Long before any map divided territories with rigid lines, before names were imposed and borders invented, there were Abya Yala and Turtle Island; and also territories known as Aotearoa, among many other ancestral names that are still alive in the languages and in the memory of the native peoples.
They were not abstract concepts. They were living worlds, inhabited by peoples who conceived of the earth not as a resource, but as a relationship. They were networks of life in which territory, culture, spirituality and social organization were not separated.
Abya Yala: living land, living name
Abya Yala is a term of the Guna people, native to the Caribbean of Panama and northern Colombia, especially in the territory of Guna Yala.
The term can be translated as “land in full maturity”, “living earth” or “earth in flower”. More than a name, it is a way of perceiving the world: a territory that is not available for exploitation, but in continuous relationship with those who inhabit it.
Today, Abya Yala is a term widely used by indigenous and decolonial movements as an alternative to colonial names. Using it is not just a language choice. It is a political and epistemological choice.
Turtle Island: Origin and Worldview
Turtle Island, which is often translated as “Turtle Island,” is a name used by several indigenous peoples in North America. It is based on ancient creation legends, according to which the earth rises on the shell of a turtle.
This story is not a “myth” in the Western sense of fiction. It is a form of knowledge that organizes the relationships between human beings, animals, water, earth and spirit.
There are other names that also express these living territorialities, such as Anahuac, a Nahuatl term used by the Nahua peoples to refer to the central region of Mexico; or Pindorama, the name given by the Tupi peoples to the territory that is now known as Brazil.
Each name contains a cosmology. Each word reveals a relationship.
Chronology: a thousand-year-old presence
around 20,000 BC or earlier
Archaeological evidence indicates human presence in the Americas much earlier than has traditionally been taught. Sites such as Monte Verde, in present-day Chile, question linear narratives about occupation.
around 10,000 BC
The villages were already widely spread across different ecosystems, developing knowledge specific to each territory.
c. 3,000 BC – 1,000 AD
Development of sophisticated agricultural systems. Crops such as maize, potato, and cassava were domesticated and perfected by indigenous peoples, which has influenced global food systems to this day.
c. 1000-1500 AD
Growth of complex urban centers and exchange networks. Cities such as Tenochtitlan were among the largest in the world in the fifteenth century.
From 1492 onwards, the beginning of European colonization. This process brought with it not only territorial occupation, but also epidemics, systemic violence and large-scale attempts at cultural erasure.
Data that question colonial narratives
It is estimated that between 50 and 100 million people lived in the Americas before 1492. This figure belies the idea that these were “uninhabited lands”.
In the Amazon, archaeological findings show that forests considered “virgin” have actually been shaped by human activity over thousands of years, including the creation of fertile soils such as black earth.
These data reveal something fundamental: indigenous peoples not only inhabited their territories; they cultivated, regenerated and transformed them in sophisticated and sustainable ways.
Orality: living memory
Much of what we know is fragmentary.Not because these peoples had no history, but because many of those stories were transmitted and continue to be transmitted through oral tradition.
In many indigenous cultures, knowledge is not preserved in archives, but in living practices:stories told, songs, ceremonies, and relationships with the territory.
Orality is not the absence of writing. It is a complex system ofknowledge transmission, which integrates memory, ethics, spirituality and practice.
Expecting to find records written in Western format as the only valid form of proof is, in itself, acolonial limitation. It is a way ofmeasuring other worlds with a ruler that does not belong to them.
Recognizing this does not mean renouncing rigor. It means expanding it.
Worldview: Everything is interrelated
In many indigenous worldviews,there is no separation between nature and culture, the human and the non-human, the material and the spiritual.
Everything is interrelated.
Land is not property. It’s a relationship.
Mountains, rivers, forests, andanimals are not resources. They are related.
This way of perceiving the world guides political decisions, economic practices, and knowledge systems.
Governance and reciprocity
The systems of government were diverse and sophisticated. Confederations such as the Haudenosaunee were organized on the basis of consensus, collective responsibility and balance between the different forces.
In many contexts, women played key roles in decision-making and knowledge transmission.
Economies were not based on accumulation, but on reciprocity. Exchange networks were based on mutual trust and responsibility.
Abundance was not measured by maximum extraction, but by the ability to maintain equilibrium over time.
Ecological knowledge and living science
Practices such as fire management, regenerative agriculture, mixed cropping, and the medicinal use of plants demonstrate a high level of ecological knowledge.
These systems have been developed over thousands of years, in continuous interaction with the territories.
Today, much of that knowledge is at the heart of discussions about sustainability and the climate crisis.
Present Continuous
Indigenous peoplesdo not belong to the past.
Today they are still alive inAbya Yala, theTurtle Island and territories such as Aotearoa.
They continue to resist, reinvent themselves and transmit theirways of life.
Their knowledge is not only relevant. They are essential to meet today’s challenges.
Beyond nostalgia
Talking about those worlds before colonization is not an exercise in nostalgia.
It is to recognize that there have always been other ways of existing.
And they continue to be so.
It is also an invitation to listen.
Not only with curiosity, but with responsibility.
Because those worlds have not disappeared.
They keep talking.
What to do after reading this?
This is not a text that can be simply read. It is an invitation to change the relationship.
For those who are in a position of ally or are not indigenous:
- Name the territories correctly
Abya Yala, Turtle Island, Anahuac, Pindorama, Aotearoa. To name is also to recognize.
- Listen directly to Indigenous voices
Prioritize Indigenous creations, expressions, and knowledge without the constant mediation of outside interpretations.
- Don’t turn this into a meaningless metaphor
These worldviews are not poetic images of free use. They come from living territories and continuous struggles.
- Provide concrete support
Whenever possible, support initiatives, organizations and movements led by indigenous peoples.
What if you recognize yourself within colonial systems?
The issue is not guilt, but responsibility:
- What have you forgotten from what you learned?
- And what changes when you start listening differently?
It doesn’t end here
It all starts with the way you begin to see, name, and relate to the world.
Listening is a practice.
And practices change structures.
