
Nov 19, 2019
Dec 28, 2016
KONNECTED CREW WITH THE GUALINGA FAMILY
It was such an honor to be welcomed into their home. Long conversations about ancient stories of the Sarayaku, ceremonies that started at around 03.00 am, walking into the forest to see them working on their patch of land were unforgettable moments.
Dec 13, 2016
Guatemalan Revolution – Ten Years of Spring
The Guatemalan Revolution is the 10-year period in Guatemalan history between the popular uprising that overthrew dictator Jorge Ubico Castañeda in 1944 and the United States-orchestrated coup d’état in 1954 that unseated President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán. The Ten Years of Spring are the only years of representative democracy in Guatemala from 1930 until the end of the Civil War.
From the late 19th century, Guatemala was governed by a series of author...
The Spanish Conquest of Guatemala – Centuries of fighting, enforced religion and legalized slavery
The Spanish conquest of Guatemala was a prolonged affair, the Maya kingdoms resisted integration to the Spanish Empire with such tenacity that their defeat took almost two hundred years. The Conquistadors arrived in Guatemala in the early 16th century led by Pedro de Alvarado, one of Hernán Cortés’ top lieutenants. He arrived with less than 500 Spanish soldiers and just some Mexicans, but by making a...
The Long Walk – The Navajo’s Trail of Tears
In the early 1860s, Americans of European descent began settling in and around Navajo lands, leading to conflict between the US and the Navajo. Believing that the Navajo were causing unrest in the area, Brig. Gen. James Carlton, commander of the Department of New Mexico announced his plan to relocate them to a desolate area close to Fort Sumner. His plan was to assimilate them to “white America”, by teaching them to farm, instructing them in Christian ...
Church Rock Spill – A toxic legacy
On July 16, 1979, the tailings disposal at United Nuclear Corporation’s Church Rock uranium mill, in New Mexico, breached its dam. Over 1,000 tons of solid radioactive mill waste and 93 million gallons of acidic, radioactive tailings solution flowed into the Puerco River. These contaminants then travelled 130 kilometres downstream to Navajo County, Arizona, and onto the Navajo Nation, wreaking havoc and leaving a toxic legacy.
Shortly after the breach, radioact...
UNCONTACTED TRIBES: The most vulnerable people on earth
Uncontacted tribes are communities who have little to no contact with the outside world. According to FUNAI, there are 77 groups of uncontacted people who mostly live in the depths of the forest in South America, New Guinea and India. In the very rare event that they are encountered, the isolated groups make it clear that they want to be left alone. Regions currently inhabited by uncontacted tribes are under great threat from oil exploration a...
ᒦᓐ ᑯᑎᒃᐦ ᒑ ᒌᐦ ᐧᐋᐱᐦᑎᒥᓐ