Send message to Contributor

Contribution short abstract:

In 2023, Colombia returned two Kogui masks from Berlin to Tugeka, part of the Kogui-Malayo-Arhuaco resguardo. While symbolic of indigenous recognition, this act overlooked land conflicts in Tugeka, highlighting how reclaiming cultural heritage can paradoxically unsettle land and territorial rights.

Contribution long abstract:

In 2023, the Colombian government returned two Kogui masks to the indigenous community. These masks had been housed at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin since 1914, when Konrad Theodor Preuss acquired them during his research in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The repatriation ceremony took place in Tugeka, a territory that, since 2022, has been part of the expanded resguardo Kogui-Malayo-Arhuaco. This area includes many sacred sites belonging to the “Línea Negra,” a network of locations integral to the ancestral knowledge systems of the four indigenous groups of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the “Línea Negra” embodies the spiritual and cultural heritage of these communities. However, in 2005, a significant portion of Tugeka was designated by a governmental entity for land restitution to farmers displaced by the country’s internal armed conflict. In subsequent years, parts of these lands were sold to colonos and foreigners, complicating the area’s ownership and usage dynamics. The return of the Kogui masks in Tugeka was a symbolic gesture of recognition and acknowledgment of the indigenous communities of the Sierra, who have long been marginalized and historically oppressed by the State. Nevertheless, this act overlooked the complex interplay of actors and competing interests surrounding land and territory in the region. This presentation argues that while the (re)commoning of cultural heritage can serve as a means of fostering national consensus, it paradoxically leads to the uncommoning of land, territory, and cultural heritage as common goods.