Thanks to this project, ancestral ceremonies and rituals will once again be conducted in three important Mayan sacred sites. Led by Mayan elders and shared with new generations and the participating communities through the Indigenous ways of transmitting knowledge, this project will generate awareness about the importance of getting involved in the preservation of this invaluable heritage and will create a network of people who will become guardians of these sacred sites.
The main activities of the project are as follows:
1. Sacred ceremonies in three communities of the Yucatan Peninsula facing threats to their sacred sites: Hopelchén in Campeche, Sahnacat in Yucatán and Felipe Carrillo Puerto in Quintana Roo.
2. Workshops aimed at deconstructing and dismantling modern and colonial stereotypes that prevent the Mayan people from properly learning about the moral ancestral teachings bequeathed to them in rituals and ceremonies.
3. The systematic documentation of the rituals to preserve them for future generations. The resulting documentation will be shared (via videos and reports) with the larger community to raise awareness and invite deep reflection on the moral and spiritual values of these ceremonies and rituals.
In a metaphorical sense, the Mayan people see contemporary ceremonies as Resilient Fires that have resisted more than five centuries of colonization. Together with other communities, the people of this project wish to fan the Kilíich K’áak ceremonial fire at their sacred sites. These ceremonies are fundamental for the effective defense of sacred sites, traditional territories, and Mayan spirituality.
By holding these ceremonies in strategic sacred sites, this project will focus attention on sites that are being destroyed or are at imminent risk of destruction both by industrialized crops and by other transnational projects.