Vaupés, Colombia – In March 2021 The Invisible Thread (TINTA) through its Weaving Ties initiative, held a two-day workshop for the women of ATICCAM, the Association of Indigenous Traditional Authorities of the Communities of the Area of Direct Influence of the Mitú Micro Hydroelectric Power Plant; in the Vaupés  Department in southeastern Colombia, bordering Brazil.

ATICCAM was created in 1995 in a solidarity drive by the communities of the region to monitor the illegal imposition of a hydroelectric plant on the sacred site of Hipararí, on the banks of the Vaupés River. The hydroelectric plant was not only built on the most sacred site of the Cubeo people, but it also destroyed the fishing channel that for millennia guaranteed the food security of these people. 

Although AATICAM has been in existence for more than 25 years, never before had there been an activity specifically for women. The first day of the workshop provided an overview of the organizational structures of indigenous women, starting with local women’s committees and ending with international alliances, such as the International Indigenous Women’s Forum (FIMI). On the second day, unexpectedly, a vote was taken to constitute the association MIAPS: Indigenous Women of AATICAM Protectors of the Jungle, and in the afternoon, the participants initiated the drafting of their first project to apply for a FIMI seed fund.

To celebrate the creation of the association by the women of AATICAM, all workshop participants traveled to the community of Tayazú where a ceremony of inauguration of the new Board of Directors of MIAPS was held in the great ancestral Maloka (communal house); 40 people attended this workshop, including some men, elders and children. The community performed a Dabukurí (Amazonian ritual) and a ceremony of ‘carrizo’ (wooden flutes) and chicha (traditional drink) to honor before the ancestors the creation of the first association of indigenous women in the Colombian Amazon.

Weaving Ties is an initiative of The Invisible Thread (TINTA), a global facilitation platform that works for the protection of forests, indigenous peoples and local communities, particularly in the service of women and youth.