DEFEND THE SACRED

104 The Female Revolution In our ‘One Billion Rising’ movement, I experience the great power of the solidarity of women. We support each other. When a woman resurrects among us it is the res- urrection of us all. If a woman among us can free herself, then it is the liberation of us all. But outside of our move- ment, we see how much women are still separated from each other. The existing political systems need this sep- aration to maintain the status quo, to keep hold of their power. The system is strengthened by the refusal of us women to unite. This is why we need solidarity among women. Ati Quigua, also known as The Mother of Good Thoughts, is a leader of the Iku tribe (Arhuaco) from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains in Colombia. She is a pacifist and an environmentalist with a university degree in political science and was one of the first Indigenous women elected to the city council of Bogotá D.C., where she served from 2004–2011. In 2018, she ran for the Colombian Senate. The Arhuaco have been protecting the environment for centuries and have recorded their knowledge about this. They call their land the Heart of the Earth. In August 2018, Colombian President Santos signed a decree protecting the Indigenous tribes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The protected area is defined by the Linea Negra (black line), which forms a ring around the holy sites at the foot of the mountains. It marks the original habitat of four Indigenous tribes, the Kogi, Arhuaco, Wiwa, and Kankuano.

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