Traditional cartography of the rivers and aquatic beings in the south east Colombian amazon

Traditional speeches mention the different geographical accidents in each part of the journey such as islands, backwaters, beaches, flooded areas, river mouths. Shamans travel with words along the Amazon River until they reach principal tributaries, like the Caquetá- Japurá River, and then they start reciting with more precision. The recitation eventually arrives to the Apaporis and Mirití Rivers, depending on the ethnic group, and there they mention each brook, streams, lake, backwaters, rapid, branch, beach, island and flooded area in the river in question. The naming of the territory starts always at the mouth of the rivers and it climbs to the headwaters leaving no place without a name. Sometimes the recitations are composed by several hundreds of names.

The traditional understanding of the territory is far more complex than our Western approach, which is why TBI Colombia is promoting the documentation of the traditional cartography by shamans belonging to different ethnic groups in the Caquetá, Mirití and Apaporis Rivers in the frame of a recent project with the Iniciative for the Conservation in the Andean Amazon (ICAA). Through the promotion of inter-ethnic meetings the strategy has compiled very detailed maps that display the complex approach to geography from the local perspectives, the understanding of ecology and the management of fauna. There is a special attention to aquatic fauna: the distribution and management of the anaconda, turtles, caimans, otters and other species. The maps are an expression of the importance of traditional knowledge in landscape management, as well as they contribute to pedagogical processes, local governance and spatial planning in the Colombian Amazon.

For more details about this process please see the video that TBI Colombia presented in the 20th session of the COP 2014.