What impels the Kingdoms to evolve is this human presence, with its radiance of love, with its radiance of care, service, gratitude for this great task that the Vegetal Kingdom has here on Earth.” (Frei Ameino – Clemente ).
A group of representatives of the Light-Community Fraternity of Aurora, affiliated to the Fraternity – International Humanitarian Federation (FIHF), was present on the first day of the Meeting of the Network of Native and Creole Seeds of Northern Uruguay, in October, as a way of creating new bridges between the Light-Community and the Seed Network in the country, sharing experiences and knowledge with those present, as well as pure seeds and plant seedlings.
The event took place in the Eden Valley region, municipality of Tacuarembó, northern Uruguay, promoted by the Red Nacional de Semillas Nativas y Criollas (National Network of Native and Criollo Seeds), and this was the edition carried out by the North Regional of the National Network.
With group dynamics that sought greater awareness in contact with the Vegetal Kingdom and a greater understanding of the dynamics of communication between the seed networks of northern Uruguay, the meeting brought together members of the Seed Network from the regions of Salto, Paysandú, Tacuarembó, Artigas, Rivera, La Aldea and Paso de las Carretas, as well as the already mentioned representatives of the Light-Community Fraternity of Aurora, who provided participants with 20 100g bags of pure organic soy and jack bean seeds, in addition to several seedlings of the plant known as “azedinha”.
Promoting the partnership between the different groups of the Northern Regional Seed Network, one of the group dynamics offered was to gather the members present with their respective groups, which intertwined themselves with the other groups by holding the end of a string in each hand, which they should not let go. In the end, everyone was entangled, and the dynamics could highlight the importance of organization, respect for hierarchy and the benefits and possibilities that the good flow of communication among everyone can bring, avoiding the disorganization of relationships.
Frei Akhbar, coordinator of the Planting Sector of the Light-Community Fraternity of Aurora, tells us how he felt when participating in the event:
“We didn’t know many people, but we were very well received. There was a very strong energy of hospitality. (…) I perceived within each one this love for nature, for the Vegetal Kingdom. For me, this love was very impressed that each one has for life, for Mother Earth. And I realized that they were trying to express, in one way or another, this reverence they feel for seeds and for nature.”
The Light-Community group was also able to see the new seed bank that is being built at Huerta Comunitaria Tierra Viva, which, according to the description on its official blog, is a “community farm in formation that seeks to sustain itself with the natural resources of the place, interested in the responsible consumption of ecological, artisanal and locally produced products”. Taking its first steps in building this seed bank, the farm has several areas of organic gardens and a small chicken coop.
At the end of the day, the Light-Community group was divided in order to participate in four different workshops that took place simultaneously, offered by the event’s collaborators, which dealt with the elaboration of M.E.N. (Efficient Native Microorganisms), natural techniques for building organic gardens, recognition of medicinal plants from the local natural flora, and laws protecting the rights of peasant life with the support of the organization CLOC-LVC (Latin American Coordinator of Field Organizations – La Vía Campesina).
In addition to the dynamics, the workshops and the first contact with Huerta Comunitaria Tierra Viva and its seed bank, the event also opened up space for creating new contacts with members of this Uruguayan seed network. The Light-Community Fraternity of Aurora was able to express itself in close harmony with the other groups, enabling the creation of new links with the potential to contribute positively to the seed bank sustained within the Community itself; likewise, from the work that the Community has been developing with pure seeds, to be able to collaborate with groups that work with seeds in Uruguay.
Caring for pure seeds takes us back to the archetype of renewal present in the Vegetal Kingdom, since, in essence, each seed carries to a future moment not just a new plant, but a principle of renewal, of transformation.
Recalling the words of José Trigueirinho Netto about the seeds:
“In the seeds we have the beginning of the future stages of the Vegetal Kingdom. So, creating a seed is not just with the intention of reproducing, with the intention of having more food. This also exists, but it should not be the main thing (…) Of course, the seed is a way of reproducing food, of giving food to man, animals, birds. The seed is the germ of all this, but the most important thing is that it carries within it the future Vegetal Kingdom already in essence”.
Complementary material:
Website of the Red Nacional de Semillas Nativas y Criollas do Uruguay: https://redsemillas.uy/
Blog of the Huerta Comunitaria Tierra Viva: http://huertacomunitariatierraviva.blogspot.com/
CLOC-LVC website: https://cloc-viacampesina.net/