Ayllunchis is a non-profit association, dedicated to offering a service of protection and conservation of natural spaces, sacred and cultural sites of the native Andean Amazonian peoples, through various interdisciplinary workshops, lectures, trainings and presentations; with an artistic, intercultural, ecological and legal approach. We work with many different communities. Our work is based on the Andean principles of mutual nurturing, harmonious coexistence of all beings that surround us and of multiculturalism.
Ayllunchis, promotes the integral development of indigenous children, youth and adults with nature in the various communities of the district of San Salvador and Pisac of the Sacred Valley of the Inkas in the Cusco region. Its purpose is to develop an awareness of respect, sensitivity and reciprocity with nature, wisdom and Andean and Amazonian cultural traditions in a globalized world.
KAWSANMI PACHA -THE EARTH IS ALIVE
For us the native Andean and Amazonian people “everything that exists has life and is considered to be human” therefore everything is family: “la sallqa” (animals and plants), “la wak’a” (the sacred beings: Father Sun and Mother Moon, Mother Water and Father Fire, sacred mountains, Mother Earth and Father Earth) and “runa” (humans) we are all part of a family for harmonious cohabitation, reciprocity and coexistence.
THE ANCESTRAL ANDEAN WEAVING (AWAY)
It has been inherited from generation to generation since the first settlers in the Andean-Amazonian areas. It is a way of telling the knowledge such as: the signs, the reading of the celestial bodies and their relationship with fertility, the movement of water and its teaching, the cultivation of seeds, the offerings to the sacred beings of nature, the reciprocity between the natural, sacred and human world.
In the Andean Amazonian world, weaving is seen as a form of writing and is a living being, because it narrates all the interconnections between natural and sacred beings;
It is in this sense that the Ayllunchis school considers the ancestral weaving as a method of teaching and learning, because of the link that exists between weaving and human development, from childhood to youth, and through its form, color, texture, volume, message and symbology.
QUECHUA LANGUAGE (RUNA SIMI)
Quechua, or Runa Simi, is an ancestral, sacred, cosmic and onomatopoeic language that is linked through sound with the natural world and is also embodied in the iconography of weaving.
Quechua, or Runa Simi, as the native language of the Andean peoples, contains unique meanings that have no translation in other languages, but are embodied in the symbology, colors and shapes of Andean textiles. The language transmits culture, as much as its weavings, and is closely related to the context from which it originated.
MAN AND WEAVING
In the Andean world, the process of human development is closely linked to the evolution of weaving.
This means that from an early age, boys and girls begin to weave according to their psychomotor development, until they reach a complexity in design and size in their adult years.
GOOD LIVING (ALLIN KAWSAY)
For us Andean-Amazonians, mutual nurturance among all beings of nature (uywanakuy) and reciprocity (ayni) is what sustains the existence of everything that is part of the good living (sumaq allin kawsay) of the whole family (ayllu). In the Andean-Amazonian world, all beings are considered family: animals and plants (sallqa), all the sacred beings (wak’a) and humans (runa). Therefore, all of them participate in the creation of the symbology in the weaving.
We conduct interdisciplinary workshops with the children and adolescents of the communities. We contribute to the practice and conservation of their ancestral traditional knowledge (rituality and spirituality). We support their trade fairs and the exhibitions of their process for the elaboration of their textile products.
Today we are aware of the importance of caring for the living culture of the communities and their territories, which are threatened by the impacts of current polluting agents, such as the burning of pastures and forests, the felling of native trees and the presence of mining concessions. In this sense, this project seeks to work against the loss and contamination of natural spaces, water sources (lagoons, rivers and springs), the air, plants, animals and existing life, by giving lectures and providing continual education to the communities.
In these last decades and especially in the last five years our natural spaces, sacred spaces, agricultural and livestock lands have been increasingly reduced and threatened with mining, gas and oil concessions and dispossession of our lands, waters and all of nature, our lands are being invaded in the highlands and in the jungle, the native peoples are increasingly close to extinction, with them their traditions, knowledge and all forms of respectful and coexistent life of good living. In traditional language we call it (sumaq allin kausay). From our Ayllunchis Association, we offer support with lectures, trainings and workshops to all communities, with legal information with lawyers and other specialists for the defense of the indigenous people and their territories.
Please consider donating to the Ayllunchis Association.