America On CoffeeWe’re just inviting you to take a timeout into the rhythmic ambiance of our breakfast, brunch and/or coffee selections. We are happy whenever you stop by.Kogi Coffee
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Arregoces belongs to an indigenous group called the Kogi, an ancient mountain people from the Sierra Nevada in Colombia who have a rich ancestral culture and a deep connection to their environment.
Last December we had the rare honour to be invited to the home of the Kogi to shoot a documentary and photography project focusing on the special way the Kogi grow wild coffee
As our guide for the trip and an excellent young ambassador for the Kogi message, Arregoces ended up being one of the doco’s main characters, so we would like to invite him to the premiere and Kogi Coffee Australia launch event to be held in July 30 in Sydney. However, return plane tickets from Colombia and travel expenses do not come cheap!
We think the Kogi people have a lot to teach us. Through centuries they have developed a deep environmental knowledge through their close communication with nature. They see themselves as the first children of The Mother and the elder brothers of humanity, and as such they believe they have a responsibility to be the guardians of the Earth.
They have remained more or less isolated from the rest of the world for more than 500 years, since before the Spanish arrived in Colombia. However, in recent decades they have seen how their sacred sites, which hold immense spiritual as well as environmental importance, have been invaded by settlers, developers and mining interests. On top of that, they are feeling the effects of the changing climate.
This has motivated the Kogi to try to communicate more with the world in order to let the ‘younger brother‘ know that we are all connected, that damaging a mountain is akin to hurting ourselves, and that we must live more sustainably.
One of the ways they are reaching out is by sharing their unique wild coffee with the world. Their shade-grown, bird-friendly coffee trees live naturally among the native species of the rainforest while Kogi elders, known as mamos, follow the harvesting process by doing important spiritual work. This makes it probably one of the purest, most sustainable in the planet.
By exporting their beans, the Kogi hope to reach out to people over the world. They call this concept ‘messenger coffee‘. They also plan to use profits from the sale of the green beans to buy back some of their sacred sites.
Arregoces became our good mate and we have kept in touch. After meeting a few Aussies he’s quite keen to come to Sydney to share knowledge with local aboriginal leaders and sustainability experts and learn about the Australian coffee industry he’s heard so much about.
About Us
We are Lorenzo and Diana, a married Colombian-Australian couple who co-founded Kogi Coffee in Australia, which recently started to sell freshly roasted wild coffee online.
We became involved with the Kogi through Lorenzo’s father, who as an anthropologist has been working with them for around 30 years. When we heard the Kogi were growing great coffee, we thought we could help connect them with the Australian market and were lucky to get support from Aussie friends with fantastic filmmaking and photography credits.
A special thank you to Kleber Estorilio for putting together our Crowdfunding video and to Lashtari & Shiram for the spanish subtitling.
You can follow Kleber’s work on www.digitalkmedia.com
For more information, go to source:
Arregoces spreading the Kogi message
Connecting indigenous peoples
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