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Huizysuca, Muisca audiovisual collective

Indigenous collective that finds in the creation of audiovisual content a tool for the transmission of knowledge and memories of the Muisca people.

Municipality

CO
Cota, Cundinamarca,

Category / Sub-Category / Topic

Human development, Culture

Type of investment needed

Grant

Associated SDGs

The challenge

The challenge is to generate an intergenerational reconnection of the Muisca people, making it possible for their own work, knowledge and traditions, which over time have been forgotten or are being threatened, to be recovered and redefined within the contexts and challenges of survival and sustainability faced by the indigenous reservation and its community. This in order to guarantee, through the consolidation of their cultural heritage, the transmission and preservation of their ancestral memories.

Due to the vertiginous city contexts that grow over the Muisca indigenous communities and that absorb those who are called to make the generational relay within the communities, and to the growing demand of the city, the ancestral and patrimonial knowledge of the Muisca people of Cota Cundinamarca is being practiced and transmitted less and less. A clear example of this is that in recent years the two elders who practiced the art of basket weaving have passed away, and there is no clear replacement for this traditional craft. Beyond being, in practice, the transformation of a raw material produced by nature into an element of daily use, it is the breaking of a very intimate link between the Muisca people and their territory. This phenomenon threatens with a close and latent possibility of loss of intangible heritage, since most of the holders of ancestral knowledge, together with the recognized elders, are at an advanced age. Moreover, few people in their families have the natural generational relay that continues preserving in time their own stories and traditions that shape to a great extent the vision of the world and what it is to be Muisca.

The project

The initiative of the Huizysuca collective finds in the creation of audiovisual content a tool for the transmission of the knowledge and memories of the Muisca people. It comprises three areas of work. The first is the sensitization of the Muisca population of Cota, of all ages, in search of strengthening identity, self-recognition and the search within each family and each individual for their own knowledge. Thus finding the latent traditional knowledge that needs to be rescued, re-signified in some cases and transmitted.

The second is the strengthening of a school of audiovisual knowledge, focused on the preparation of the community to tell and document their own knowledge, traditions, uses, customs and stories.

The third is the consolidation of the collective as a Muisca indigenous audiovisual production company, through which they develop their own audiovisual products, compete for incentives, apply for existing calls in the different ministries of the country, participate in exhibitions, festivals and other events of visualization and exhibition of contents, short films and movies. In this way, it is expected that the film heritage and the cultural heritage of the community will grow.

Additionally, it has been identified that within the traditional Cotense population, which does not identify or recognize itself as Muisca, there is knowledge and know-how that are also intangible heritage in the process of extinction. Therefore, the initiative of the collective and its non-exclusive social character, makes it possible to also work on the recovery of such knowledge, which by the fact of not being in the framework of the indigenous community, does not cease to be an important heritage that can and should also be transmitted.

In the same way, this initiative is applicable to support and strengthen the communication processes of the other recognized Muisca communities, such as the Muisca indigenous community of the municipality of Sesquilé, the Muisca reservation and community of the municipality of Chía and the Muisca community of the municipality of Tocancipá in Cundinamarca. Also the Muisca indigenous communities of Suba and Bosa in the city of Bogotá. And in this way contribute to the consolidation of a communication process of the entire Muisca people, a single people divided into six large families. With this solid communicative process, the scope of the Huizysuca collective is scalable and applicable in different indigenous communities, raizal and traditional of the national panorama.

Know more...

  • Awareness campaigns for the Muisca population of Cota about their roots, visiting sacred and historical sites inside and outside the territory of the reservation.
  • Consolidation of the Muisca school of audiovisual knowledge, starting with the elaboration of information banks and mapping of the territory to identify and classify the holders of knowledge.
  • Script and story writing laboratories
  • Production of the collective's first audiovisual product.

Products:

  • 400 community members of the Muisca indigenous reservation of Cota sensitized about existing historical and sacred sites inside and outside the territory.
  • 20 cyclical workshops on audiovisual production, each for groups of 20 people.
  • Product: A training school for audiovisual knowledge and communication.
  • A bank of written stories
  • Shooting of the collective's first short films.

Intermediate results:

  • The Muisca community of Cota in general, is sensitized and approached to their roots, to the knowledge that by inheritance belongs to them and initiate the task of transmission and conservation of their own.
  • The young people approach the knowledge that the traditional knowledgeable people of the territory have to deliver and begin the task of gathering information, classifying and documenting it, as raw material for the stories that will be told from the success of the training school of audiovisual knowledge.
  • The community appropriates its traditional knowledge and recognizes itself in it, strengthening the links and connection with the territory, the indigenous roots and the culture of being Muisca.
  • The grandparents approach the young people, finding in them the natural generational relay for their traditional knowledge and wisdom, leaving in them the survival of their legacy.
  • The community becomes more conscious of recovering the uses and customs aimed at living in harmony with the territory and the beings that inhabit it.

Expected impact: 

  • Increase by 30% the participation of the Muisca people in community activities.
  • Increase by 10% the participation of young people in the activities of the resguardo (workshops, meetings and contests).
  • Reach 20 traditional and/or ancestral stories and 2 film scripts.
  • Produce 2 community short films that participate in national film festivals.
  • Cota Secretary of Education
  • Muisca Indigenous Reservation of Cota
  • ONIC (National Indigenous Organization of Colombia)
  • Gregory Fernando Chingaté Fonseca, president of the council of the municipality of Cota and traditional authority of the Muisca indigenous reservation of Cota for more than ten years. gregory.ch@live.com 
  • Johana Marcela Castillo, Vice-governor of the Muisca indigenous reservation of Cota. 
  • Jose Luis Robles Neuque, photographer of the municipal council, storyteller and musical indigenous audiovisual producer. jlrobles11@misena.edu.co

Historically, the Muiscas have inhabited since approximately the 4th century BC the territory known as the Cundinamarca-Boyacá highlands and part of its surroundings, on which is located, among others, the city of Bogotá, capital of Colombia. According to DANE data, about 10 million Colombians descend from the Muiscas, and there are currently multiple organizational processes of indigenous Muisca cabildos in different parts of Boyacá and Cundinamarca. As of today, 6 communities are officially recognized by the Colombian Ministry of the Interior and are also members of the ONIC (National Indigenous Organization of Colombia), including the Muisca indigenous community of Cota. This community has a reservation territory of 505 hectares in the Majuy mountain range and a recognized population of 4,090 community members according to an internal census, which is equivalent to just over 10% of Cota's population of over 39,000 inhabitants. 

The Muisca cosmogony is based on multiple myths and stories, transmitted by oral tradition from generation to generation, through which the Muisca explain the universe, the origin of humanity, and communicate the knowledge, uses, customs and vision of the people, of what it is to be Muisca. This knowledge has been lost over time and others are being threatened due to the lack of intergenerational connection in traditional Muisca families, along with the loss of interest in their roots in a large part of the population under 30 years of age in the municipality of Cota and mainly in the indigenous community. This is due to the growth of the city, the loss of the traditional trades of the population, such as agriculture, goldsmithing and weaving in different materials. This also results in the loss of the native environment of the region, plants, wild animals, gastronomic recipes, traditional foods, the transmission of stories, myths, legends and the ability of the Muisca to live in harmony and balance with the territory of which it is part, that is, the general loss of the Muisca's own spirituality.

However, today, more than 50% of the population of the Cota indigenous reservation is of high school and productive age. At the same time, there is a growing interest among the Muisca indigenous authorities of the recognized villages in promoting processes of recovery of the Muisca culture and diversity through multiple programs, such as the recovery of water sources in the mountains, reforestation and conservation of the high Andean forest (ecosystem of the area), incentives for the development of their own artistic exhibitions, and the revitalization of the language. 

In addition to this interest in the recovery and revitalization of traditional Muisca knowledge, there is growing interest from different governmental entities such as the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education, local mayors' offices, the Cundinamarca government, and different academic entities, such as national and international universities.

Investment

(*): In kind/pro bonus

(**): Financing

Goods and inputs
Funds
Needed
Covered
Solicited

4 Work Station (computadores de alto rendimiento) (*) (**)

u$s 5000.00

u$s 1000.00

u$s 4000.00

2 cámaras reflex Canon 5d mark IV o equivalente (*) (**)

u$s 8400.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 8400.00

2 Grabadoras de audio digital (1 con micrófono boom y caña, y 1 de 4 canales y 4 micrófonos de solapa) (*) (**)

u$s 1650.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 1650.00

Caja de luces fluotec con trípodes (de aprendizaje) (*) (**)

u$s 4000.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 4000.00

Ópticas para cámara canon 5d o equivalentes (50mm - 24-70mm - 70-200mm - 16-35mm) (*) (**)

u$s 5500.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 5500.00

Estabilizador gimball dji de tres ejes o equivalente (*) (**)

u$s 1000.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 1000.00

2 trípodes cabeza fluida (*) (**)

u$s 2000.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 2000.00

Televisor 75" (*) (**)

u$s 1000.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 1000.00

12 memorias: 8 SD (de 32 y 64 gb alta velocidad clase 10) y 4 compact flash (128gb alta velocidad) (*) (**)

u$s 700.00

u$s 150.00

u$s 550.00

Pilas recargables, cargadores, cables, discos duros y demás insumos (**)

u$s 600.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 600.00

Mini van carga producción (*) (**)

u$s 12000.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 12000.00

Services
Funds
Needed
Covered
Solicited

Transporte salidas de sensibilización (2) (**)

u$s 500.00

u$s 500.00

u$s 0.00

Internet (**)

u$s 312.00

u$s 312.00

u$s 0.00

Adobe creative cloud por un año (a partir del sexto mes de ejecución) (*) (**)

u$s 400.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 400.00

Refrigerios salidas (*) (**)

u$s 150.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 150.00

Human resources
Funds
Needed
Covered
Solicited

Gerente del proyecto (**)

u$s 12000.00

u$s 4000.00

u$s 8000.00

Capacitadores talleres (10) (**)

u$s 7000.00

u$s 2000.00

u$s 5000.00

Académico acompañante salidas de sensibilización (**)

u$s 600.00

u$s 0.00

u$s 600.00

Comunicador documentador (**)

u$s 6000.00

u$s 1000.00

u$s 5000.00

Productor de campo proyecto (**)

u$s 6000.00

u$s 1000.00

u$s 5000.00

Secretaria Proyecto (**)

u$s 5000.00

u$s 500.00

u$s 4500.00

Mayores acompañantes a los procesos de la escuela (**)

u$s 600.00

u$s 100.00

u$s 500.00

Others
Funds
Needed
Covered
Solicited

Adecuación de espacio e infraestructura en el resguardo para la ubicación de la escuela de saberes audiovisuales (**)

u$s 15000.00

u$s 5000.00

u$s 10000.00

Producción primer cortometraje muisca (gastos de alimentación, talento, locaciones, crew, permisos, autorizaciones, arte, entre otros) (**)

u$s 5000.00

u$s 1000.00

u$s 4000.00

TOTAL AMOUNTS:

u$s 100412.00

u$s 16562.00

u$s 83850.00

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