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Environmental calendar drawn up in Argentina

09.08.2016

An environmental calendar was created in the first half of 2016, with the support of CONICET, in Santa Catalina, a town situated in the high elevations of the Argentinian province of Jujuy. The result of intercultural efforts, the calendar was requested by various communities who wanted to record their local knowledge and traditions, along with technical information, especially concerning Puno agro-ecological work. This demand was channeled through Athu Saphis, one of the aboriginal communities in the area, and led by its president Fabio Bejerano, who contacted two researchers from the VICAM: Vicuñas, Camélidos y Ambiente group of CONICET, who work on vicuñas and environmental education in the area. Bibiana Vilá, who is also a professor at the University. of Lujan, and Yanina Arzamendia, who is also a professor at the University of Jujuy, were asked to guide the project.

VICAM coordinated two workshops: the first to assemble the calendar (19 and 20 April) and the second (August 2) to present the printed calendar and firm up some activities.

The calendar brought together a wide variety of people and groups, and was held through dialogue, meetings and consensus-building among farmers, herders, scientists, women and youth who speak different languages and have different worldviews.

In the April, the workshop started in a classroom at Colegio Polimodal and moved to an elementary school the next day. The meeting on the first day was among adults of the various communities - Canchillas-Peñas Coloradas, Santa Catalina, Tolamayo, Morritos, La Cruz, Atu Saphis, Morritos, Yuraj Rumi and Aucarpina Chambi), and rural extension agency technicians while the second day saw the participation of 7th grade students and their teacher.

The objective the local communities had for the local environmental calendar was to include observations of nature, rites, practices and local festivities in addition to agro-ecological cycle tasks. They also wanted a design that could interact and be replicated, so that participants could have their own calendars.

At the workshop consensus held that the timetable would be circular in shape to reflect the environmental cycle and within it concentric circles would relate to the climate, nature, agriculture, animal production and festivities.

The participants decided to plot their calendars in different ways. One group decided to make an illustrated calendar with artwork within it, and another group decided a calendar to be illustrated by the school children the next day. That is why there are two versions of the calendar. On the second day of the workshop, Elia Maria Funes and Porfirio Alanoca and the 7th graders illustrated some areas of the written calendar and coloured drawings in the illustrated calendar.

The material realized in Santa Catalina was rendered digital, fully respecting the original work conducted in Santa Catalina. All drawings were scanned and the two calendars were set up. With drawings inside and outside. CONICET printed them in A3 format, and also printed some copies in a larger format.

On 2 August 2016, all the people involved in making the calendars received a copy during a community meeting. They also discussed disseminating the calendars – where and how – so that others could know about them.

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