Paknam Kɨma Pãi

Paknam Kɨma Pãi, an Attɨm Awá woman, belongs to the ɨnkal Awá Katsa Tɨ Indigenous Reserve, where she is an ancestral authority and advisor on customary law and legal pluralism, and was formerly Katsa Mikua (principal ancestral authority). She trained as a lawyer and holds two master's degrees: one in legal research and the other in anthropology.

She is the co-founder and current director of the Katsa Tɨ Ecomuseum and the legal representative of the Paknam Kɨma Pãĩ Foundation. Her career has been forged as a leading defender of the territorial and cultural rights of Indigenous peoples. She is also a researcher of ɨnkal Awá culture, identity, and ontology, as well as crucial topics such as the rights of nature, customary law, special Indigenous jurisdiction, and legal pluralism, always from the perspective of the worldview, ancestral law, and higher law of Indigenous peoples.

Paknam Kɨma Pai is the plaintiff in the legal action that culminated in the landmark ruling by the Council of State in Colombia (October 5, 2022) on linguistic rights as fundamental rights of the country's indigenous nationalities. This pioneering ruling paves the way for members of indigenous communities to use their names and surnames in their native languages' alphabets on public documents, a significant victory for linguistic and cultural diversity. She is also a key cultural figure in the creation of the first Awá Living Memory Museum in her Katsa Tɨ Territory.

Her in-depth research culminated in her thesis: "Attɨm Awá Sukin Wat Uzan Pit Parattarɨt Kara Akuan Pit Parattarɨt - Attɨm Awá's Own Legal System and Legal Pluralism."