ABOUT US
We believe in supporting the original stewards to heal our climate by restoring the land.
The beauty and abundance of Mother Earth surround us all. It saddens us to see the destructive relationship humans often have with our planet. We feel gratitude for what we are given. It is important to us to channel this energy back into healing Mother Earth so the cycle of reciprocity can continue.
Ofrenda A’bunna = Offering to Creation
Ofrenda A’bunna was born in 2016 from our multigenerational mission to recuperate and regenerate Arhuaco ancestral territory in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
We are a United States registered 501c3 working in the Arhuaco community of Seykún. We have already recuperated 8,000 acres and respectfully inhabit this land with our 400 community members.
Leadership
Mamo Kuncha / President - Board of Directors
For decades, Mamo Kuncha has been at the center of Arhuaco life. As a deeply respected spiritual leader, he has guided Ofrenda A’bunna’s decisions since our work began in 2016. He speaks often of seeing the mountains like a book, words being codified in the rocks, trees, bird songs, and thunder. He sees his role as an interpreter of these messages to offer direction for the Arhuaco people and the protection of our ancestral territory.
Arhuaco Board of Directors
Gloria Garavito Board Treasurer
Gloria guides Arhuaco youth in performing life transition ceremonies. She helps represent the community of Seykún in regional gatherings and is a respected weaver of cotton, wool and agave.
Mamo Duiku Board Secretary
Mamo Duiku leads many kinds of ceremonies in the community of Seykún including healing land recently recuperated from campesino neighbors, and growing / harvesting food. He helps train younger mamos while continuing to learn from the more elder generation as well.
Seyaru’kwingumu (aka “Sey”) Co-Director and Co-Founder
Sey is a founding member of Seykún along with his wife, children, and a handful of other Arhuaco families. They lived high up in the mountains and felt called to join an effort proposed by the mamos to create new communities in 2008 just outside of the Arhuaco reservation as part of a strategy to recuperate and regenerate more ancestral land. Sey directs Seykún’s new community association, he is a teacher at Seykún’s Arhuaco elementary school and an Ikun - Spanish translator. He believes deeply that community decisions should be rooted in ancestral wisdom given by the mamos. Sey co-created Ofrenda A’bunna as a community representative and a bridge-builder with non-indigenous supporters of territorial protection…
Joshua Dautoff Co-Director and Co-Founder
While leading human rights delegations in Colombia for Witness For Peace, Joshua experienced first-hand the mass deforestation taking place in one of the most biodiverse areas of our planet. He was confronted with the question, “how can incredible places like this be protected over the long term within the complex social landscape of Colombia?” This question eventually took him to the Arhuaco people who have been organizing both politically and spiritually around this issue for generations. He has since co-created Ofrenda A’bunna with the Arhuaco community members of Seykún acting as a bridge-builder and storyteller. Raised on a flower farm in California, Joshua has lived and worked in Colombia since 2007. He first came to Colombia to research his thesis for UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in Filandia, Colombia where he grows organic coffee with his wife and daughter.
Advisory Board
David Huey
David Huey is an Irish peace builder and environmental activist, resident in Colombia since 2005. He has been country representative for Oxfam International and has advised the United Nations system, the Presidency of the Republic and international cooperation agencies in planning comprehensive processes of post-conflict stabilization.
Leonor Zalabata
Leonor Zalabata Torres is the Colombian ambassador to the United Nations and an Arhuaco leader and member of the Human Rights Committee for the Tayrona Indigenous Confederation.
