When: July 2, 16:00-17:00
Where: Orion 4014
With Nick Middeldorp (UBC)
We are pleased to welcome former MID student Nick Middeldorp—now a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Geography—for a seminar on Tuesday, July 2. Nick will present and discuss one of his upcoming papers: Between Buen Vivir and Desolation: Contested Territorialities, Violent Conflict and Ethnocide in North Cauca, Colombia.
About the Seminar
In this talk, Nick explores the territorial conflict between the Indigenous movement and FARC dissident groups in North Cauca, who made a violent reappearance shortly after the 2016 peace accords, set on rebooting and controlling the lucrative drug trade. The conflict, exacerbated by the absence of meaningful state intervention before and after the 2022 electoral turnover, lies at the heart of a growing ontological divide amongst the Indigenous Nasa. This divide –
between the aspiration of the territory as a source of life and harmony, which traces back to the Andean concept of Buen Vivir – or the consolidation of the territory as a site of narco-extractivism, tears apart the social fabric of communities and families, and has escalated to the registered killing of over 60 members of the Indigenous movement – mostly Indigenous Guards, traditional authorities and spiritual healers from 2017 to date. In addition, over 500 Indigenous minors from North Cauca have been recruited and trafficked by armed groups between 2022 and 2024, an ongoing process of juvenicide that in turn fuels effective ethnocide. Understanding this conflict through the lens of (de)territorialization, this paper shows how the Nasa Indigenous authorities and FARC-dissidents employ a wide range of strategies violent and non- violent, including selective armed attacks by FARC-dissidents, collective identity- building, the application of justice, and spirituality in the dispute over both territorial control and the support or allegiance of the local population.
Centre for Space, Place and Society 