Cuerpos de Agua is a research-creation process developed for the New Multicultural Generation (NUGEM), being this a group of young people formed by teachers in formation of the María Reina de Mitú-Vaupés Indigenous Superior Normal School, belonging to different ethnic groups of the department. In this process, the environmental problems surrounding wetlands and their relationship with the socio-cultural and territorial structure are tackled through the exploration of artistic languages.
The aim is to generate processes of visibility and social awareness of local problems and to provide pedagogical, investigative and creative tools that serve the teaching practice and community leadership of these teachers in training at the regional level. The NUGEM collective appropriates conceptual and normative elements on the care and sustainability of different ecosystems and revalues practices and thoughts of the indigenous tradition, giving meaning to the symbiosis Nature - Culture.
In the municipality of Mitú there are about 16 wetlands that take their names from the neighborhoods through which their waters flow. These wetlands are not independent bodies of water, but constitute a water complex that, together with some of the municipality's pipes, make up the so-called Mitú wetland system. There are multiple benefits of these and necessary for the presence of unique fauna and flora within these ecosystems, thus enhancing the existing biodiversity. However, these bodies of water have been suffering a permanent deterioration caused by the processes of occupation of the territory since the beginning and up to the present forming an environmental imbalance, generating a strong impact on the ecosystem. It is for this reason that the activities developed in each of the Water Bodies sessions are aimed at exploring the relationship between culture and nature from different artistic stakes and local and traditional knowledge, allowing personal and collective reflection on this and other socio-environmental issues. Bayron Orrego
