And supporters of Saqchahim on Coast Salish Territories
Saqchahim (for short) is an organized network of Indigenous Maya Q'eqchi' women who live in Barrio La Unión whose mandate is to ensure that community members are able to meet basic nutritional needs in a context of poverty, violence and climate change.
Supporters of Saqchahim is a small coalition of allies centered around Coast Salish territories, colonially known as 'Vancouver.'
Saqchahim Women's Organization for
Food Security
in Barrio La Unión
Saqchahim is pronounced [sak-CHAH-eem], and means first star of the dawn in the Maya Q’eqchi' language.
The network is located in the traditional territory of its members, in Barrio La Unión (barrio means neighbourhood in Spanish), within the municipality of El Estor, in the Izabal province of Eastern Guatemala.
Saqchahim emerged during the 2020 pandemic to support women’s capacities for small-scale agriculture and husbandry and to uphold traditional knowledge systems. This network often distributes food and other necessities for community members in Barrio La Unión.
Who is Supporters of Saqchahim?
Supporters of Saqchahim on Coast Salish Territories (SoS) is a local group of students and educators committed to the advancement of Saqchahim’s activities, through fundraising, awareness-raising and advocacy. SoS is based in Canada, endeavouring to redistribute resources to Saqchahim in Ixim Ulew (Guatemala).
We’ve chosen to separate the canada-based “Supporters of Saqchahim” group from the Q’eqchi’ women on the ground – self-named “Saqchahim” – in order to clearly define roles in our relationship. Our solidarity values aim to work against harmful patterns of funder-led development or assistencialismo, and to work against existing power structures that dis-empower Indigenous women like those of Saqchahim. The distinction between our groups makes it easier to put decision-making power in the hands of Saqchahim, and maintains Supporters of Saqchahim’s role as just that: supporting.
Initiatives We Support:
Food Security in Barrio La Unión
A project to install 50 mini-farms (huertos familiaes) in the Maya Q’eqchi community of Barrio La Unión, located in Izabal, Guatemala. Since 2020, this central pillar of Saqchahim's work contributes to generating food security and access to income for the most vulnerable members of the community. Families grow vegetables, fruits and more recently, animal husbandry, for both sale and self-consumption. This food security work increases community resilience to respond to increased instability, whether from climate, politics, or epidemics.
Support for elementary school Escuela Oficial Rural Mixta Barrio La Unión
Saqchahim prioritizing the resourcing and distribution of food for the students at the new local elementary school, Escuelita Barrio La Unión. The community has taken it into their own hands to support the food security of their students. Nutrition and education are intimately related, Saqchahim aims to positively impact the participation of pupils, address youth hunger and malnutrition, and facilitate student's engagement with their education.
GEOG 495 at UBC
Supporters of Saqchahim partners with Dr. Juanita Sundberg for the past three years to support the planning and facilitation of a specialized Geography Seminar titled "Social Movements in the Americas." In this class, upper year undergraduate students learn about international solidarity movements and work with Supporters of Saqchahim as a community partner to explore the practical applications of solidarity in action. Members of Saqchahim share with students their perspectives on globalization, internationalism and land reclamation from their lived experience.
Adolfo Ich Chaman Music Academy
Voices from Scorched Earth stories of Q'eqchi' resilience in the Polochic-Izabal waterway
Entering our 5th year, Saqchahim is bringing into its cultural organization and reclamation the long heritage of music from Q’eqchi’ Ulew. Adolfo Ich Chaman, the martyred founder of Barrio La Union, was a beautiful singer and guitarist, sharing the message of Q’eqchi’ empowerment through song. Maya Q’eqchi’ culture carries a unique legacy of music, incorporating millennial Mesoamerican voicings with transcultured European instruments (harp, guitarron, violin) brought by the Dominican friars during their colonization of the wider Tezulutlán-Verapaz region. Today, Q’eqchi’ music blends various styles and incorporates Afro-descendent and Garifuna elements, such as the marimba.
The Adolfo Ich Chaman Music Academy brings Maya Q’eqchi’ youth from Barrio La Union into cultural learning and reclamation through music. The project brings together local music teachers and eager students through a consortium of scholarships.
In collaboration with artists Styvens Barrios Loch and Romi Fischer-Schmidt, Saqchahim is building the Adolfo Ich Chaman Music Academy.
Income from the Voices from Scorched Earth documentary soundscape production will support the emerging Adolfo Ich Music School in Barrio La Union, El Estor.
Who is Saqchahim?
Saqchahim is an organized network of Indigenous Maya Q'eqchi Women living in Barrio La Unión whose mandate is to ensure that all members of the community are best able to meet their basic nutritional needs. Barrio La Union is a Land Back community on reclaimed land in El Estor, Izabal in eastern Ixim Ulew (Guatemala).
Saqchahim’s full name is Saqchahim Organizacion de Mujeres para la Seguridad Alimental en Barrio La Union (which translates to Saqchahim Women’s Organization for Food Security in Barrio La Union).
Many women of Saqchahim are widows, single mothers, grandmothers and elders, and tend to their own small-scale agriculture and husbandry. This network often organizes distributions of food and other basic items for other community members in need. Some women of Saqchahim are educated formally in agriculture and animal husbandry; they also uphold traditional knowledge systems for food growth.
Currently, Saqchahim involves 25 women and their families, many more have expressed interest in joining though we are limited by funds. Membership is decided upon by existing members of Saqchahim.
Saqchahim makes decisions collectively as a women’s council. Decisions on how resources are allocated, including priority areas within Barrio La Unión, are taken by Saqchahim’s council.
Where is Saqchahim?
Saqchahim is an organized network of women living in Barrio La Unión, a community on reclaimed Maya Q’eqchi’ land.
Barrio La Unión is located in El Estor, Izabal department in eastern Ixim Ulew (Guatemala), near the northern shore of Lago Izabal, Ixim Ulew’s largest lake. El Estor is built on Maya Q’eqchi’ territory.
El Estor has weathered the continuous presence of canadian corporations, uninvited, on their Q’eqchi’ land over many decades.
Redistribution
Saqchahim and its supporters redistribute resources that systematically flow out of Maya Q’eqchi’ lands to globalized markets, such as canada. Since our founding in 2020, Saqchahim has received 225,770.17 GTQ, or roughly $40,000.00 CAD. This amounts to but a drop in the bucket compared to what has been extracted from their land, especially by canada-based INCO Nickel corporation.
“Cortaron nuestras ramas, nuestras hojas, nuestros troncos, pero nuestras raíces siguen ahí. Yo soy parte de esas raíces. Yo soy una mujer indígena y estoy alzando la voz porque quiero que se respeten nuestros derechos.”
“They cut our branches, our leaves, our trunks, but our roots are still here. I am part of those roots. I am an Indigenous woman, and I’m speaking out because I want our rights to be respected.”
― Angélica Choc, member of Saqchahim
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