuaco. Teyuna culture has been markedly threatened by westernization in the last 4 decades. Most of the traditional Elders, mamos and zagas, carry the teachings and are now very old. The Teyunas’ way of life, including traditional study, is threatened. An archive of traditional teachings must be created before they’re lost. This project is extremely time sensitive. It began in June of 2022 and will continue for approximately 5 years. The budget provides for labor, recording equipment, cameras, translators, technicians, travel, lodging and food. $150,000.00 per year for 5 years + $14,000.00 initial equipment budget
• Worldwide Pagamentos: International gatherings for Mother Earth held quarterly and lead by mamos and zagas for the purpose of sharing wisdom teachings and traditional practices with people around the world. Pagamento is the core practice of the Teyuna and the reason, they believe, for their existence. Worldwide Pagamentos give people the opportunity to learn about Earth from a spiritual perspective. Each Worldwide Pagamento is preceded by 2, and followed by 1, 1.5-hour sessions to provide general information about pagamento and the Teyuna and question and answer. For now, these conferences are held online. Budget accommodates operating costs. Ongoing. $2,500.00 per year.
• Operating Budget: Staff salary and wages; information technology; consultant/professional legal/accounting in Colombia and North America: $58,100.00
• Call of the Mountain: We’ve partnered with Tradewinds on the Ijolli Project. We’ve supported partial funding and wish to see the full project funded at approximately $300,000.00. Tradewinds  aligns with Teyuna Foundation’s mission in many ways. We’d been working separately on similar projects and are now working together. Our joint goals are ecosystem conservation, traditional education, cultural preservation and self-sustainable agroecology and economy.

These are big goals, but we believe we can accomplish them and will if our dreams and the Mamos and Zagas wishes through divination are meant to be. Thank you for you interest and support.

In the fall of 2021 we launched Bunshanduna Wisdom School with Mamo Senshina, Habba Ulaka and Abu Santa. Our spring/summer 2022 semester will be announced soon. We have been looking for a permanent home for Bunshanduna since late 2020 and believe we have finally found the perfect location and are actively working on securing it. 

We’re developing solid relationships with organizations in Colombia and are working hard at a grassroots level to get very clear on our work on the ground and strengthen it. Since we began our journey with the Teyuna it’s occurred that there were many organizations and much confusion. It’s an easy place to spin wheels. It seems sometimes as if everyone has a brick, but no one can build a home. We need to join forces. Our working relationship with Vientos Alisios, Organización Shinawindua Kunshama and Patrnato Inca have implemented successful projects on environmental and traditional education, forest ecosystem conservation, reforestation and rural sustainable development. We are very inspired by the work we can do together.

Looking Ahead

• A Creole-Amerindian Institute is planned. Teyuna Foundation and Tradewinds have been asked to create a place of refuge and learning for all Amerindians on the North American continent after the South American places of refuge are complete. Creole originated from Western Europe and spread eastward to the Indian Ocean in Mauritius and westward to the Americas. Creole spanned throughout the Americas and formed the army, with leaders like Simon Bolivar, that ended colonization for a time. The relationship between Creole and Amerindian is still revered in carnival celebrations held yearly all over the continent. The Creole established Gran Columbia (Brazil to Guyana) and New Granada, evocative of their exodus that begun in Granada, Spain. Location TBA. Cost is estimated at $700,000.00 for the center and the land.

I’m happy to announce we met our goals for 2021.

We’re grateful to continue to share the Mamos and Zagas teachings with hundreds of people and most importantly, to inspire deep hope.

You can read about some of our work below. Each project has very interesting general information about the Teyuna as well. Please view and email us if you have any questions or would like to make a tax-deductible donation or use the QR code at the bottom of the page to donate now. Thank you for your interest.

2021 Fundraising Goals:

• Traditional university focusing on the Original Principals through a philosophy and music program in Ubate: $100,000.00
• Operating Budget: Mostly translation and legal fees: $45,000.00

$145,000.00 raised in 2021

2020 Fundraising Goals Completed:

Supported Kogi-Wiwa Mamo Senchina and Habba Maria Luisa Nakogui Mojica in fostering  Shindwa Wisdom School. Shindwa is the spiritual foundation of the Law of Origin based in traditional music, vibratory principles that sustain the existence of all living beings. Furthermore, the Law of Origin is a set of teaching codes that:

Safeguard and strengthen the spiritual knowledge and nature
Safeguard and strengthen traditional music including the making and use of instruments, singing and dancing
Safeguard, strengthen and maintain Dʉmʉna, the Mother Tongue
Promote human physical, mental and spiritual knowledge
Safeguard, strengthen and maintain traditional arts

It is the duty of the Teyuna to preserve the tradition that originates in the Law of Origin.

We live in an era in which technology has absorbed people, and the aspect of sharing time with one another or socializing with our neighbors people on a day-to-day basis has been lost. In our Ungumas (communities) we aim to bring together indigenous and non-indigenous to socialize and share time with one another; and impart the teachings of the law of origin. 

During colonization, a Mhuysqa Elder, knowing that his culture and his people would be lost to the Spanish, traveled from what is now known as Cundinamarca, formerly the home of thousands of Mhuysqa and other ethnic groups, to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and implored Kogi Mama Aluka, Habba’s father, to preserve the Mhuysqa teachings and return them to the Mhuysqa descendants when the time was right. Mama Aluka, in the last years of his physical life, traveled from the Sierra to the Andes to help the Mhuysqa and other Amerindian descendants re-member their culture. Mamo and Habba have inherited this mission and are committed to furthering it in Ubaté, fulfilling a very important prophecy: $90,000.00

• El Guamal, Rio Seco, Valledupar, Cesar, Colombia. We wish to help Arhuaco and Kankuamo Mamos reclaim this sacred site in order to do pagamento, grow food to support local autonomy and provide a temple for baptisms, weddings, funerals, meetings and teachings: $11,500.00
• Building of 2 temples in Tekumuke, La Guajira, Colombia for Wiwa, Kogi, Arhuaco and Kankuamo communities. The Tekumuke Temples are core and central sanctuaries for ancestral practice and spiritual teachings. Teyuna Foundation Donors contributed $2,508.00
• Purchase of native sacred seeds and seedlings to support the growing of materials for the sacred practice of Teyuna women. The zagas, female elders, teach an ancestral textile tradition to all women as a rite of passage and as a life-long meditation. This work, weaving, supports Mother Earth as the women weave the positive thoughts that create the world. The sacred seeds are those of Black (300 seedlings), Orange (300 seedlings) and White Cactus  (500 seedlings);  and 1 kilo of Mono Cotton seeds and have been lost due to deforestation: $633.00
• Operating Budget: Mostly translation, legal fees, travel and incidentals. $45,000.00

= $149,641.00 

2019 Project Goals completed:

• Build of three temples in Seyamᵾke, La Guajira, Colombia to serve seven communities, 2,418 Kogi and Wiwa people – 300 families including 934 children under 15 years of age. Seyamᵾke is known to Colombians as Dibulla. In the Dᵾmᵾna language, Seyamᵾke means “place where the origins are returned”. The Seyamᵾke Temples are core and central sanctuaries for ancestral practice and spiritual teachings. Teyuna Foundation Donors contributed $15,560.00
• Cultural Events at the Three Temples: Teyuna Foundation Donors contributed $229.00
• Reclamation of Tres Cerritos, a sacred site on the Linea Negra. Deep gratitude to Patricia Taylor who donated $100,000.00 and to other Teyuna Foundation Donors who collectively contributed an additional $5,000.00 for legal fees.
• Rebuild of 20 traditional homes and one female temple for the Kogi of Mamey after fires devastated the community Teyuna Foundation Donors contributed $11.443.00
• A Zagas Tuma Fund Teyuna Foundation Donors contributed $500.00
• Funding for Traditional Medical Care and Emergencies Teyuna Foundation Donors contributed $2539.00
• Partial Funding for Mamo Senchina’s Amerindian Educational Center in the Andes Teyuna Foundation Donors contributed $20,000.00.

= $55,271.00

2018 project goals completed:

• Participated in the liberation of sites along the Magdalena and Besotes Rivers.
• Helped to reclaim 33 sacred sites in the Heart of the World.
• Completed Cross Country Pagamento to heal North America with 7 Mamos – 10,432 miles .

= 39,045.00

Three Temples Project completed in March of 2019

The construction of three temples that serve Yuimᵾke, Seyamᵾke, Bunkuawimᵾke, Shebukumᵾke, Wadziumᵾke, Mulkueise and Ulimaka: 2,418 Kogi and Wiwa people – 300 families including 934 children under 15 years of age, in a region known as Rio Jerez to Colombians and Shinshitʉhkwa to the Indigenous, in the municipality of Dibulla in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, state of La Guajira, Colombia.

You can read the project proposal here.

Kogi Re-Build Project completed in December of 2019

The Teyuna Foundation funded the re-building of 20 traditional homes and 1 Nujué (female ceremonial house) for Kogi Nuanezhaka families who lost their homes and temple in recent fires.

Nuanezhaka is one of three Kogi communities located on the north side of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta facing the Caribbean Sea. Colombians know the area as Mamey, in the municipality of Dibulla, Colombia.

You can read the proposal here  or here for a Spanish version.

Thank you for your interest! If you’d like to support these beautiful people, link to our donate page or scan the QR code below to donate via paypal.