Student and Community Participants Contribute Artwork to Rios Solidarios Project

Final year students of the BA (Honours) Early Childhood Care & Education and BA (Honours) Social Care Practice in Sligo participated in an Inclusive Arts elective module from September to December 2022. They collaborated with a group from Rehabcare Sligo, to create eight pieces for the Rios Solidarios project at University of Glasgow. The project invites artworks from makers internationally in solidarity with the River Atrato in Columbia. The Inclusive Arts group was supported by artist Anna MacLeod and lecturer Dr Susan McDonnell.

The Rio Atrato is in the Choco region of Columbia, an important area for biodiversity, with an estimated 2000 species of flora and fauna in its rainforests. The ways of life of diverse communities of Afro-descendent and indigenous people who live on the river are threatened by socio-environmental devastation caused by illegal mechanised goldmining and ongoing conflicts between armed guerrillas, paramilitaries and organised crime.

Social leaders are frequently targeted and traditional sustainable livelihoods are lost due to deforestation, destruction of river channels and pollution. The riverine communities have historically been subject to systemic discrimination and are rarely consulted at national level.

Following long-term organisations and actions at multiple levels by the Atrato communities and their allies, a 2017 landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court (T-622) confirmed the Rio Atrato as a bearer of legal rights and recognised the inextricable connection between the river and its communities. Although this is an important step, implementation of the ruling is slow.

About the Ríos Solidarios Project

The Ríos Solidarios project is for people from anywhere in the world to create artwork which sends messages of love and solidarity from their river to the communities of the Atrato river in Chocó, Colombia.

The project aims to raise awareness of the socioenvironmental devastation affecting the Atrato and the communities who live there.

Through the creation of artworks, the project will forge and strengthen networks of solidarity, centred on an understanding of rivers as the lifeblood of communities across the globe.

To find out more about ATU Sligo’s involvement in the project please click here