New York, NY, April 23, 2024 — Goldwater Ventures featured Tampu Project’s 2024 Earth Day event, "Ecology and Respect for the Earth from an Indigenous Perspective." The event assembled a diverse group interested in exploring and celebrating the profound wisdom and ancestral knowledge of the Andean worldview.
Tampu Project’s mission is to safeguard and educate about the knowledge contributions of Andean ancestral culture to humanity. This includes launching significant initiatives to foster the integration and development of indigenous communities across the Americas while ensuring a balanced coexistence between human progress and ecological preservation.
The session featured Ivan Wiki Poma Pachaq Misayoq-Amauta, a respected Andean Inka Cosmovisión Master, who has spent over twenty years preserving the Andean ancestral culture. Ivan narrated the origin story of the Inkan civilization, emphasizing the vital roles of deities Pachamamaq and Pachamama, which represent the cosmos and the earth, respectively. He highlighted the central message of these narratives: "La mision de toda la creacion es cuidar de la naturaleza" (the mission of all creation is to care for nature).
Drawing on his expertise in ecological science, Ivan detailed the significance of symbiotic living—where different entities mutually benefit from their coexistence—and contrasted it with anabiotic, or lifeless, conditions. He noted that indigenous practices intrinsically understand and advocate a human-centered ecology, which considers cultural practices fundamental to maintaining ecological balance.
Tampu Project shared their Indigenous Sustainability Principles: integrative world views, respect for the land and its resources, traditional knowledge, community management, understanding natural cycles and seasonality, and fostering cultural and environmental resilience. Ivan voiced concerns about the modern world's heavy dependence on artificial intelligence, warning of its potential to depersonalize and dehumanize life. He reminded the audience that technology should augment, not supplant, the human experience.
A. Prince Albert III, the President and Founder of Goldwater Ventures and Chairman of the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Community Trust, discussed the interconnectedness of Indigenous communities, including Afro-Indigenous voices, histories, and communities. He emphasized the collective effort required to restore and maintain traditional ways of life: "Indigenous communities of the hemispherical Americas, including Afro-Indigenous communities, are weaving together the threads of our past to restore and maintain our lifeways together. It's about sustaining our home, planet Earth, our collective human spirit."
Luz Sumaq Nina Poma, Tampu Project’s Chief Operations Officer, provided a powerful statement on the importance of these gatherings: "Events like today remind us that our ancestral teachings are not just past narratives but living, breathing wisdom that can guide our ecological and communal futures together on earth."
Monica Rodriguez, a board member of Tampu and founder of the Hustle Hive, also emphasized the operational side of these cultural endeavors: "Our role is to bring visibility, resources, and administrative support to organizations like Tampu Project, Goldwater Ventures, and Hustle Hive — ensuring that mission-driven organizations are part of the global conversation on sustainability, and themselves sustained."
This year's Earth Day event emphasized the need for ecological sustainability and celebrated the invaluable contributions of indigenous knowledge to our collective understanding of environmental stewardship. As Iván passionately expressed, achieving global harmony begins with respect and learning from our ancestors' deep connections with the natural world.
The Gullah/Geechee are an Afro-Indigenous ethnic group that originated from enslaved Africans from West and Central Africa who intermarried with Indigenous peoples along the southeastern Sea Islands of the United States, extending from Jacksonville, North Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida. Their isolation on these islands and coastal regions helped conserve much of their African cultural heritage, including many traditions such as basket weaving, folktales, music, rice-based cuisine, and both African and Indigenous spiritual practices. Over four centuries, the Gullah/Geechee people have preserved their ancestral wisdom, agriculture techniques, fishing, and natural remedies through oral tradition. Today, the Gullah/Geechee community faces targeted land loss and overdevelopment, economic coercion, environmental degradation and climate change, cultural misrepresentation and appropriative commercialization, educational exclusion, and insufficient legal and political recognition.
Citations
🇺🇸: Goldwater Ventures, Goldwater Celebrates 2024 Earth Day with Tampu Project (April 23, 2024), https://www.goldwaterventures.info/post/goldwater-celebrates-2024-earth-day-with-tampu-project/.
🇵🇷: Goldwater Ventures, Goldwater Celebra el Día de la Tierra 2024 con organización andina Tampu Project (23/04/2024), https://www.goldwaterventures.info/post/goldwater-celebra-el-día-de-la-tierra-2024-con-organización-andina-tampu-project/.
🇫🇷: Goldwater Ventures, Goldwater célèbre le Jour de la Terre 2024 avec le Projet Tampu (23/04/2024), https://www.goldwaterventures.info/post/goldwater-célèbre-le-jour-de-la-terre-2024-avec-le-projet-tampu/.
🇭🇹: Goldwater Ventures, Goldwater selebre Jounen Latè 2024 ansanm ak Pwojè Tampu (23/04/2024), https://www.goldwaterventures.info/post/goldwater-selebre-jounen-latè-2024-ansanm-ak-pwojè-tampu/.
🇧🇷: Goldwater Ventures, Goldwater celebra o Dia da Terra de 2024 com o Projeto Tampu (23/04/2024), https://www.goldwaterventures.info/post/goldwater-celebra-o-dia-da-terra-de-2024-com-o-projeto-tampu/.
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