Wayuu
The Wayuu live on the Caribbean coast of the desolate La Guajira peninsula. Most of the time, life is very hard, with little to live on – except for the sun and the warm sea breeze that swirls sand and dust clouds between the cactuses. With very little rain (it can go for years without rain) and only a few water-logged rivers as natural water sources, many communities do not have enough water. The lack of water and materials also hinders handicrafts, which are one of the main sources of income today
In the cosmological worldview of the Wayuu, all that exists is interconnected in an infinite network. Objects are knitted, interwoven with stories – and each pattern has a meaning. The significance can be mystical or extremely trivial – for example, the ‘gait of a dizzy donkey’ or simply the interplay of colours inspired by Guajira’s natural world
Barí
Part of my roots are the Barí (also Motilon-barí) – an indigenous people from the Catatumbo rainforests of present-day Colombia and Venezuela. They once ranged from the Perijá Mountains to the vast and magical Lake Maracaibo. Although the Spaniards failed to conquer them, it was diseases and later industrialisation, mainly mineral extraction, that quickly destroyed a significant part of their people and culture. Many have mixed with other peoples and settled elsewhere. In their own language, Barí means ‘Son of the Forest’ and Catatumbo ‘Land of Storm and Thunder’, because on most nights the sky above their land is lit up by an endless dance of lightning. This is particularly visible from Lake Maracaibo.
English 
Estonian