MODETEAB is dedicated to rescuing and strengthening our Indigenous cultural practices, conserving and promoting our customs, ecological knowledge, food sovereignty, and traditional, sustainable livelihoods. We want to ensure that our traditional knowledge is not lost, including our history as Indigenous peoples, our traditional uses of plants, and our ancestral ways of living with Mother Earth. It is essential that we rescue our traditional means of communication, including our traditional languages, dances and songs.
Indigenous Women
We recognise the central role of women and the importance of their participation in the rescue of our culture and the decision-making of our communities. Women play a vital role in rescuing our Indigenous languages, agricultural practices, medicinal knowledge, and traditional crafts. MODETEAB is committed to prioritising Indigenous women’s training, inclusion, and empowerment.
Indigenous Youth
We seek to strengthen a new generation of Indigenous youth, helping them to feel integrated and teaching them to accept, protect and care for themselves as members of their communities. This is essential so that our traditional livelihoods, language, and cultural identity are not lost but passed on from generation to generation.
Traditional Knowledge
Our languages contain valuable knowledge about Panama’s natural environment, especially its botanical resources, the many plants, trees, flowers, leaves, roots, resins, barks, woods and seeds used in our traditional culture. Our biocultural heritage is embedded in the living landscape and includes specialist knowledge of local biodiversity, how to care for and steward tropical forests, manage rivers and water resources, and work responsibly with the land to sustainably cultivate food.
Food Sovereignty
We advocate for food sovereignty and agroecological methods, including those established by our Indigenous food systems. Farming has been the basis of culture in western Panama for thousands of years, and our commitment to food sovereignty means we defend our historical right to produce and consume our own organic food, guard against neoliberal agroindustry, reject chemical inputs and Genetically Modified Organisms, protect our soils, pollinators and precious heirloom seeds, and participate in the making of public agricultural policy.
Defending our Cultures
Our rural communities face many challenges: inadequate infrastructure, chronic underinvestment in public services, lack of potable water, lack of sanitation, malnutrition, and comparatively low levels of education. Seasonal migration for paid work in coffee and fruit farms places additional pressure on our families. MODETEAB defends the loss of traditional culture, particularly in Bocas del Toro. We organise regular cultural events and training to maintain and strengthen our languages, arts and agriculture.
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