Los Pastos

Majority of Pastos people live in southern Colombia and northern Ecuador. Today their population is aprox 130.000 people, and their aboriginal language is considered extinct - currently under research/reconstruction.

The Pastos were under the control of the Tahuantinsuyu shortly before the arrival of the Spanish. In the last decade of the 15th century, the Pastos faced the Incas, who from Quito wanted to launch a campaign to conquer the Pasto territory. The Pastos took refuge in the Western Cordillera and managed to expel the occupiers.

Traditional medicine and respect for nature are key characteristics of the Pastos indigenous people, as their culture is primarily based on this.

The thought of the indigenous Pastos people is about preserving life of all being; The territory is a place of respect, a mythic and spiritual space where they ideate their knowledge: Living in unity in the midst of diversity, reconstruct new ways of living not written in books, but in the memory of the community, in the verbal stories of the elders, in their way of life, which are the realities of their concepts, perspectives and dwell, strengthening their processes of life and progress, with their own vision and thought of planning, evolution and wellbeing of the community.

Our collaborating artist Roberto Carlos Imbacuan is from the Pastos people.