The Nĩpodĩmakĩ are an Indigenous people belonging to the Uitoto language family and living along the Caqueta river in the Putumayo area of Colombia. They have worked for many years with Forest People’s Programme (FPP), specifically Tom Griffiths, on land rights issues. The Nĩpodĩmakĩ have suffered historical abuse from the guerilla war in Colombia, and a number of their leaders have had to leave the area for their own safety over the last 20 years, resulting in a growing number of community members in Bogota. Because the area they live in is currently beyond the agricultural frontier, large scale deforestation and industry are not yet major issues, although incursions from drug traffickers or producers are common and travel to the region can be dangerous if not accompanied by locals. The Nĩpodĩmakĩ are represented by the ACIBAC federation.
Dd has been working with the Nĩpodĩmakĩ since 2019 when Aliya Ryan spent time in Bogota training a Colombian geographer, Mauricio Montana, on how to use Mapeo Mobile and Desktop, which he would then teach to others in the community. The aim was to support a territory mapping project that the Nĩpodĩmakĩ wanted to undertake with support from the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP). Some of the Nĩpodĩmakĩ leaders were also present. Dd later helped to create a customized configuration for the Nĩpodĩmakĩ and used symbols they designed which were digitized by an Ecuadorian graphic designer. A group of Nĩpodĩmakĩ representatives also participated in a training workshop carried out in late 2019 in Wampis territory in Peru, which was funded and organized by FPP and run by Aliya Ryan and Gregor MacLennan. Since 2019, Mauricio has taken various trips to Nĩpodĩmakĩ territory to train others in Mapeo and accompany mapping trips of their ancestral territory. Dd supports Mauricio in using, training and troubleshooting Mapeo Mobile and Desktop, and in setting up configurations. This work is ongoing but infrequent.
