Evergreenia – Ohithere I

Ambassador: Angelina Mitchel
Evan Bell
Destiny Hackney
Sophie Manaster
Elena Musser

       Evergreenia’s history is rich with traditions that preserve the environment, and relationship with Earth’s natural cycles. Having inhabited the region for thousands of years, the community of Evergreenia has passed down spiritual practices that connect them with the land. Evergreenia has historically been isolated and maintained its natural roots to the earth, remaining a developing community rather than becoming developed. As a result, the natural environment is both well preserved and central to their way of living. The community members, called Evergreenians, rely on the natural weather and water cycles to get clean water and grow food.

       Reliance on the earth is also represented in their language and culture. Evergreenian language was inspired by nature and created to directly explain natural processes, eventually evolving into a full language, called Mahogian. Some key geography features include the well-preserved Okapi Forest, and the Anacondian River, where the entire community gathers four times a year to hold celebrations with food and dancing that welcome the new season. Evergreenians enforce a mutual respect upon living things and believe all sentient beings are interconnected. Close family ties are a central part of Evergreenian culture and history, and all children are taught to care for their elders and younger siblings. Evergreenia is divided into sub-villages of 60-100 people, and the members of these sub-villages are considered family. Evergreenia’s close social bonds within their community does not always extend outside to the surrounding communities, whose history has been riddled with conflicts that have often become violent.
       Evergreenians are raised to fiercely defend their way of life and will challenge threats to their deeply-held beliefs. Children are taught knowledge of the Earth’s natural systems and agroecosystems from a young age. All elders within individual sub-villages are considered teachers, there is no formal community school in existence. While English is not taught, Evergreenian children are self-sufficient and expected to be able to implement important tasks from farming, to collecting water, to maintaining and constructing shelters at a young age. Despite accessibility to natural resources, the majority of the community members have historically been uninterested in building complex infrastructure or roads. Evergreenians want to stay close to nature and do not want the luxuries of houses that developed countries have, so the housing is built out of necessity of shelter and still allows them to be close to the earth. Being self sufficient, Evergreenia has never had strong relations with the national government or nearby villages.
Evergreenia’s political system, where family lineage determines leadership, is not compatible with the national government so there are minimal relations between these political entities. While some members of sub-villages would like to have communication with the national government in order to advocate for better resources, talks of potential collaboration are met with skepticism from the majority of Evergreenians who are cautious to outside ideologies. The limited roads Evergreenia does have are not well maintained and are even inaccessible during certain seasons. During the wet season, roads are either completely covered in water or too muddy to be useful. The roads however are usable during the dry season, where Evergreenians rely on a water reserve collected during the wet season near the National Park, which has recently declined in quality and quantity. Because of the strong ties to nature, Evergreenians have not had interest in building financial capital. Money historically has not been useful to their self-sufficient traditions, so there has been little interaction with other communities. Increasing education, infrastructure, and clean water access would ensure Evergreenians can advocate themselves and preserve their way of life.

Community I: This community is in a very isolated area and is comprised of indigenous people to the nation. It is not well-understood by national leaders or average citizens.

Population size is estimated to be ~6000 to 8000 people.

Natural: 8 Excellent soils for agriculture but only when traditionally well-preserved forests are cut down and cleared. Clean water was once plentiful; however changes are being noticed in the quantity and quality of the local water supply, which is sourced largely from surface water runoff from the National Park.

Cultural: 8 Cultural symbols are organized around a close connection to the earth and natural cycles. Residents have long-standing traditions in place to limit population growth. Their traditional language is strongly rooted in their culture and they have specific terms for aspects of the local environment that are unknown to the rest of the nation.

Human: 3 Educational skills are applicable in their community; however these skills do not translate into the broader nation. Most do not speak English and it is not taught to children. While there are no formal higher education facilities there is exceptional knowledge of the local agro-ecosystems.

Social: 4 Very high bonding social capital through family lineage, but very low bridging social ties to surrounding communities due to physical and cultural separations. There have been armed conflicts in past decades with surrounding communities. Individual family groups tend to live in separate sub-villages of roughly 60 to 100 people.

Political: 3 The community’s leadership (based on family lineage) has little experience interacting with the national government. A minority of families in the community would like to see increased relations with the nation and are growing more vocal. One influential local family has recently met with a pharmaceutical company based in community C, but they have not shared any details to the rest of the community.

Financial: 2 There is little national currency circulating within the community. However, this is beginning to change recently as outside interests, especially researchers, in the form of academics (from community B) and private, pharmaceutical companies, are traveling more to this community.

Built: 4 Materials for housing construction are sourced locally from natural resources. The traditional roads are impassable at certain times of the year. While the national government has discussed potential efforts to improve infrastructure to this community, the national government lacks any coordinated plans, funding, or connections to this community to help put these improvements into effect.