Personal Statement

The idea formed in serenity and harmony, surrounded by nature, as a result of a request from an elderly lady, Natalia Layan (matriarch of the family Layan), to join forces with her in her plight/fight to educate the Bribri youth regarding their ancestral ways in order to preserve their cultural heritage and in so doing create a sense of pride in who they are.

As life will have it, I find myself in the privileged position of having been accepted, adopted even if you like, into the family Layan of Clan Cachautwak. They have taken me into their lives and awarded me their trust and confidence. They are Bribri.

Living in the jungles of Indigenous Reserve of Talamanca since the end of September 2021, Ive been looking for a way to combine my love for mountains and raw, uncut primordial jungle, as well as origin stories and adventure, with the desire to help the indigenous Bribri and Cabecar tribes of the Talamancan Highlands in their struggle for the conservation and revitalization of their language, culture and heritage.

Doing so would be to assist in the preservation of their cultural identity and thus further their human rights process as an ethnic group and all those rights that go with that…for example the right to self governance. That however, is another story and another battle altogether.