INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN CUBA
CUBA, Baraco & Santiago
"Ethno-genesis and Cultural Traditions"
January 3, 1999 - January 10, 1999 in Baracoa, Cuba
SPONSORS: - Fundacion de la Naturaleza y el Hombre
- Museo Matachin de Baracoa
- Native Americas Magazine
- Eleggua Project / CCS&CF
Caribbean indigenous people, Canadian Indians, associated researchers,
writers and academics will convene in Baracoa, Cuba, January 3 to 10, 1999
for the third annual "Indigenous Legacies of the Caribbean" cultural
encounter. The featured theme of the encounter this year is, "Plants,
Medicines and Humanity."
Noted for its national policy of sustainable agriculture, Cuba hosts still
a number of surviving Native groups, who, along with the broader
population, sustain many natural ways, particularly knowledge of medicinal
plants. They are among the featured speakers at the January gathering.
Other speakers will address the range of themes announced for the
"Indigenous Legacies of the Caribbean" series. Lecturers will speak on
historical, musical, literary, anthropological, archeaological, spiritual
and ethno-cultural themes. Papers and presentations on all these themes are
welcome.
The gathering, "Third Encounter: Indigenous Legacies of the Caribbean,"
programmed for January 3 to 10, 1999 in Baracoa, Cuba, is commensurate with
Cuban national policies supporting ecological, scientific and cultural
tourism as a way to protect its bio-diversity and cultural uniqueness.
Dances, outings to the Toa River Valley and local beaches and comprehensive
cultural/historical information and context are the hallmark of this annual
event, which is relaxed but regularly attended by a cross-section of
scholars from a dozen countries.
Internationally, such a gathering is contextualized in the United Nations
International Decade of Indigenous Peoples, 1994-2003. This is a global
process within which Cuban international policy has been exemplary in its
sensibility and support for the struggles of indigenous peoples.
The thematic of the event focuses as well on the correlation of indigenous
cultures with the protection of nature and sustainable development,
international language that emerges from the Summit Conference of Rio de
Janeiro, 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED), and particularly in the elaboration of the Agenda 21, a central
planning document for the next century. Cuba is exemplary in this context
as the first country to implement a state policy of sustainable
agriculture, which its rooted, in good measure, in the indigenous legacy of
the conuco (raised beds agriculture), the widespread use of medicinal
plants and the protection of nature.
Baracoa, First City of Cuba, offers a rich field of scientific, historical
and cultural study. It possesses one of the most fecund areas of
bio-diversity in the country, including a rich forest, and the watershed
of the Toa River, the most voluminous in Cuba, with its invaluable reserve
of endemic fauna and flora.
All of the above characteristics give this event a peculiar importance for
the development of a scientific, ecological and cultural tourism in Cuban
and the Caribbean.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Conference Coordinator, Eleggua Project
TEL: 1-800-818-8840 FAX: 905-678-1421 E-MAIL: cancuba@pathcom.com
WEB: www.pathcom.com/~cancuba/eleggua.htm
WHAT IS ELEGGUA PROJECT?
The Eleggua Project is a cooperative partnership of North American
and Cuban non-governmental agencies with a shared interest in
developing opportunities to study in Cuba. The Project is financially
dependant on program fees and volunteer service and refuses financial
support from any govenment in order to remain apart from the
implications of politics. The project's name honors "Eleggua" who
opens pathways to be explored. The Eleggua Project ensures that all
aspects of study, travel to Cuba and travel within the country are
facilitated for United States professionals, researchers and
students.
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