Identity Stories as Non-violent Strategies for Conflict Management: The Indigenous Guard in Northern Cauca - Colombia

The indigenous Nasa, represented by the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (ACIN), are recognized in Colombia for using non-violent initiatives to deal with violent conflicts. The most permanent initiative is the Indigenous Guard, a community watch to patrol and protect indigenous people. Indigenous Nasa have used violent strategies in the past, but in the last twenty years they have moved to different strategies. This paper inquires how indigenous people frame the Indigenous Guard history and the role played by their ethnic collective identity in developing initiatives to manage violent conflicts in non-violent ways. We used ethnographic methods during a twelve-month stay within ACIN and working with indigenous guards. A language-based perspective was used to understand collective identity construction processes. Our framing analysis shows that indigenous Nasa refer to four historical events that function as identification points that bring particular elements to the guards’ identities in specific situations. We call these identification points identity stories. The construction of identity stories in everyday interactions has become an important power resource for Nasa people dealing with threatening situations and events every day. We conclude that Nasa people use these identity stories to reconstruct and adapt their collective identity to changes and move from violent to non-violent strategies. Therefore, their historical memory is used -in everyday discourses and practices- as a tool for peacebuilding.