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Huichol Cultural Survival
Challenges Entered:
The Huichol Indians are intact as a pre-hispanic people, but their cultural survival is in peril.
Much hard work has taken place to protect this universal treasure, yet time is running out for the Huichols. We must increase our efforts now.
Background
The Huichol Indians reside in the Sierra Madre mountains of northern Jalisco, Mexico.
Since 1973 Juan NegrÃn has documented Huichol sacred sites, dating back to pre-hispanic times and still in use today. Through photography, NegrÃn recorded the natural environment, people, their ceremonies, pilgrimages, artifacts and fine art. NegrÃn also made hundreds of recordings of music, chants, and conversations with the Huichol. These archives are critical for the preservation of the mythology and etymology of Huichol culture. He continues to collaborate with Huichol elders to pass their cultural traditions on to future generations.
Vision
The vision of the Wixárika Research Center is to create a bilingual online archive of scholarly work which shall be made available to the public, and especially to the Huichol people.
Proposal
Our current website in English-only, is used to raise public awareness of the importance of Huichol Cultural Survival. It educates the public about the beauty of this indigenous culture through the Masterpieces of their most important artists and through photo documentaries and interactive yarn paintings. Additional funding is sought to:
- Expand the acquisition, bilingual documentation, curation, and content management of archival material.
- Report on the Huichol struggle against land encroachments and assimilation over the past 35 years
- Create and sustain Huichol community participation in curatorial, archival, and discussion forums where they can express their concerns and hopes. Furthermore, Huichol will have access, for the first time, to historical photographs taken in their communities as early as the late 1800’s. Goal Engaging the Huichol in a project which highlights their cultural and artistic heritage will fortify community pride. Because pressure to integrate into mainstream society is so strong, promoting the value of their rich culture is essential to their survival as a distinct people.
Goal
Engaging the Huichol in a project which highlights their cultural and artistic heritage will fortify community pride. Because pressure to integrate into mainstream society is so strong, promoting the value of their rich culture is essential to their survival as a distinct people.
WHAT WE NEED:
Acquisition, hosting, consulting, installation, configuration, and operation of open source content and contributor management systems to facilitate site requirements.
Engagement in social, socially-conscious, and professional networks.
Professional business development, marketing, and public relations services to accomplish objectives.
Equipment, software, training, travel allowances, visa arrangements and stipends for Huichol university student interns as well as elders and school teachers in the Huichol communities of the Sierra Madre.
Legal and lobbying support for Huichols in regulatory/legislative bodies.
Global partnerships in methods and practices of Cultural Defense.
Reliable metrics for progress the project’s objectives.
Salaries and benefits for full-time staff.
Location
Oakland, CA
United States
See map: Google Maps
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Earlier this year, I spent
Earlier this year, I spent just over two months working as a photographer in Huejuquilla el Alto, in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, for the Huichol Center for the Arts. I lived in a house adjacent to the Huichol School, funded and run by the Huichol center, which also doubled as a stopping point/ceremonial ground for groups of up to thirty Peyoteros and their families, on their way to or from Vision Quest/ceremonial hunts. With many years of groundwork and the building of a great bond of trust and mutual affection between the Huichol Center's creator, EX0-101 Susana Valadez, and the local Huichol population, I was eventually given the opportunity to document the entire staff (both Huichol and Mexican) at the Huichol center, soy farming classes, portraits of local Huichol families, a Huichol religious ceremony, 70-646 and the entire collection of Peyote induced artwork (in the form of intricate yarn paintings), by an amazing Huichol artist, 642-642 Gonzalo Hernandez.
Huichol Cultural Suurvival / Wixárika Research Center
The Wixárika Research Center is my first choice, also, as it's been run for decades by a most admirable and devoted family. The Wixárika Research Center began when the organization's founder first trekked far into the mountains, suddenly finding himself among the Huichol, a barely-known network of the last surviving Stone Age tribe in Mexico. Their name in their language is Wixáritari. These are a people whose entire lives are devoted to spiritual development, a focus vividly seen in their lives of prayer and pilgrimage, and in their extremely complex and beautiful weavings, embroideries, and yarn paintings.
What the traveller found was an ancient group living largely in the old ways but carrying a new burden: tuberculosis. Stunned at what he'd seen, he raced back to the city for medicine and returned to begin what became his life's work: protecting the elders and their knowledge, and doing his best to keep threatening modern depredations from obliterating the entire culture. Wixárika has managed to carry on its stellar good work despite ongoing attacks from land speculators, loggers, and even financially-questionable departments of the Mexican government.
Few established organizations are as completely committed and impeccably honest as is this one. Anyone having an interest in humanity's history, in small languages and cultures, or in the myriad ways we find to live holy lives will be gratified to inquire into the excellent work of the Wixárika Research Center.
VICTIMS
I AM FROM MEXICO AND I AM AWARE OF THE SITUATION WITH THIS HUICHOL PEOPLE, MOSTLY THEY HABE BEEN MANIPULATED IN SEVERAL WAYS BY THE MEXICAN GOVERMENT DUE TO THE TERRITORY THEY ARE LIVING IN. THEY ARE VICTIMS OF THE "PROGRESS" I AM VOTING FOR THIS PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION BECAUSE THEY HAVE A REAL BACKGROUND KNOWING THE RIGHT WAY TO SOLVE THIS CULTURE PROBLEMS.
A project with a crucial human element
I just put this project in my top ballot slot. I did so because it comprises an urgent real-world need as well as a unique web element.
If there is an endangered species list for human cultures, it certainly doesn't get the attention it deserves. But it should. To lose a unique culture -- the language, art, music, dance, ritual, architecture -- impoverishes all of us.
The variety of human cultures is still staggering. And that variety is a crucial element of our humanity. But with each passing of the last practitioner of a certain art or the final speaker of a language or the player of an instrument, variety is reduced.
I particularly like the idea of using the indigenous culture to help preserve the indigenous culture. I find that quite appealing, appropriate and effective.
I think this project has the potential to succeed in stopping the destruction of yet another indigenous -- human -- culture.
Are you amazed by the Ethnosphere yet?
We all have so much to lose, yet what has been lost (and what will be lost) as a result of cultural extinction can't be calculated. The losses will be beyond measure. Are we copasetic with increases in the rate of extinction? I hope not.
Cultural survival is a global imperative about preserving language, meaning and symbols in the universal circle of life. Of the 6,000 languages spoken in the world today, 50 percent are no longer taught to children. Listen to Wade Davis (a most extraordinary anthropologist, biologist, and ethnobotanist) deliver a spot-on presentation entitled "Our Amazing Ethnosphere" at TED in Monterey, CA in 2003. He talks about preserving the "ethnosphere," by which he means "the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness."
Please look and listen to Wade Davis on YouTube and prepare for a rare treat. Since his presentation runs 22 minutes, you can try to listen with one ear while multitasking, but at some point his message is going to grab you.