Julieth Morales (Cauca, Colombia, 1992) currently living in her hometown in Cauca Colombia, she defines herself as a Misak artist by birth and mestiza by context. Her work challenges the traditional representations of what it means to be indigenous in Colombia, and all the preconceptions which are still present in the imaginations of most Colombians about the cultures of the ancestral peoples, the role of women in their societies and their connection to the land.
With a master’s degree in plastic arts at Universidad del Cauca, Morales does not conform to what was proposed by the indigenist movement in the 1930’s which sought to “return to the roots” to find a common past to give a sense of belonging to the people after a century of independence, nor with the ethnographic portraits that showed the indigenous subject frozen in time. It also moves away from the exoticism with which some contemporary artists are treated, where naivety and the “different worldview” become sufficient reasons to consecrate a work.
As she is part of the Misak people, who have been leading political struggles since the end of the 20th century to actively participate in national construction, Julieth Morales belongs to a generation of indigenous professionals who transit between urban and rural areas and who by their own decision are giving a new meaning to the past, in order to oppose the current economic system that is characterized by its extractive and individualistic practices that are not sustainable.
NA VERY PIRØ WAN WØTØTRANTRAP SRØTØPA (Recover the land to recover everything) is a slogan of the Misak people that emerged in 1980 when they were structured as a social movement to reconquer their lands seized by the independence hero Matías Fajardo. The Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), founded in 1971, became a political movement after participating in the 1991 National Constituent Assembly in which they managed to reclaim the land constitutionally.
Julieth has inherited these struggles and her goal is to update the mechanisms to continue recovering everything, pointing out the underlying heteropatriarchal structures in both indigenous and mestizo culture. Her analysis started from the individual, using her own body as the medium for her first actions. She currently performs collective actions with members of her community and others, moving away from the artist's modern idea as a genius and understanding herself as a platform that is built from its relationship with others.
Information on Misak indigenous people
The Misak are an indigenous people of the department of Cauca in Colombia. Their language is known as Guambiano and has about 21.000 according to ethnolinguistic studies from the year 2015. The majority lives in the western part of the Colombian Andes range (Cordillera).
The Misak society has a patriarchal kinship system, with hereditary offices, descent lines, and property passing through the male line. Agriculture is the base of their economy. Coffee, cassava, potatoes, beans, and cabbage are among the main products they cultivate.
The Guambiano people are known for their traditional clothing: blue scarf (worn as a sarong), rectangular ponchos, and black bowler hat for the men; black skirt, solid color top, blue scarf, and dark bowler hat for the women.
