Giving Back 2015
Tulia's Artisan Gallery donates a portion of each purchase to projects in education and/or cultural preservation in Colombia that empowers indigenous communities.
In 2015 your purchases helped fund the Tairona Heritage Trust's Black Line Initiative - A project initiated by the Kogi, an indigenous tribe in Colombia, to communicate to the world that we must take care of nature and combat ecocide.
The Tairona Heritage Trust, a small British-based NGO which, since 1990, has been working on behalf of three indigenous tribes – the Kogi, the Arhuaco and the Assario – living in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. These indigenous groups are the descendants of the Tairona civilization which flourished there at the time of the Spanish Invasion.
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the highest coastal mountain on earth, is an isolated triangular pyramid on a separate tectonic plate as the Andes. Its unique structure means that it is virtually a miniature version of the Earth, with all the world’s climates represented and in which most of the plants and animals of the planet can find homes.
The Black Line Initiative is a groundbreaking project initiated by the Kogi of Colombia and supported by the Tairona Heritage Trust. It is based on the Kogi concept of black lines –invisible threads of primordial thought and lifeforce that criss-cross the planet to form a connected network. For the Kogi, nature is a living organism, structured by these black lines and so the effect of actions is transmitted from one place to others. The Kogi want to help us take care of nature by making use of the black lines.
The Kogi are at the forefront of global efforts to combat ecocide. They have taken the initiative to communicate their message to the world via two documentaries produced by Alan Ereira of the BBC, the most recent of which is ALUNA. The movie is available for rent on youtube or can be viewed on Hulu.