Progressive Environmental Topics: Nashira Eco-Village: honoring a legacy of success

In the year 1992 Nelson Triviño, a farmer at the Malagana sugar cane farm in Palmira a municipality of Cauca, Colombia stumbled into an indigenous guaca (treasure) while he was plowing land for the sowing of sugarcane crops. This accidental discovery led Mr. Triviño to an assortment of four tons of indigenous gold artifacts and a collection of different objects made out of ceramic. Excited by his finding, Triviño sold some of the gold artifacts that he found at the farm to local dealers. Word got out quickly about his discovery, as 5000 community members and Malagana farm employees began to arrive on site after learning about the several tons of gold hidden under the territory of Palmira. 

In December of 1992, looting began at Hacienda Malagana, and 200 kilograms of gold artifacts were removed from the site before authorities arrived in January the following year. Hundreds of tombs preserving the indigenous history of the area were destroyed and at least one person was found dead during the infamous gold rush at the farm of Malagana. 

Distracted by the large amounts of gold found onsite, neither Triviño nor the looters paid attention to a large collection of over 100 female-shaped vases that were found in the area. It wasn’t until 1993 that archaeologists and scientists arrived at the farm and concluded that the majority of the remaining golden artifacts as well as the hundreds of vases depicting kneeling women belonged to the Malagana society, a civilization that existed in the region from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D.

 The finding of the female-shaped vases confused a group of archeologists from the National Foundation of Archeological Investigations, who were used to finding predominantly male anthropomorphous indigenous art and craft in different regions of Colombia. The group later concluded that the high volume of female vases in this collection could be attributed to the high status and importance that women had in the Malagana civilization thousands of years ago.

While the gold rush at the Malagana farm did impede archeologists, experts, and community members from learning more about the ways of living of the ancient Malagana culture, their excavation of the site would only lead the team to dig up stories for possibility. What life looked like for the people living in Palmira from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D. was up for interpretation, and one of the archaeologists’ certainties about the culture was the high status that women assumed in their ancient societal structure. Like the hundreds of female-shaped vases that survived the gold rush of 1992, the legacy of female excellency that once ruled over Palmira would remain untouched. The relationship that existed between womanhood, soil, and community in this ancestral territory would become irreplaceable. 

Whatever would happen next within the territory of Palmira, was predetermined by the Malagana women who once roamed its lands 2034 years ago. Full of possibility and prosperity, the soil of Palmira would become a safe haven for those in need of a nurturing home. In 2004, in the same municipality where Nelson Triviño found the collection of vases immortalizing the legacy of women in the Malagana civilization, a group called “The Nashira Women’s Association for a Better Quality of Life” purchased 3.3 hectares of land in order to create a self-sustaining eco-village where women displaced by the Colombian armed conflict could live and thrive. 

Nestled among the palm trees and lush vegetation of the San Isidro del Bolo town in the municipality of Palmira lies the Nashira eco-village, where 80 Colombian women and their families live in a sustainable community-style settlement where women are in charge.5 Barbara Orjuela Vargas who works in the community’s recycling center and is a resident of Nashira said that she is most grateful for the positive impact that the community has had on the children growing up in the village. Orjuela Vargas attributes her 26 year old’s son success and hard-working character to the fact that he grew up seeing his mom being a “berraca” (Colombian slang for a great player, a hard worker, a fantastic person, someone capable of doing remarkable things). She said her son saw how she was always working toward the community’s well-being and her personal income which according to her, surrounded him and the other children of the village with positive examples of female leadership.

 Much like the economic system of the Malagana society who lived in Palmira thousands of years ago3, the economy of Nashira is guided through barter. All of the women are required to become involved with one of the 11 productive nuclei of the village and based on the resources, services, and skills that they acquire from the different tasks, they engage in trade relations which each other. Angela Dolmstech, founder of the Nashira eco-village project states that the productive groups produce and grow “…ceramics, noni crops, wines, jams and jellies, medicinal plants, recycled materials and paper, and chicken…” (La Silla Vacia, 2017). The village also has a restaurant and a homestay where the women of Nashira can work which are open to the public. “If you have the chicken and I have something you need then we sort it out, and each one gets what they need,” said Ms. Orjuela Vargas when referring to the community’s economic system.  

The Nashira eco-village is just another example of how the sacred territory of Palmira is generous to those who give back to it through community building. When Archaeologists studied the hundreds of kneeling female vases depicting the status of women in the Malagana society in 1992, they did not only uncover a material legacy of indigenous excellence, but they also unearthed a path towards possibility. While little is known about how Malagana women actually lived in the year 300 B.C. in the land of Palmira, the numerous female-shaped vases found in the archaeological site tell a story about Colombian female excellence. The successes of both the Malagana women and the Nashira eco-village demonstrate the potential that the soil of Palmira has for those looking to find a nurturing environment where women can live and thrive under their own conditions and leadership. Whatever happens next  a thousand years from now in the municipality of Palmira in Cauca, Colombia, is surely going to be exciting. 

Works Cited

“Los Malagana Brillan Con Oro Propio”. 1996. El Tiempo. https://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-434118.

Yates, Donna. 2012. “Malagana”. Trafficking Culture Organization. https://traffickingculture.org/encyclopedia/case-studies/malagana/.

Marianne Cardale de Schrimpff, Leonor Herrera, Carlos Armando Rodriguez, and Yolanda Jaramillo. 1999. “Vista De Rito Y Ceremonia En Malagana”. Fundacion De Investigaciones Arqueologicas Nacionales. https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/fian/article/view/5514/5771.

“Nashira, A Song Of Love, A Women-Led Project”. 2015. World Habitat Awards. https://world-habitat.org/world-habitat-awards/winners-and-finalists/nashira-a-song-of-love-a-women-led-project/#:~:text=The%20project%20was%20set%20up,previously%20been%20a%20banana%20plantation.

“Visita a La Eco Aldea Nashira.” YouTube, Universidad Cooperativa De Colombia , 16 Aug. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wMUnCq4ztU. 

 “En Una Aldea 400 Mujeres Se Autogobiernan y Se Autoabastecen.” La Silla Vacia,14 Feb, 2017.https://www.lasillavacia.com/historias/historias-silla-llena/en-una-aldea-400-mujeres-se-autogobiernan-y-se-autoabastecen/.