When Indigenous Wisdom and Modern Tech Meet
I spent a weekend with one of the oldest indigenous tribes in the world. Here's what I learned about building a regenerative future.
In September, I traveled to the Swedish archipelago to spend a weekend on the island of Eskarat with a group of impact investors and the Kogi elders.
The Kogis escaped colonization by retreating high up into the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of Colombia. This is nothing short of a miracle. Their ancient, indigenous culture has been preserved since pre-Colombian times giving us a glimpse of what life would have been like when the Incans, Mayans, and Aztecs ruled and we interacted with the world in another way.
For many years, the Kogi lived in isolation. They recently started traveling and connecting with us - The Little Brothers - to raise awareness about climate change, biodiversity loss, and the need for us to come together and create a new, third world that merges indigenous wisdom with modern science and technology.
In today’s episode, I speak with Lucas Buchholz who has written a book for the Kogi and traveled the world with them as their translator. As someone who connects investors and startups for a living, I was very keen to meet the Kogis and understand their perspective on how we should be investing and reinvesting in our world for generations to come.
We spent many hours bundled up around the fire listening to the elders speak. Their message was clear, simple, and eye opening. Our conversations led me to start my own business shorlty after and clarified why I feel so called to work with food. It was a powerful conversation that still resonates even now, months later. I hope this episode and the messages shared in it touch you as much as it impacted me.
Have you heard of koji? It’s an ancient fermentation tradition usually used to make miso and it’s been taking the food world by storm. Koji adds rich, umami flavor to dishes, which is especially useful if you’re cooking plant-based. Mac Krol is the sponsor of this episode, the Director of the European Institute of Miso, and the Founder of a startup that produces miso from European ingredients. Mac is a passionate advocate for all fermented food products and has spoken about miso all around the world from Chicago to Berlin. If you are looking for a speaker for your next event, consider getting in touch with him at mac@macferments.com. He’ll tell you the story of how miso is becoming a household staple just like the salt, pepper, and sugar in your pantry.
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Did you miss the Desinging Your Year workshop? I firmly believe that we are the artist of our lives and can create whatever life we want. If you’ve been feeling like making a shift or want to get in touch with what’s next for you, I highly suggest watching the replay. I take you through a guided mediation and visioning exercises normally reserved for my one-on-one coaching clients to get you in touch with what you want to create personally and professionally in 2023.
Episode Transcript
Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 4:44
Hi, Lucas, and welcome to the Nordic FoodTech Podcast. I would love to start with your story of how you went to Colombia and met the Kogi people.
Lucas Buchholz, Kogi 4:54
Hey, Analisa. Yes, thank you for the invitation. Well, yeah, it's been quite an adventure to go there. I saw I think in the newspaper that they were coming here for an event and asked the organizer if they needed a translator for them because I speak Spanish. And they said, “Yeah, we need a translator. And by the way, we need a place to stay.” I was like, “Okay. I mean, feel free to come to our house.” And they came to our house and I translated for them for a few weeks. And we had all sorts of funny intercultural misunderstandings. And then, at the end of this time, they invited me to come to Colombia to their village in a time of my life when I was trying to figure out what to do with my future. I thought I had my dream job working for the European Union in Pakistan, just to find out that's absolutely not what I want to do. And then, yeah, I went to Columbia, followed the invitation. And once I arrived there, they said, “Oh, yeah, great you came because—by the way, yeah, please sit down. We have a job for you to do. Please write a book.” And I was like, “What do you mean write a book? I have no idea how to do that.” And they were like, “Yeah, we have it all figured out. We've observed you guys. You learn from books and you learn from movies. And you will just sit down, shut up, and we'll tell you what to write in the book.” And I was like, “Okay.” I was having a little bit of discussion, but then I surrendered. I actually stayed a few months with them talking about basically everything in life and the world and everything else. And so yeah, that's how I got there and how the book they've asked me to write came out and how the whole story started.