The Wiwa people of Sierra Nevada are guardians of a living sacred law
We walk alongside them
The Ley de Origen, transmitted through the oral palabra mayor of Mamos and Sagas, has never been written by the Wiwa people themselves. What the elders carry has never been written. Your support ensures it will be. Bridgepath Foundation, in alliance with OWGT, is walking alongside to document it on the community's own terms, under the guidance of Mamos and Sagas.
Why does this matter to you, even if you have never heard of the Sierra Nevada?
The Ley de Origen is a living system of knowledge about how humans must relate to the Earth, governing water, land, community, health, and all life.
The Wiwa have safeguarded the Sierra Nevada, one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems and the source of major river systems, for centuries. Their knowledge is what has kept it alive. When the elders pass and this knowledge disappears, something irreplaceable leaves the world. Not just for the Wiwa. For all of us.
You can help write it down so generations from now will remember.
Featured Initiatives 2026
Preserving the Ley de Origen-Shembuta
Ley de Origen -Shembuta A once-in-a-generation documentation of Wiwa sacred law
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which the Wiwa call the Corazón del Mundo, the Heart of the World, is home to one of the world's most extraordinary living knowledge systems. It has never been written down
The complete legal, ethical, and cosmological system of the Wiwa people has been transmitted exclusively through the oral palabra mayor of Mamos and Sagas for generations. As elder knowledge keepers pass, this living law disappears with them. Their children, entering national school systems, learn nothing of Seynekun or their own language, Dʉmʉna. Sacred sites face mining, climate change, and armed conflict.
In March 2026, Colombia declared 942,000 hectares of the Sierra Nevada a protected natural reserve, recognizing the Wiwa, Kogui, Arhuaco, and Kankuamo as its cultural and ecological guardians. This is the most historically supported moment to act.
Bridgepath Foundation, in formal alliance with the Organización Wiwa Golkushe Tayrona (OWGT), is accompanying the Mamos and Sagas on a multi-year territorial journey to document the Ley de Origen guided, validated, and owned entirely by the Wiwa community.
The journey follows a sequence established by the Mamos and Sagas of the OWGT:
Spiritual authorization → Pagamento → Oral recording → Ancestral cartography → Community validation → Transcription → Translation → Manuscript → Archive — all under OWGT direction and custody.
This documented knowledge will form the foundational curriculum of Wiwa-controlled Escuelas Propias: sovereign schools taught in Dʉmʉna, rooted in Seynekun.
Where We Are
✓ Phase 1 complete — 7 sacred sites in La Magdalena. Pagamento ceremonies performed, oral recordings made. $16,000 self-funded by Bridgepath.
→ Phase 2 begins August 2026 — 14 sacred sites in La Guajira.
We are seeking $45,000 to make it possible.
What Phase 2 will produce
By the end of Phase 2, the following will exist that do not exist today:
Audio and video recordings from 14 sacred sites in La Guajira, the oral palabra mayor of Mamos and Sagas, captured in their own words, in Dumuna
Preliminary written segments of the Ley de Origen, transcribed in Dumuna and Spanish, the first time the Wiwa have ever held their own sacred law in written form
Community-validated transcription and archiving protocols, approved by Mamos, Sagas, and OWGT
All materials are archived under OWGT ownership and custody
These deliverables feed directly into Phase 3 (El Cesar) and Phase 4, the final publication of a Ley de Origen manuscript that will serve as the foundational curriculum of Wiwa-controlled Escuelas Propias
Wiwa Women’s Economic Sovereignty Program
In Wiwa communities, women are the guardians of ancestral weaving and natural dyeing, sacred practices that carry cultural memory, identity, and relationship to the land. These are not crafts. They are a living archive.
Launched in 2025, this initiative was born from listening. Bridgepath spent over two weeks in the community, walking alongside the women hearing their stories, their needs, their dreams. The plan came from them.
Our achievements to date
150+ pounds of maguey fiber supporting the creation of hand-woven mochilas
Partnership with Biblioteca y Centro Cultural Sé, monthly public exhibitions beginning May, 2026
Implemented in alliance with Asociación Indígena Wiwa Ribunduna
The world is paying attention
What UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has to say about the Wiwa People
In 2022, UNESCO inscribed the collective ancestral knowledge of the Wiwa, Kogui, Arhuaco, and Kankuamo peoples onto its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage recognizing their "Ancestral System of Knowledge" as essential for protecting the Sierra Nevada's ecosystem and cultural identity.
The Mamos and Sagas are not just community elders. UNESCO recognizes them as spiritual and material guardians of one of the planet's most biodiverse and ecologically critical landscapes, the source of major rivers, the Heart of the World.
Their knowledge faces mining, climate change, and armed conflict. The glaciers are disappearing and the elders are passing.
Bridgepath is walking alongside them so this knowledge lives beyond this generation.
A healing that goes beyond you
Monthly stories from the Sierra Nevada and from individuals finding their way back to self.
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Bridgepath Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Serving individuals and communities globally
Bridging Mind, Body, Spirit, and Earth
