Erdbewegung
and the Huni Kuin
A bridge between the Black Forest and the Amazon
If we think back to the beginnings of our association, the connection between our Brazilian and non-Brazilian association members and the Amazonian people of the Huni Kuin was the seed that led to the creation of this NGO.
Driven by the desire to support an indigenous village with the construction of a Shubuã (the community center of the tribe), the idea arose to found a non-profit association in order to go beyond this concrete project and commit ourselves to our ideals, visions and dreams for a change in society.
The vision of creating a bridge between the Amazon and the Black Forest, between indigenous cultures and the Western world, remains one of the cornerstones of Erdbewegung to this day.
Who are the Huni Kuin?
The Huni Kuin are an indigenous people who live in village communities in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon region. They have called the Amazon their home for hundreds of generations. As inhabitants of the rainforest, they are guardians of a deep-rooted knowledge of living in harmony with nature and the healing power of plants.
Xinã Bena
“Xinã Bena” – literal translation “new thoughts” or symbolic translation “new time” is what the Huni Kuin call the current era, which began around the turn of the millennium.
After their first contact with the Western world around 90 years ago, the Huni Kuin were enslaved by the European colonizers and forbidden to practice their culture and speak their language. Nevertheless, they have never stopped preserving it. Today, in Xinã Bena, the new era, everything revolves around the freedom to proudly express their culture and share their traditions, wisdom and knowledge with future generations and the rest of the world. Xinã Bena stands for a respectful exchange between cultures and for coming together as a human family to shape the new era together.
Our motives
For indigenous peoples. For nature. For all of us.
We see a bridge between the Amazon and the Western world as a great possible enrichment for both sides. Here we see the opportunity to grow together and inspire each other, but also to provide mutual support. Because we need help on both sides.
On the one hand, there are the problems and challenges that the Huni Kuin in the Amazon and other indigenous peoples around the world are facing. This includes constantly increasing deforestation, illegal land grabbing and polluted drinking water, but also the fight to preserve one's own traditions and to classify and find one's way around the influences of the Western world that have been taking place since their enslavement. Due to the isolation of the forest communities all of this would happen as a solo fight without anyone noticing. Since this is not possible, the Huni Kuin are interested in global networking. Working with the Huni Kuin and other indigenous ethnic groups and creating a global network and platform on which they can have a voice and be heard means more opportunities for global attention, support, self-efficacy and influence.
On the other hand, there are the problems and challenges that we are facing in our western world. An exploitative economic system, climate change and species extinction, wars, social divisions and the rise of mental illnesses such as depression and burnouts are just some of the seemingly endless list of challenges that we are facing collectively and individually. We see our alienation from nature as the root of many of these problems. This is where the Huni Kuin and other indigenous peoples can come into play with their knowledge and wisdom about living in unity and harmony and provide us with assistance on various levels.
Txana Bane Huni Kuin describes it like this in his interview with the TAZ: "For me, "indigenous" means living in harmony and in collaboration with nature. So not living at the expense of the system or producing a lot of waste. That's what we see as non-indigenous. Indigenous always means: In the cycle with nature. We don't want to be part of this exploitative system that always takes and gives nothing back." When we asked what the Huni Kuin can give the Western world, he replied: "Access to sensitivity. Many people lose sensitivity in childhood, the feeling for the world around us, the animals, the plants, the other people The Huni Kuin can give a lot. We are a people of the earth and it is important for us that we care for and care for nature. We live in and from it. The idea that you can do it differently doesn't exist for us."
He ends the interview with the following sentence, which we can agree with one on one and which pretty much illustrates the heart and soul of our NGO:
"I have a message from the forest: We are not alone. We are connected to each other. Nature is beautiful. Let us go into the future together, then we will be much stronger and safer. The different continents are like our heart and soul . But our body is the earth."
Here is the link to the entire interview:
https://taz.de/Indigener-ueber-Brasiliens-Praesident/!5562443/