About SUNA

Fostering self-authorship for the construction of shared futures.

SUNA is a living learning ecosystem. It connects people, places, practices and experienced practitioners to help people learn how to live, discover their contribution and take part in creating shared futures.

Suna is a Muisca word meaning “the meeting of important or sacred paths”. The initiative began in Barichara, Colombia, and now has two expressions: SUNA Barichara, the chapter rooted in a living territory, and SUNA Global, a translocal learning and creation program.

Our approach

Learning by taking part in life

We start from real questions, not a fixed syllabus.
We learn with people who live what they teach: farmers, artists, builders, therapists, researchers.
We combine hands-on experience, accompanied reflection and integration into everyday life.
We care for our relationship with territory and communities as collaborators, not as a backdrop.

Five principles

SUNA’s shared principles

1
Integrity of Life
Each being is a whole and belongs to a wider web of life. Emotional integrity is an essential dimension of human experience.
No one is only a role, a CV or a problem to solve. Learning from integrity means including the body, emotions, relationships and the place where we live. What we feel is not an obstacle to learning; it is valuable information about how we are in the world.
For example: A farming workshop also leaves room to notice tiredness, joy or questions that arise while working the soil.
2
Unity in Diversity
Each person carries a distinctive expression and contribution. Belonging provides fertile ground for that uniqueness to unfold.
We do not expect everyone to arrive at the same place. Each journey is different because each life is. At the same time, no one flourishes alone: feeling part of a community makes it possible to risk being who you are.
For example: A single group may bring together a biologist, a traditional builder and a young person still deciding what to study.
3
Love as a Generative Force
Love connects, creates and sustains. Learning grows through care, relationship and participation.
We understand love not as a private feeling but as the force that makes shared life possible. We learn best when we feel cared for and when we care: for other people, a project, a stream or a seed.
For example: A mentoring conversation begins by listening for what truly matters to the person.
4
Self-Authorship and Co-Creation of Shared Futures
We participate in shaping our lives and shared realities through conscious choices, relationship and responsibility.
Being the author of your own life means developing the capacity to discern, choose and create your own path, without doing it alone or against others. Personal choices weave the world we share, which is why self-authorship and co-creation belong together.
For example: At the end of a journey, each person defines a concrete practice or commitment to carry into everyday life.
5
Interdependence and Care for Life
We belong to a living Earth and cultivate reciprocity and responsibility across species and generations.
The water we drink, the soil that feeds us and the bees that pollinate are part of who we are. Caring for life is not just another subject of study; it is the way of living we try to learn and practise.
For example: Planting native trees in a reserve with those who will live there in fifty years in mind.

Relationship with Origen Circular

Origen Circular

SUNA is connected with Origen Circular, a Barichara-based organization devoted to ecological and cultural restoration projects. Origen Circular supports SUNA as part of its work for the regeneration of territories, while SUNA keeps its own identity and learning ecosystem.

origencircular.com (opens in a new tab) · origencircular@gmail.com

Team

Organizing team

Alejandra Camargo
Co-founder · also a guide in Barichara
An ecologist who builds bridges between science, traditional knowledge and maternal health. She integrates scientific rigour with ancestral wisdom to create holistic approaches to community wellbeing and ecological restoration, and leads the educational line of the Origen projects.
Felipe Medina
Co-founder · also a guide in Barichara
Colombian educator and socio-ecological innovator, trained in conflict transformation, deep ecology and the design of complex systems for peace and regeneration. He helped create Work that Reconnects Colombia and leads initiatives such as Evoluma, Pasos de Agua and SUNA. He lives in Barichara.
Jakob Seidler
Co-founder · also a guide in Barichara
Paula Ramírez Diazgranados
SUNA team
Colombian anthropologist, therapist, peacebuilder and somatic facilitator. Since 2009 she has accompanied humanitarian teams and communities affected by conflict and displacement in more than 20 countries, integrating Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, contemplative practice and ancestral and ecological wisdom.
Sebastián Plata
SUNA team
Colombian facilitator and artist who weaves Jungian psychology, creative expression, ancestral wisdom and Tibetan Buddhism. After seven years travelling South America learning from Indigenous elders, at SUNA he uses Jungian inquiry and artistic practices so participants can recognise their inner resources.