Feeling extremely lucky in the winter of 2010, the harmoniccontent team jetted down to Panama for two weeks of travel with folks from the non-profit organization Native Future. Not only did this trip offer us a chance to enjoy a tropical respite from winter, but it provided us with the opportunity to visit with indigenous Panamanians living well off the beaten tourist paths. During the first half of the trip, we joined six Native Future donors and two Board members on a brief tour that introduced us to the history and current state of indigenous rights in Panama. After a whirlwind day of introductions and briefings in Panama City, we traveled via “busito” to the Comarca Ngobe-Bugle. As was the case everywhere we went, we were warmly welcomed and generously fed and housed, in this case, by the padre of the Catholic Church in Buenos Aires. Taking advantage of “summer break” we were offered accommodations in the rustic dormitory normally used to house public school students from outlying villages.
From Buenos Aires, we trekked up the steep path to El Jacinto for a day long celebration of the ten year anniversary of the Basilio Perez Scholarship Fund. Upon arriving at the picturesque mountain-top village, we were greeted by a smiling band of children eager to show us around their home. We were treated to a tour of the lush communal farm in the valley below, then, after the formal commemorative speeches ran out, we sat down to a beautiful celebratory meal before setting off on the return trek down to Beunos Aires.
After returning to Panama City, via an afternoon of relaxation at Playa Santa Clara, we spent a morning exploring the Soberania National Park, then regrouped and prepared for phase two: a four day trip to the Wounaan village of Rio Hondo. The introduction of the outboard motor has cut down travel time to Rio Hondo considerably, although the trip still involves a several hour boat ride. Embarking from Puerto Coquira, we traveled down Rio Chepo, east along the Pacific coast, and up the less-than-aptly-named Rio Hondo, with the trip planned so that our arrival coincided with high tide. After a community meeting to discuss our visit, we settled into the accommodations generously provided by Mariana, the mother-in-law of our traveling companion Leo. Over the next three days, various households in the village took turns feeding us an array of locally grown, gathered, hunted and fished foodstuffs, including freshly pressed sugar cane juice, armadillo, river shrimp, fish, plantains and oranges, to name just a few of the menu items. In addition, we were treated to an exhibit of the intricately woven baskets and wood carvings that are created in the village. On our final night, having already been adorned with tagua body paint, we were instructed in some of the traditional dances that pay homage to the forest fauna.
On a surreal note, our second night in Rio Hondo coincided with the village evangelical church’s all-night DJ-ed revival, which in an odd concurrence of events, included a performance by a youth “choreography” mission group from Wisconsin. In this typically non-electrified village of 300 people, the generator and all-night-until-6am skull-vibrating music and amplified testimonials were a stark contrast to the usual quietude. We had already become accustomed to the more typical muffled night noises interrupted only by the occasional crying of a fussy baby or the predawn alarm of the resident roosters. As a result of this unexpected all-night cacophony, the next day was a struggle - in a sleep deprivation trance, we walked the forest path to the neighboring village of Platanares, testing the medicinal value of a few of the forest plants and spotting one of the famous Dendrobates auratus poison dart frogs along the way. After recuperating with never ending bowls of oranges provided by our generous hosts in Platanares, we slowly puttered back to Rio Hondo by boat, skirting the edge of the mangroves, spotting a small crocodile and startling innumerable flocks of birds into flight.
Our stay in Rio Hondo seemed all too brief when we said goodbye to our hosts the next afternoon at high tide. We had scheduled our last two days in Panama at a beautiful B&B in Puerto Lindo, a small town on the Caribbean coast. However, as much as we enjoyed our accommodations and the afternoons spent contemplating surf and sand, our thoughts were still back in Rio Hondo. Conversation continued to drift back to the Wounans’ struggle to gain land tenure and the tactics the community is using to mitigate the physical, cultural and financial stresses imposed by the changing landscape. And now that we are back in Albuquerque, we continue to contemplate the status of indigenous groups in the Americas, both here at home and in Central and South America. We are working with the Native Future board to ensure that the still and video images we collected in Panama can be used to promote the Organization’s mission and assist with the ever-difficult task of fundraising. Towards that end, we are donating 50% of the profit we receive from the sale of photos from the trip to Native Future. Please take a look at our Redbubble gallery, or to donate to Native Future directly, please visit their website.