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Second Raising of the Wiphala in Toronto
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Sunkmanitu tanka Isnala Najin
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Sep 14, 2003 20:58 PDT
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Second Raising of the Wiphala in Toronto
On Saturday September 20th, 2003 at the podium of Toronto's City Hall at
noon (12,00 o'clock) the Wiphala will be raised for the second time in
Canada. The Wiphala is the sacred emblem of andean indigenous whose
territory includes Bolivia, Ecuador, Perú,northern Chile and Argentina
and southern Colombia.
The Wiphala, a square shaped flag consisting of 49 small squares of the
7 colours of the rainbow with a graduation of the colours from the
brightest to the palest will be raised at the music of the sacred andean
nacional anthem "El Condor Pasa".
The political use of the Wiphala has always been considered subversive
by the governing minorities, or also misused as a folkloric object.
Today we raise the Wiphala in the Northern Abya-Yalan Sky, taking it out
from the clandestinity in which it has been kept until recently (the
colonial power had inclusively prohibited pronouncing its name.)
511 years ago, with the invasion by the Europeans headed by Colombus,
Cortez, Pizarro, Valdivia and others who violently robbed our wealth and
submitted our communities to their religious doctrines, two symbols
tackled each other : the square-shaped, rainbow-coloured WIPHALA,
representing the resisting Natives of Pusintsuyu or Tawantinsuyu,
against the rectangular, red-yellow-red banner of the Spaniards.
From this moment on, our ancestors began suffering a terror and
repression regime in which the genocide and ethnocide were the norm and
which tragically resulted in the death of more than 100 millions of
Natives. Since then, the Wiphala became a symbol of the Natives
resistance against the Spanish domination of then and today’s
neo-colonialist States.
Consequently the Wiphala is today a symbol of indigenous resistance and
fight against opression, exploitation, humiliation and dispossession
that aboriginal nations have lived for the last 510 years. It symbolizes
the indigenous demand for their fundamental rights such to
self-determination and territorial sovereignty.
The Wiphala is also the mythical representation of the solar, lunar and
agricultural calendar. It represents the cosmic system which identifies
the organization of the communal system bases on harmony, unity,
mutuality and equality of the Aboriginal Andean First Nations.
As philosophical symbol, it represents the evolution of science,
technology, art, the socio-economic, political and cultural aspects of
the Andean communal system.
The Aboriginal Andean Nations Council (Consejo Andino de Naciones
Originarias, CANO), and other sponsors invite all to this event to
honour the Andean indigenous people living in Toronto, the Autumn
Equinox and the Eighth Anniversary of CANO.
For more information: marcogu-@hotmail.com or Cecilia Paiva
pacha-@netcentral.zzn.com or contact Marco Guzman at (416) 452-7224.
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