Legislator Deisy Ayala says that attention is needed from federal agencies in terms of protecting the heritage of indigenous peoples.
Deputy Deisy Judith Ayala Valenzuela lamented that despite the fact that indigenous peoples, like the majority of human groups in Sinaloa, have sacred sites that are a symbol or distinctive of their identity and, therefore, constitute a tangible part of their heritage culture, are targets of direct attack.
“Attention is needed by federal agencies in terms of protecting the heritage of indigenous peoples, we can point out that these sites are the target of direct attacks on the development of their traditional ceremonies, attacks on cultural and religious values,” he said.
Faced with this situation, he presented an initiative proposing various modifications to the Law on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Communities for the State of Sinaloa, which was given a first reading.
“The purpose of this initiative is aimed at adding two chapters to the Law on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Communities for the State of Sinaloa, with the aim of providing indigenous peoples and communities throughout the state the right to have natural sites that according to their worldview, beliefs, uses, customs and rituals are protected within the State Legislation”, he explained.
The indigenous deputy and member of the Commission on Indigenous Communities and Affairs of the State Congress explained that the sacred sites for indigenous communities are a core part of the cultural heritage of these human groups, from which come the cultural expressions of the peoples, the care of the earth, the relationship that they obtain with other living beings and with immaterial concepts and that they share the same space to live.
Being also a fact that all aspects of heritage are related to each other and that they represent an important part of the indigenous communities or of a certain people, it is the historical decision of each one of the peoples to cradle in their bosom the protection of the tangible aspects, intangibles that constitute their assets.
“It is not a wrong idea to speak of the defense of the natural and architectural heritage of indigenous peoples, because this has been valid for all human groups, regardless of the culture to which they belong,” he said.
The PRI legislator stressed that the idea of private property arises with man’s own idea of protecting his physical integrity, millennia before the drafting of this document.
The cultural heritage in its expressions can be intangible or tangible: the intangible is the complete reserve of knowledge, techniques and knowledge that are transmitted from generation to generation, as well as the indigenous language, which in its content has the traditions or living expressions of the family ancestors, as well as oral traditions, shows, rituals, festivals, ancestral medicine and crafts.
Source: elsoldemazatlan.com.mx
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