✦ Remembering our Indigenous Nature ✦

Mamo Senchina from the Kogi people, Colombia — August 18–23 at Storbuan Bio-Dynamic Organic Farm in Trøndelag, Norway

What does it mean to remember our indigeneity:  our inherent connection & union to the natural world, before the complexity of separation? How can we collectively bring forth this remembering?  And how can we bring in more relational repair & communication to our living earth, mend the broken chains, and take true eldership for our role as stewards?

What an honor to be able to invite these questions and more to a few very special days with Mamo Senchina: spiritual guide & elder from the Kogi first nations people, from the Sierra Nevada  in Colombia. The Kogis are one of the few indigenous peoples left on our planet who were never conquered, and who still live close to their original cosmology.

Mamo represents Gonavindua, the ancient Kogi territory in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia. He sees it as his duty as "big brother" to continue the “palabra antigua”, the ancient word of origin, which guards the knowledge of how we take care of life.

This gathering will center around the word and the fire, and through offerings in and with nature. To meet Mamo Senchina--and through him the Kogi people--is both to discover another wisdom and to be invited to explore the wisdom of one's own roots.

We have invited Mamo Senchina to share the tribe's practice of how we can deepen our own connection to inner and outer nature. In Norway, we often talk about “deep ecology", but do we actually have methods for connecting with nature together? The core of deep ecology is that humans are not separate from nature, and that our inner landscape: emotions, body, consciousness, is connected to the outer landscape around us.

Through advice and lessons he himself has received from his grandfather and other older Mamos, he gives us seeds of wisdom for a time marked by major changes, climate crises and fragmentation. Mamo Senchina will share his experience of reading and communicating with nature, as a mutual conversation, not just a metaphor. He will present Bushanduna, a being who wants to give life to and support projects that take care of Mother Earth and all her visible and invisible inhabitants.

"The form the meetings take is of less importance to us, as long as it is positive. We take the time to sit together. What we seek is unity. Therefore, we look for ways to interact, to create alliances and grow together."

Mamo Senchina places great emphasis on flow. The group that gathers is a living whole, and what each individual brings with them contributes to today's conversation.

Fundamentally, the work of the Mamos is about harmonizing the energies between the material and spiritual sides of life, in response to the effects of a modern lifestyle based on the plundering of raw materials, topsoil and natural ecosystems, and a general devaluation of life. There is a global imbalance that directly affects all living things on our planet, which is why the mamos work through pagamento, a practice that restores this disorder. Several pagamentos (offerings to Mother Earth) will occur spontaneously throughout the stay. The program is kept loose and organic, with room for what arises along the way.

This is the first part of a series of wisdom exchanges arranged by Storbuan gård. To explore how to listen. To ourselves, each other and nature.

✦ Program ✦

The framework and order may change. The main activity is the evening's deep listening around the campfire with Mamo Senchina; the rest of the program moves loosely around it. Kogi rituals and Nordic-animistic-tools (sauna, forest bath, symbiotic singing) are woven in along the way.

The stay begins with Yona, a ritual ceremony for the place that welcomes us, where we introduce ourselves to the territory and Mamo hands over our offerings. Furthermore, there will be individual consultations with yatukua (water divination), an introduction to the Kogi cosmovision with a conversation about community, family and how to live in peace, space for private meetings with Mamo, evening ceremonies around the campfire with singing, a transmission on the relationship between the spiritual and the material world, and a final talking circle with Mamo.

In the weekend there will be a mountain hike and hike to water and forest with Mamo, fire ceremonies, sauna ritual and a final pagamento.

Register by sending an email to hei@storbuan.no.

✦ Consultations with Mamo ✦

It will be possible to have private consultations with Mamo Senchina, both as individuals and couples/families — including through yatukua, the water divination practice. More information will be sent if interested. It is possible to come for a consultation without attending the rest of the meetings.

✦ Practical info ✦

≫ Arrival: From Wednesday 19 August. It is possible to come during the week or in the weekend, or to stay the whole week from Wednesday 19 to Sunday 23.

≫ Price: From 2000 NOK (approx 200 Euros). This money goes entirely to Mamo Senchina's village in Colombia. Sliding scale, pay what you can. Private consultations from 750 NOK (75 Euros).

≫ Accommodation: Free with your own tent, shared room for 500 NOK per day, or single room for 1000 NOK per day.

≫ Food: Shared lunch and dinner: 350 NOK per day. Breakfast is at your own expense.

≫ Registration: hei@storbuan.no

≫ NB: The gathering is held in English, with Mamo's translator Jassiel.