PAULA ANDREA PALACIOS MENDEZ

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Forced displacement due to violence is an involuntary national migration due to the armed conflict, where fear is the main factor that makes communities make the decision to leave their territories.

  This problem mainly affects peasant, Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities in Colombia; depriving them of their territories and all the connotations that exist beyond the simple material space. It is important to highlight that the territory is a key component for the construction and social renewal where basic identity referents are defined that make up the collective action of the community that inhabits it. Therefore, whatever the community, the impact that is generated when leaving a territory where symbolic and material representations of those who inhabit it have been built; represents a first starting point to address this problem. Added to this, the fact of arriving in a new space (often unknown), where accompaniment processes are scarce constitutes  a shock, for those who are used to a different context and dynamics.

taking arrival at  large cities as a starting point to formulate the project, an analysis of the impact was carried out at that time for the three populations named above. Knowing that despite the fact that the three populations have the similarity of inhabiting rural territories, when observing the contact of peasants and Afro-Colombians with urban areas, their actors, technologies, etc., it was evident that because generally part of what they produce on their land it is sold to the city, and they access it to stock up on the elements they require, these populations generally have more contact with it, therefore the initial shock upon arrival when displaced is not as strong compared to other populations with less contact to cities.

For the indigenous, on the other hand, the arrival in the city is more strange,  Generally, what they produce in their territories is for their own sustenance, and their activities are limited in a much more rural context, less intervened by the urban, where they relate only to those actors that surround them in their territories, whether they are different indigenous communities. or peasant farms. This is the main reason for taking the displaced indigenous population as subjects for possible projects and development, because it is the one that is most shocked by contact with the city.

On the other hand, it is extremely important to highlight that despite the fact that from the quantifiable point of view, the indigenous people seem to be a minority, it is from the qualitative point of view that the urgency of attention for these communities is especially sustained. In the first instance, this minority produces great impacts on the majority, this can be evidenced in some examples such as "ethnic tourism" or the fact that the indigenous themselves are considered "guardians of territory" protecting the natural heritage of the country in 710 existing reservations and other territories that have not yet been recognized by the state.

In addition, it should be noted that these communities should be treated differently, so that generalized solutions should not be applied to them, because they have a symbolic and cultural load that differentiates them from any other community.  Beyond the material loss, the indigenous groups have immaterial losses when they leave their territories, due to the representations that they have in their imaginaries. The state recognizes these ethnic groups as intangible heritage of our culture because they are considered cultural wealth, therefore they deserve respect for their sacred territories, their customs, beliefs and way of life. Therefore, this project aims to strengthen cultural roots, giving back to the members of indigenous communities their autonomy through the return to their territories and mediation with habitats and objects that allow them to rebuild their cultural identity.

It is then in the displaced indigenous population, where an opportunity for transformation was found. Taking as a starting point the moment of arrival in the big cities and as the main objective to ensure that the communities choose to return  to their territories of origin as an initiative to dignify their lives and achieve autonomous social development and maintenance, the investigation was based on the violation of three pillars exposed by the  “Law 397” of 1997; article 2; principles 3, 4, 6 where they are stated respectively:

-“The displaced person and/or forcibly displaced persons have the right not to be discriminated against due to their social condition as displaced persons, race, religion, public opinion, place of origin or physical incapacity”

-“The family of the forcibly displaced person should benefit from the fundamental right of family reunification”

-“Forcibly displaced persons have the right to their place of origin”