For many of us, access to clean drinking water feels implicit. In many parts of the world, however, this luxury is anything but common. Multidisciplinary collective, INDIGENIA, seeks to change this ideal in one Mexican community through their first campaign, Wixárika Mundus “The Flight of the Blue Deer”. Through this campaign, INDIGENIA seeks to spread awareness of the Wixárika culture and the difficulties that they are currently experiencing with a scarce water supply and lack of economical power.
The Wixárika live in San José del Bajío, in the Sierra of North Jalisco, Mexico – an area that faces a high drought rate. The community has no pure water to drink at least during 4 months of the year, and for another 4 months there is almost none at all. As a result, their crops are sparse and therefore, their economical power is limited. In the past year alone, 4 members of the Wixárika community have passed away due to the lack of pure drinking water and extended malnutrition.
Despite their challenging circumstances, the Wixárika work hard to hang on to their culture and traditions, most notably, their annual pilgrimage to Wirikuta, the land of their sacred desert, where according to their beliefs, the sun was born. For the Wixárika, spiritual practice and rituals such as these are imperative in order to gain understanding of their individual and collective purpose in community.
INDIGENIA seeks to preserve this important community by collectively help identify what ecological and sustainable technology the region needs to sustain its inhabitants. Part of INDIGENIA’s strategy includes fair trade practices to move/sell the Niérika (Wixárika’s sacred art), strategies for improving the basic life conditions of the region, ethnographic research, as well as legal advice for the community.
If you’d like to learn more or get involved with INDIGENIA to help the Wixárika and San José del Bajío inhabitants, head over to their website here.
