Hunger Series - Territory

The second piece in the Hunger Series

Territory is a way of not just naming "ownership" of a piece of land but also our sacred relationship to Earth. Territory expresses the right all people have to have a home, food, and community and in turn their responsibility to care for Earth.

The relationship to the territory is like our relationships to relatives. Territory is an elder who has taught and nourished generations and is part of the sacred inter-connections of Creation. The displaced of Colombia call it a loss of territory and not a loss of land to help relay the depth of the break that occurs when they are forcibly displaced.

Operation Genesis – 1997

In the rich rain forest between Panama and Colombia Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities had lived peacefully for decades as farming communities. In 1997 the Colombian government with the help of other “armed actors” initiated Operation Genesis.

Operation Genesis was a military operation designed to displace, by force, the communities that had lived in the region to make way for large “agro-business” projects. The military action began with an air bombing campaign followed by military and para-military moving through the region and forcibly removing, detaining, kidnapping and murdering community members who were still on the land. It is estimated that over 5,000 people were displaced to the nearby city of Turbo. This is not a total number of victims, as the number of people who were murdered or never found remains unknown.

Territory and the right to territory are at the heart of many struggles within Colombia. Campesinos, Indigenous and Afro-Colombians have been forcibly removed from ancestral lands throughout Colombia to make way for projects that the government puts into place with no democratic process or compensation for land and property that is lost.

An immediate struggle with hunger begins when territory is taken from a people. The communities in the North of Colombia live by farming. What they produce provides not only food but also sources for trade and income. Displacement tears at the very fabric of the community. When the daily necessities of food and water are no longer accessible other needs like education, medical care, etc. also have to move down the list. The communities become consumed with the energy to simply subsist and often face losing children to malnutrition and diseases caused by polluted water sources.

While territory provides a way of life – farming and gathering – it is also part of the history and identity of the people who have lived in close relationship with the land for decades. The displaced decry not only the loss of the land but how the environment is being destroyed through large projects that strip the soil of nutrients, pollutes rivers and damage the incredible diversity inherent to rain forests.

Hunger and territory are intimately intertwined in the Colombian context. The origins of the civil conflict started when campesinos demanded land reform so that all the people of Colombia could eat and live. This struggle remains today as many who already live in poverty are plunged more deeply into need by the stealing of land, heritage, income and peace. Read below to learn how you can act, pray, and continue to journey with us deeper into the issue of hunger, territory and Colombia.

 

Action

FSPA launches Share a Sheep project
by Suzanne Rubenbauer, FSPA
Participants of the affiliation-sponsored GATE Franciscan Pilgrimage of June 2008 went to a small village in Mexico called San Isidro De Gamboa, located in the State of Guanajuato. Our guide was Eusebio Hernandez, a community organizer for UNORCA (National Union of Autonomous Regional Campesino Organizations), an autonomous, non-profit and non-partisan network of Mexican campesino and indigenous farming organizations advocating for small farmers' livelihoods and rights. The goal of the Share a Sheep Project is to provide funding for 41 sheep and start-up money for animal food and building material for corrals and roofing. The total funding of $6,000 will provide six families of San Isidro with seven to nine sheep each along with the animal food and building material. When the individual herds grow, each family will gift other villagers with sheep.

To donate online, click here and you will be sent the secure online donation form. The form includes a space for you to indicate where you would like your gift used (next to the "other" option, please type Share a Sheep).

Take Action for Gaza
Territory has long been a source of conflict in Gaza and Israel. Take action here to advocate for an impartial international investigation into war crimes and human rights abuses in the region.

 

Meditation

At different times we all experience vulnerability. For some of the Colombians it is the loss of territory and the close relationship they had with the Earth. It is with pain and sorrow that they watch the destruction of their history and a sense of belonging in the universe.

For those who live in our cities and towns, it is the current imploding economic situation. The uncertainty of being able to provide adequately for our families and keep our homes erodes our sense of territory and belonging.

In these trying times:

• How do we fulfill our hunger for place and belonging when our foundation has been shaken?
  
• How do we reach out to one another as we experience the pain of loss of income or loss of territory and the lives that both had sustained?