FIMI – Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indígenas
The Fourth World Conference on Women (1995, Beijing) was one of the first times that Indigenous women had the opportunity to articulate their identity internationally. Indigenous women from around the world gathered to adopt a declaration in which they articulated their concerns as women from an indigenous perspective. After five years, many of that conference’s participants met again in Lima, Peru in the Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas. Given the need to organize and continue their work, FIMI was created to ensure that the concerns of indigenous women are heard internationally. In 2000, FIMI organized the First Indigenous Women’s Forum in New York as part of the Beijing +5 conference. After this meeting, FIMI successfully organized other international meetings including the Second Forum of Indigenous Women in correspondence with Beijing +10.
Spiritual healing, is based on traditional knowledge of indigenous communities, in most cases the application of this knowledge has been in charge of indigenous women. Creative arts immersed in the culture of peoples and reflected into dances, music, tissues, myths and legends. It has been an instrument that indigenous women, and indigenous peoples have implemented to heal spiritually after a situation of violence, to achieve harmony and social control within the people.
Although, historically these artistic and cultural manifestations of spiritual healing have been dulled and weakened as a result of several social, cultural and structural factors affecting indigenous peoples and women, causing an imbalance in the rules of social control of the communities, indigenous peoples of Nicaragua and Mexico have managed to retain many of these cultural artistic forms based on spiritual healing.
In this context, and through art, we want to document cases of violence against indigenous women, and to make visible those spiritual healing practices implemented by indigenous women’ survivors of violence, highlighting its fundamental role in these processes.
Documented in written and visual form the healing strategies used in the communities. Strengthened the capacities of at least 140 indigenous women in the municipality of Waspam, Rio Coco, Nicaragua and 160 in the community of El Zapotalito. Thanks to the initiative, the women of Wankgi Tangni are motivated by the exchange with leaders from Guatemala and north-central Nicaragua. Through the initiative, the artistic concept has been made visible and disseminated as a method of spiritual healing for indigenous women who have suffered violence.
