This is not Joaquín Nuká’s first time sending a desperate appeal for the tribe’s survival to the country’s human rights committee to grant them their rights to return to the forest. Nuká is a young member of the Nukak tribe, who along with his family and other tribe members, have been forced to migrate from the their original habitats. Now that he lives in the outskirts of the San Jose del Guaviare town, he and his tribe members are all suffering from depression from the environmental and cultural changes, as well as from the loss of their surrounding people due to unfamiliar diseases and emotional stress. According to the interview Colombian radio station, Caracol, had with Nuká, he desperately said, “We want to return to our forest, from where the FARC guerrillas forced us out – why, we don’t know.” Following through, he shared his opinions on the modern food given through rations by the government by saying, “it badly affects the children, we miss our forest foods” (Survival International).
Joaquín Nuka
“We fled day and night through the jungle. Finally we arrived in this place, no one is happy here” -Monica.
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According to the interview conducted by the Guardian, Monica, a young woman of the Nukak tribe has suffered much from all the change forced upon her and her tribe. Not only is her new home away from the forests and close to the town where modernization has filled it with infrastructures poor for hunting and fishing, but whenever she tries to hunt in the forest, the local farmers get angry and force them out. Monica has also noted that her tribe now suffers from diseases they’ve never had to deal with before. These transmission of diseases after being in contact with the outside world has resulted Monica to lose many of her friends and family members part of the tribe, and also immersed the remaining tribe members with daily difficulties, depression, and many other mental problem (George).
"If we stay here much longer, our people will completely lose our ways, and we will just die off, far from the land where we belong," says Monica.
Monica
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PERSONAL STORIES
Sandara is a young Nukak mother who have been forced to migrate from the forest into the San José del Guaviare town. Her one-year-old daughter, Kelly has been hospitalized for severe malnutrition; even though she is one, she is only the size of a six-month-old baby. Because of the loss of the Nukak culture, missionaries have been teaching them to wear clothes and eat modern food. However, all these modern food, according to Sandara, don’t suit their diet and have harmed many of the Nukak’s health. For example, most of the children and adults are malnourished because of the loss of traditional food, as well as because they have not been receiving enough rations from the Acción Social, a government’s aid organization. Sandara shared the fact that not only was the ration provided from the government was insufficient, but sometimes they were “forgotten to be brought” (George). In addition, before the environmental and cultural changes the Nukak had no sense of money as they solely relied on their cultural practices for survival. However, now that urbanization has taken over, the Nukak people, including Sandara now spend their days begging in the town.
Sandara
YOUR INVOLVEMENT MATTERS: WHY CARE?
The Nukak are one of the 32 tribes in Colombia faced with an imminent risk of extinction, with more than
50% of the entire tribe gone. Due to such processes of industrialization and modernization, the Nukak have
been forced to migrate to the outskirts of a town where they have been restricted from their traditional ways
of life such as hunting, fishing, and building their own homes. In the future, if nothing is done to help the
Nukak tribe, it is sure that their tribe will face extinction, with their culture forever lost; hence, more rights
and protection should be granted to the Nukak tribe from the Colombian government by migrating them
back to their original land so that they can continue their cultural practices.
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photograph courtesy of Jan Sochor
photograph courtesy of Jan Sochor
The Nukak culture and tradition, the nomadic lifestyle they lead, and their hunt for food all center around
natural resources. However, this cultural way of survival is lost when all their land taken away from the intruders,
and as a result, are forced to stay in only one place, receiving small amounts of rations from the government.
It is important to protect the Nukak tribe, because their culture comes to the core relevance of their existence.
With the existence of the Nukak comes the diversity that we seek in this world, a factor that functions to offer
solutions in the real world. For example, the modern world actually needs the wisdom of such indigenous
tribes, such as the Nukak, to understand their resourcefulness, nature practices, and culture.
According to Nina Wegner, the Co-founder of Vanishing Cultures Project, she states, “we find ourselves with strange new problems. Energy use, land use, population explosion, climate change, pollution, etc… However, most indigenous cultures around the world were able to live sustainably for centuries, even millennia” (The Huffington Post). This is why, when our world is faced with such problems, we need to seek the wisdom and perspectives of such tribes like the Nukak who have been able to lead a sustainable life (until the invasion). Hence, the Nukak tribe is important to have in this world. Some compelling reasons to support the urgency of advocacy for the Nukak is because currently, more than 50% of this tribe’s members have died; hence, it is now time to stand up for the protection of this tribe before it is too late. Indeed, such advocacy can help the tribe return back to their land and continue to enhance diversity throughout the world.
In order to prevent such consequences of happening in the future, there are many direct and indirect ways you can get involved. For example, a solution can be to write to the Colombian government urging them to help the Nukak tribe to return to their rightful land, to start a campaign for the tribe (such campaigns in the
past have persuaded the Colombian government to create a reserve in the 1993 for the Nukaks, but they need to be expanded), donate to this campaign which will directly go to Survival International, ONIC, and other organization’s campaign, or even by just spreading the word for advocacy!
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photograph courtesy of Joshua Project
CONTACT US
RELATED PROJECTS
Survival International is a global organization that helps to prevent the annihilation of indigenous tribes by providing them with opportunities to speak to the world about the difficulties they face on a daily basis. Such actions of promoting equal rights for the tribes can help defend them from going extinct and spread awareness about these endangered tribes as well as their unique culture around the globe.
ONIC is an organization based in Colombia to help indigenous tribes by strengthen and supporting the self-government and rights of indigenous people. In addition, they attempt to promote social recognition of the indigenous peoples by managing the participation of the tribes in decision making to contribute their diversity to the country’s economic and social development processes. This organization also attempts to build relations with NGOS, the Colombian State and other organizations to establish peace and rights within these tribes.
This is a nonprofit organization, in which Nina Wegner co-founded to use documentary journalism to learn about ancient lifestyles and empower indigenous communities globally. In 2011, she and her partner traveled to Nepal to document the lives of the Loba tribe.
ABOUT THE NUKAK
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Now, more than 50% of the whole entire tribe is dead, leaving their culture to gradually diffuse into the modern society (Survival International). In fact, the environmental change from a rainforest to the outskirts of a the San Jose del Guaviare town has restricted the Nukak from continuing their cultural methods of survival, especially through fishing, hunting, and making their own homes with wood and palm wood (Hearn). Before, each family had their tradition of eating fish, turtles, fruit, vegetables, insects, and honey through their cultural practices; however, this abrupt change in environment has caused the Nukak's change in
processes of industrialization and modernization has brought beneficial changes such as the increase of trade to the government and colonists, these changes have in reality, been very harmful to the Nukak tribe as it has caused a change and loss in their cultural practices by restricting them from hunting, fishing, and building their traditional homes.
photo courtesy of Gustavo Pollitis, Survival International
diet and culture by leaving them with no choice but to eat modernized meals provided by the government, as well as to live in modern infrastructures, rather than their temporary homes built out of wood and palm leaves. Ever since, many respiratory diseases, such as malaria, flue, and infections have been introduced to the tribe as well, which has not only left many of the Nukak dead, but because of it, it has caused serious mental problems such as depression within the tribe (George). For example, according to Kelly Hearn, author of the “Drug Wars Threaten to Wipe Out Amazon Nomads”, Mao-be, the leader of the tribe has suffered greatly due to the stress and mind of thinking that he failed to guide the Nukak as a leader. As a result to this irrecoverable despair, he committed suicide by poisoning himself.
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All these unfortunate events such as the invasion of land, transmission of diseases, and depressions has ultimately remaining members to be immersed in a life of depression in the midst of being forced out of their land and experiencing differences in cultural practices, diet, and environment.
Photo courtesy of Jan Sochor
The Nukak-- they were once a peaceful tribe traditionally living in small groups from nine to thirty people in the deep rainforests between the Guaviare and Inírida rivers of Southeast Colombia. While this tribe depended on the local rivers nearby for fishing, natural resources found in the forest for survival, and manmade blowguns and darts dipped with curare-- a type of poison created by the tribe out of five different plants for hunting-- they were isolated from the outside world, until their first official contact with outsiders in 1988. Ever since this contact, not only have their land been colonized by colonists growing coca for cocaine trade, and processes of modernization by being replaced by urban infrastructures, the Nukak have been forced to migrate to the outskirts of a town. While such
BECAUSE YOUR INVOLVEMENT MATTERS:
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SAVE THE NUKAK
WE TAKE ACTION SO THEIR POPULATION AND CULTURE CAN SURVIVE
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ABOUT US
Save the Nukak is a project dedicated to the advocacy and protection of the endangered Nukak tribe based in Colombia. Due to such processes of industrialization and modernization, the Nukak have been forced to migrate to the outskirts of a town where they are restricted from their traditional way of life such as hunting, fishing, and building their own homes; as a result, more rights and protection should be granted to the Nukak tribe from the Colombian government by migrating them back to their original land so that they can continue their cultural practices.
Ever since the first official contact with outsiders in 1988, the Nukak tribe have become an endangered tribe, more specifically, one of more than 30 indigenous peoples who face extinction in Colombia according to the national indigenous organization, ONIC, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Save the Nukak not only strives to raise awareness by containing background information about the tribe and the extreme loss of population and culture it is currently facing, but it also gives people around the globe to be motivated to take action and get involved with the protection and advocacy of this tribe.
It's now or never; it is in your hands to save the endangered Nukak tribe!
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languages contributed from indigenous tribes, such as the Nukak
1988
First official contact with outsiders
Colombian tribes at imminent risk of extinction
one of the
32
more than
50%
of the entire tribe dead
photo courtesy of David Hill/ Survival International
photo courtesy of Gustavo Pollitis
photo courtesy of Richard McColl
photo courtesy of David Hill/Survival International
photo courtesy of crisisforums.org
photo courtesy of Fiona Watson/ Survival International
photo courtesy of nativevillage.org
photo courtesy of Fiona Watson/ Survival International
photo courtesy of Gustavo Pollitis
"The new land was very small, threat of conflict remained, and local rivers lacked fish stock."
David Hill
"We are few now, hardly any Nukak remain. The outsiders are many, and have big houses. They don't care that the Nukak are being wiped out."
A member of the Nukak tribe
