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Wounaan come to the capital to press land claims, demand recognition for their congress by Eric Jackson The Wounaan, an indigenous people whose members inhabit parts of Colombia as well as Panama, have some concerns to air with the government in Panama City. So they came from remote villages in Darien, Panama and Colon provinces, to march through the capital and present their demands at the presidential palace. The fundamental issue is about land, the forests upon which the Wounaan's traditional way of life and modern art economy depend. Landless farmers from the central provinces cut down the forests despite agreements about forested buffer areas, indigenous collective land ownership and so on. "Rio Hondo is now Rio Seco, because they're deforesting the mountains at the headwaters," Boca de Tigre's Sergio Tocamo Mangizama complained. "In Arimae, there is an agreement to mark the land, that some campesinos can stay, but more are coming after them. The agreement is not being respected," he added. Most of the more than a dozen villages from whence the more than 300 marchers came are outside the Embera-Wounaan Comarca, a political construct that puts the distinct Wounaan nation in the position of being an ethnic minority among the Embera. Some Wounaan communities have legally established their collective land titles, while others haven't. Artist Delisa Carpio, from Ella Drua in Colon province, said that when people fight for their land, they always have to follow up because the threats keep coming back. She said that as deforestation approaches her community medicinal plants are disappearing, along with the plants used for traditional dies. "There's no ink for the baskets, because the colonos are doing away with it." The land issue has been simmering for a long time, and boiled over last August in firearms and machetes confrontation between colonos and the community of Rio Hondo. Several people were seriously hurt, and one of the responses to the violence was this march. In addition to protection of land rights, the protesters want the government to officially recognize the Wounaan Podpa Nam Pomaam --- the Wounaan National Congress --- as a legitimate representative of the Wounaan communities.
They didn't let him play both instruments at the same time once the march got going.
As the Wounaan get thrown into the globalized economy, it's the renowned skill of a number of their women, among the world's elite basket makers, that makes these people relevant in the market. This economic reality will surely have far-reaching consequences within Wounaan society.
There were a lot of babies at this march
Dancing --- including here on the hot asphalt near the National Assembly --- was part of the show. Leaflets distributed by the protesters demanded unspecified help "to protect our traditions, dances and customs."
Alina Itucama worked for more than one month to produce this basket. "Because it's fine quality, I'll have to ask for more than $100," she told this reporter.
They don't do soap boxes in Wounaan political culture
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