Mongabay · Climate & nature

Indigenous Languages Revived Through Dragonfly Cataloging in Colombia

Researchers in Colombia's Guainía region have partnered with Indigenous communities to identify nearly 120 dragonfly species, significantly expanding the scientific record and simultaneously working to revive local languages.

The Dragones Guainía project discovered a high diversity of dragonflies, including species native to the Orinoco, Amazonas, and the Guiana Shield, making Guainía a significant hotspot for these insects.

The presence and health of dragonflies are indicators of freshwater ecosystem conditions, which are increasingly threatened by mining, deforestation, waste management issues, and expanding tourism.

Workshops were held to share findings with local communities, revealing a gap in understanding due to the specialized language of biology and, for some, a lack of Spanish proficiency.

Community members, including elders with ancestral knowledge, participated in identifying dragonflies in their native languages, leading to efforts to recover or invent names.

Indigenous leaders emphasized the importance of this process for recovering ancestral knowledge and revitalizing languages that are at risk of disappearing.

Communities, such as the Puinave tribe in Remanso, have created new names in their ancestral language for dragonflies, contributing to both linguistic and ecological monitoring efforts.

AI-samenvatting op basis van de bron.