The Magdalena River is Colombia’s main nautical artery, with approximately 75% of the population residing within its basin. Riverside communities rely daily on traditional watercrafts, primarily canoes, for transportation, fishing, and provisioning, forging significant cultural ties that reflect their relationship with the amphibious environment they inhabit. Local master builders craft these canoes using indigenous materials and traditional cultural and technological methods.

In recent years, the rise of fiberglass and other industrial materials has rapidly started to replace wood as raw material for watercrafts. Furthermore, extensive deforestation in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, yielded strict regulations on logging large trees, and this has limited access to wood. These challenges have placed the traditional knowledge required for canoe building in the Magdalena River basin at serious risk of cultural extinction, jeopardizing the transmission of local traditions. To safeguard this invaluable heritage, there is an urgent need for a systematic record of vessel construction using traditional materials.

PI: Antonio Jaramillo Arango

Collaborators: Ricardo Borrero L. and Juan David Sarmiento Rodríguez

Location of Research: Magdalena Medio, Colombia

Host Institution: Red de Artes Vivas

Top banner image: Fruit-selling canoe. Nueva Venecia, Magdalena, Colombia. Photo credit: Antonio Jaramillo Arango, Juan David Sarmiento Rodríguez, and Ricardo Borrero L.

 

 

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