DOUGIE WALLACE
FOR
SACRED FORESTS
Dougie Wallace travels to Colombia to photograph the Arhuaco hill tribe of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range for ‘Sacred Forests’, a conservation enterprise dedicated to buying back and protecting the rainforest.
Partnering with ‘Sacred Forests’, the Arhuaco people have joined forces to help protect a place that is both their home, and an area of the world that is deemed by scientists to be one of the world’s irreplaceable natural areas. Situated near the Caribbean coast, close to the Venezuelan border, Dougie’s expedition required journeying deep into the Sierra Nevada, the world’s highest tropical coastal mountain range, where the mountains soar to 5,700 meters. The soundtrack of the trip was Dougie’s driver’s Bluetooth speaker, strapped to the front of the motorbike. Getting to the village took thirteen and a half hours, involving a 4×4 jeep, motorbikes, and mules.
Dougie’s documentary images are featured in Vogue Mexico and The Guardian’s photo essay, “Forest keepers: Arhuaco balance modern and ancient ways”.
The Arhuaco people have been awarded the UN Development Programme’s Equator prize.
Life for the Arhuaco, is a dichotomy of the modern and traditional. To them, The Sierra Nevada is considered to be a living scared being – a belief steeped in mythology. This tradition of the spiritual is contrasted against the modernity of electronic technology, devices which, for the majority of users, can act as a distraction and/or pull away from the more traditional and spiritual.
For female-indigenous filmmaker Marcela Villafañe, however, (director of the Arhuaco founded Yosokwi film company), the use of modern technology has allowed them to document, and grant access into their way of life and the importance of protecting not just the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, but also ensuring protection for all of the world’s sacred forests.
Marcela Villafañe’s short film, “Seymuke – the Ancestor We Will Be”, is to be released soon.
