Identifying, documenting and managing manifestations of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in rural communities

The publications, documents and videos were made as part of the project “Strengthening the capacity for the management of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in indigenous, rural and campesino communities” in 2014. The outputs generated from this project focused on the following aspects: capacity building in the management of the ICH; local research to support the safeguarding of campesino cultures; local research to feed the urgent safeguard plan for the Nukak indigenous group; the documentation of artisanal knowledge in the Guane region, and the memoirs of the 2014 National Campesino Cultures Meeting.

The rescue of intangible cultural expressions in the country, inspired by the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, has become a priority for the Ministry of Culture. TBI Colombia’s experience in participative methodologies, local research and documentation of traditional knowledge —in addition to the generation of multi-stakeholder dialogue among local actors, the academy and governmental and non-governmental institutions—, made our organization the ideal partner for the nation-wide process for the strengthening of the intangible cultural heritage policy in rural communities.

Practical participative tools for the identification, documentation and management of the Immaterial Cultural Heritage manifestations (in spanish)

This toolkit presents the methodology developed for the strategy to strengthen the social capacities for the management of the Immaterial Cultural Heritage in the departments of Cundinamarca, Cauca, Boyacá, Córdoba, Cesar, and Bolívar. It includes a number of tools to approach the Intangible Cultural Heritage from a local perspective and promoting the ownership of cultural expressions, their documentation and good management of the same in rural, indigenous and afro-Colombian communities.

Series: Local research for the strengthening of social capacities for the management of the Immaterial Cultural Heritage. (in spanish)

These series include 12 booklets that present a selection of the local research conducted within the framework of the integral strategy for the strengthening of social capacity in the management of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the departments of Cauca, Cesar, Córdoba, Cundinamarca, Bolívar and Boyacá, Colombia. The topics presented include traditional festivals, fishing techniques, local strategies for food security, indigenous handcrafts and processes for the recovery of oral tradition and history.

Series: Local research for the integral safeguarding of campesino cultures (in spanish)

This series present 22 booklets with local research developed in the departments of Cundinamarca and Santander. The topics include traditional medicine, plant inventories, oral tradition, practices and trades, history of the territories and farmer organizations, agricultural practices and management of local resources, among others.

Series: Local research for the Urgent Safeguarding Plan for the Nukak Indigenous Group (in spanish)

This collection includes a local research project about the art of weaving armbands by the Nukak. This activity is one of the of income sources and self-esteem activity for this endangered ethnic group. The publication “The process and design of Nukak armbands in Agua Bonita” describes this art and its traditional symbolic references from the local perspective of the Nukak women.

Conversations about the Immaterial Cultural Heritage of the Colombian Campesino Cultures (in spanish)

The National Campesino Cultures meeting was held October 29–31 in Curití (Santander). More than 200 participants attended. The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the great variety of cultural expressions of campesinos in Colombia and to recognize the knowledge and practices of rural communities throughout the country. The purpose of the meeting was to promote an exchange of experiences, from a thematic and methodological perspective, of campesino culture in the various regions in Colombia. Discussions took place on campesino productive systems; seed management; gastronomy and traditional medicine; social organizations; management of natural resources; the transmission of knowledge, memory, myths and local legends; and knowledge and practices.