Our involvement with the Rarámuri goes back to 2000, when we first visited the region. It was readily apparent that the issues confronting the Rarámuri were biocultural in nature: as in many other parts of the world, the resilience of both the local environment and the local communities was being eroded, and the long-standing, intimate link between the two was being weakened, to the detriment of both. We were inspired to learn more about the Rarámuri’s situation and to hear their concerns. This culminated in 2004 with a meeting attended by 25 traditional Rarámuri authorities and elders and a group of Terralingua collaborators led by Drs. David Rapport and Luisa Maffi.

The Rarámuri authorities presented their views about the state of their communities, stressing both their long-standing resilience as an indigenous people and their concerns about rapid ecological and social change that is threatening their physical, cultural, and spiritual survival. Speaking from the heart, they expressed their resolve, as leaders of their communities, to take charge of addressing these problems, especially for the sake of ensuring that Rarámuri identity, values, knowledge, customs, and language continue to be transmitted to the younger generations. They clearly pointed out that, in order to achieve these goals, it is imperative to find solutions that are viable ecologically, socially, and economically, to ensure sustainable livelihoods rooted in place. A few youngsters who were present also spoke eloquently to these issues. The emerging consensus among the Rarámuri participants was that the initial focus of a collaborative project with visiting researchers should be on water, seen as the basis for all life and at the same time as an increasingly scarce and unhealthy resource, with serious consequences for humans, animals, forests, wild plants, and crops. Revegetation was also a high priority, along with concerns about health and culturally appropriate education. (2004 Project Report)

In response, Terralingua formulated a project to address these concerns, called “Eco-cultural Health in the Sierra Tarahumara, Mexico”, which later received funding from The Christensen Fund. Project activities, co-directed by Drs. David Rapport and Luisa Maffi, began in 2006. The overarching goal of the project was the development of an on-the-ground, practical education program through which the Rarámuri could directly monitor and assess the eco-cultural health of their landscape and communities, and thus make informed decisions about action. However, at the Rarámuri’s request, we initially focused on life-essential activities such as bringing in potable water from a mountain spring and developing tree nurseries and home gardens, as well as on issues of health, hygiene, sanitation, and on literacy, especially for women. Consequently, in addition to Drs. Rapport and Maffi’s expertise in ecosystem health and biocultural diversity, our team included collaborators with expertise in the other relevant fields: Michael Nickels of Seven Ravens Farm on Salt Spring Island (British Columbia, Canada), an expert in permaculture and sustainable forestry, who has been involved in successful revegetation projects in other countries such as Kenya and China; Dr. Victoria Lee (University of Toronto), a physician with a strong focus on public health, who has worked in many indigenous and rural communities worldwide; and Dr. Carla Paciotto (Western Illinois University), an expert in indigenous bilingual education, who had previously carried out education-related research in Rarámuri communities. By mutual agreement with our Rarámuri counterparts, our work has so far concentrated on two small Rarámuri settlements in the vicinity of the Sierra Tarahumara town of Norogachi. The results of these initial projects are described in the following pages.