Performing the Message

Gonawindúa, The Heart of the World is an ambitious and exciting stage piece showcasing the Kogi’s environmental knowledge through the powerful languages of theatre, dance and music. It was jointly created by award-winning Colombian theatre directors Nube Sandoval and Bernardo Rey, and Organización Gonawindua Tayrona, the representative body of the Kogi. This performance, the largest-scale artistic project yet to harness Kogi knowledge, produces an immersive and highly engaging experience bringing to life an indigenous ecology of paramount environmental relevance. It features a cast of 12 young Kogi actors together with a Mamo and a Saga (spiritual elders). Due to the urgency of the climate catastrophe and from the trust that has been built during the creative process, the Kogi will be revealing much of their knowledge considered ‘secret’ and ‘sacred’. Never-before seen ancestral dances and songs of worship to the Earth as well as a replica of the recently returned masks will be showcased to transmit a profound and timely message, bridging the indigenous and non-indigenous worlds through art.​

The performance is a rare and powerful opportunity for the audience to truly absorb the spiritual worldview of one of the world’s oldest peoples. It is a privileged invitation by the indigenous themselves to witness how they revere Nature and experience the depth of their pre-Columbian paradigm. The medium of theatre allows this glimpse, without the message being lost in translation. It is the first time the Kogi have engaged with the performing arts on this scale. Several workshops in residency are underway which, crucially, have bolstered the recuperation of ancestral culture through the actors’ very own anthropological investigations in their communities. Spiritual authorities are present during the rehearsals, to guide the process of adaptation and train the actors in their ancestral dances and songs as well as to provide the ancestral knowledge from which the piece is devised.​

The play is co-produced by Colombia’s Ministry of Culture. In charge of the play’s music production is Christian Castagno, three times Grammy award-winning music producer, who has recorded the Kogi elders for the first time in his music studio ‘Sonido Selva’ in the Sierra Nevada.​ The performance will debut in Teatro Cenit (Minca, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta) in  October 2024, then taken to indigenous communities in Kogi territory.

“This is a play that has great power because it comes from the indigenous elders who want an alternative way of expressing their thought system to the non-indigenous. This makes it incredibly powerful, strong,  important and it’s what we need in the West, to change our mindset.”  Juan Mayr, former Colombian Minister for the Environment

We are raising funds to continue rehearsals from January 2025, to be ready to take the show on a national and international tour of key theatres (starting in March 2025), shining a spotlight around the world on the environmental wisdom and knowledge of one of the world’s oldest living indigenous groups, sparking crucial international dialogue around pre-Columbian environmental spirituality to challenge the mainstream extractivist paradigm.​

DONATE TO HELP THE KOGI SHARE THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL MESSAGE THROUGH Teatro Cenit

If you would like to support the Kogi to perform their environmental message through dance and song, please contact

Nube Sandoval & Bernardo Rey, Teatro Cenit, Email: teatrocenit@gmail.com