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The Wixárika community’s thirteen-year legal battle to stop mining in their sacred territory

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Along the journey of every pilgrimage, the road to Wirikuta brims with offerings: lit candles, arrows, and jícaras (bowls made from the hardened skin of the jícara, or calabash gourd). Other vessels are placed on the ground leading to the sacred site. Each year, dozens of people leave the Wixárika communities in the state of Jalisco and walk for hours over more than 500 kilometers (about 310 miles) towards the site, located in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Their journey, guided by Tamatsi Kauyumarie — the Blue Stag, one of their highest deities — represents a prayer for the wellbeing of nature and all of humanity. Wirikuta is not only the birthplace of Wixaritari culture. It also contains all the natural elements that sustain it. That’s why, when the communities found out that mining threatened this ecosystem, they came together to defend it. “In 2010, we discovered that Canadian companies wanted it [Wirikuta land], and we felt it was in danger. The companies wanted to open mines, but we felt that this would cause big problems. It is an extermination of what is sacred,” says María Concepción Bautista, president of the commons for the Tuapurie-Santa Catarina and Cuexcomatitlán communities. Wixaritari people leave offerings along the route to Wirikuta. Image by Consejo Regional Wixárika. This concern led to the creation of the Wixárika Regional Council for the Defence of Wirikuta (CRW) in 2011. The CRW is an organisation made up of traditional, agrarian, and civil authorities and members of the Wixaritari communities…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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