Giacopo Simonese y Giorgio Veronese en el Cuyabeno

unedì 9 aprile 2007

1) Tucano
2) Buono lo zapote dopo un mese di digiuno, eh?
3) Preparazione di Chichita di Chontaruros
4) Tarantola
5) Allenamento con cerbottana lunga
Ora carico le altre foto su album picasa, così potrete cliccare in basso a destra e vederle tutte, oltre ad altre foto del Rio Morona fatte da altri compagni di viaggio..

Secoya, Rio Aguarico

SECOYA

Shushufindi è un villaggio in puro stile “far-west”, nato da una quindicina di anni con la scoperta di copiosi giacimenti petroliferi. Questo ha attirato nella zona ogni sorta di avventurieri e disperati alla ricerca di un lavoro o di facili guadagni. Da questa cittadina bisogna dirigersi verso il fiume Aguarico, superando enormi distese di palme africane da olio, momenti nei quali si ha modo di vedere chiaramente tratti di selva completamente abbattuti fino all'orrizzonte.

Dopo un'oretta di barca a motore, arrivo in territorio degli indigeni Secoya, imparentati con i vicini Siona e Al'Cofàn. Una breve visita agli utlimi tre sciamani rimasti, il vecchio e famoso Cesario, Tintin e il terzo che non ricordo il nome, e poi altro piccolo spostamento fino alla casa di Basilio Payaguae, indigeno sessantenne che mi ospiterà per una settimana.

I Secoya sono stati il popolo più pacifico e ospitale che ho conosciuto durante il viaggio studio in Ecuador. Rimasti in circa 400 persone, vivono da anni un conflitto con le compagnie petrolifere, americane (Texaco) ma anche statali. Oltre ad aver visto la loro foresta depredata, subiscono anche un forte inquinamento delle acque, senza per altro trarre alcun beneficio neppure economico da questo scempio. Ovviamente il problema non è l'estrazione del petrolio in sè, ma il modo in cui viene fatto, pagando una miseria i terreni indigeni grazie all'inganno e all'ingenuità degli indios, e non utilizzando le misure di sicurezza che evitino sversamenti nelle pescose lagune del luogo che in questo modo vengono distrutte. Le coltivazioni di palme inoltre richiede numerosi pesticidi e concimi minerali che rovinano ulteriormente un suolo non atto sicuramente alla monocultura delle multinazionali. Infine subiscono una fortissima pressione da parte dei missionari cristiani evangelici svizzeri e statunitensi, che li impoveriscono culturalmente e che sono la causa primaria della scomparsa dello sciamanesimo autentico e delle tradizioni locali.

Basilio è un uomo ricco di conoscenze, si dimostrò sempre felice di insegnarmi le piante medicinali spontanee attraverso lunghe passeggiate nella jungla, e quelle che lui stesso coltiva presso la sua casa-palafitta. Interessanti alcune erbe utilizzate per sviluppare l'istinto cacciatore nei cani, ai quali viene messo nel naso e dato da bere l'infusione delle stesse. Queste erbe sono anche specifiche per determinati gruppi di prede, c'è quella per i roditori, quella per i suinidi e così via.

Tra le piante medicinali per Basilio la migliore rimane sempre l'ayahuasca, qui chiamata Ya-hé, alla quale viene associata la sinergica e complementare Psychotria spp, la Uai-Yahé. Sembra che a volte si usi anche un altro yahé, dalla descrizione potrebbe essere la Diplopteris cabrerana (chaliponga-chalipanga in vernicolare), o qualche altra specie di Psychotria o Banisteriopsis. Esistono infatti centinaia di specie differenti e migliaia di varietà in questi due generi, anche se erroneamente la letteratura nomina solo le due specie più famose e studiate, B. caapi e P. viridis.

I Secoya che ho conosciuto vivono prevalentemente di agricoltura semistanziale, coltivando cacao, yucca, banane, papaya, mais. Producono anche delle bevande, in particolare la “chichita” (leggesi cicita) de Chontaduros, frutto della Bactris gasipae. Altre importanti attività sono la pesca e la caccia. In quest'ultima si usano i cani e il fucile, anche se Basilio possiede due splendide cerbottane da 2 e da 4 metri costruite a mano e che utilizza ogni tanto quando ha a disposizione il veleno per le frecce. In una battuta di caccia alla quale partecipai prendemmo un formichiere gigante, che venne poi in gran parte affumicato in modo da preservarne la carne. Questa è ottima, sa di capretto. Basilio mi insegnò anche a scovare le tane di alcune formiche che vivono all'interno dei rami di un albero, e che hanno un forte e buonissimo sapore a limone effervescente, specialmente quando pungono la lingua. Oltre ai cani, tra gli animali domestici ci sono un paio di mucche, portate sicuramente dai missionari o dai coloni, che si ostinano a immettere queste specie poco adatte alla foresta, anzi direi per nulla adatte. Inoltre qualche pollo mal difeso dagli agguati notturni del tigrillo, piccolo felino amazzonico. Infine due tucani che vivono totalmente liberi, ma vengono con piacere a farsi dare da mangiare qualche banana in cambio di penne della coda, che gli indigeni usano poi per abbellire collane e monili vari. I Secoya sono infatti abili artigiani, arrivando a costruire splendidi amache matrimoniali completamente fatte a mano partendo dalla corteccia di alcuni alberi, cosa che impiega loro anche 6 mesi di lavoro.

Come in altri villaggi e case nella selva, anche qui ci sono i pannelli solari, con i quali si caricano delle batterie in modo da avere qualche ora di luce dopo le 6 di pomeriggio, ora alla quale il sole tramonta alla latitudine di circa 0º alla quale si trovano.

Ricorderó sempre i Secoya come il miglior popolo che ho conosciuto, per lo meno per la loro laboriosità e disponibilità nel compartire e scambiare conoscenze, in particolare Basilio che rimane ancora sbatezzato e conserva in sè la memoria dei tempi in cui tutto il suo popolo conosceva le piante e interagiva con esse. Lo sciamano Cesario rimane uno degli ultimi depositari di questa conoscenza che le multinazionali e i globalisti devono distruggere, per mezzo dei missionari e assassinii mirati, in modo da avere campo libero nel controllo delle loro risorse, e nel controllo dell'uomo e della sua anima. Prima colonizzano le tradizioni, poi le menti, e infine colonizzano i terreni. L'indigeno, se non è già scomparso del tutto, diventa un fantasma-schiavo che vive al margine della nuova società imposta. Spero che non accada mai, per questo bisogna supportare le tradizioni indigene, e lottare contro l'evangelizzazione prima di tutto. Supportare le tradizioni indigene non significa farli vivere all'età della pietra, ma significa permettere loro una normale evoluzione personale e l'uso della moderna tecnologia (vedi pannelli solari ad esempio) alla quale anche loro hanno pieno diritto, senza distruggere la loro cultura di base e quella che alla fine è la loro storia. E la storia e una cultura indipendente è quanto più temono i globalisti eugenetici del WWF, Greenpeace e tutte le organizzazioni finto-ecologiste che fanno capo al Club of Island e ai reali inglesi e olandesi, che guarda caso sono anche i padroni di compagnie petrolifere.. WWF e British Petroleum, Greenpeace e Dutch Shell Oil Company, Avaaz.org e Soros Fundacion.. che bei conflitti di interessi, non credete?

Jacopo Simonetto

The secoyas, their shamanism and the Yagé

The secoyas, their shamanism and the Yagé
After nearly 3 months in the culturally and naturally enormous Ecuador. Were nearly half of my time here has been used traveling in and out of the rainforest region with Ecotrackers. I can really recommend to all of you who might read this to do the same. Not just to experience the old culture and the beautiful nature close up, but also to remove illusions and to get a more realistic picture of the problems one faces in the work of maintaining this in dispensable landscape and its cultures.
Through the last two weeks I have, with the help of ecotrackers, visited a community of secoya Indians on Rio Aguarico near the Columbian border in the region of Cuyabeno.
My goal with the visit was to study the secoya shamanism, their art of healing and the philosophy behind all of this as good as it can be done in just two weeks.

The arribal at the secoya community

The arrival and the daily life.
I arrived in Sushufindi, a little city north in Ecuador, 10 o’clock in the morning, 14 hours after I left Quito, which means I were about 6 hours late. Luckily couldn’t the delay take away my excitement when I met Fausto, a secoya who I later found out is the oldest son in the house and the family I lived with.
Fausto was in town because of his sick mother. As the local shamans hadn’t managed to heal her, she had been sent to the local doctor and later to the hospital.
Fausto and I left sushufindi after a quick lunch and spent the to hour tractor ride to Rio Aguarico watching the colonists banana plantations a long side the road. A terrible sight with the fact in mind that this once was untouched rainforest.
When we arrived at the river port Fausto left me in the hands of his family and friends that were waiting us with a canoe, as the last hour of travelling had to be done up river.
In the beautiful little community with about 100 habitants I was at once introduced to the family I was going to live with and the traditionally secoya life. The family consisting of the father Roberto, five of his seven children and two grandchildren, are all living under the same traditional secoya roof in the only room in the house.
The days and time in the jungle passed by without a sound, as Roberto and I were wondering trough the almost to amazing forest, fishing the family dinners, planting corn and visiting and talking to friends and family alongside the violent river. A fantastic and easy way of life some where lost on the way in our time fighting, western society

The traditional shamanism
Before the Spanish and Christian invasion of the rainforest and its original habitants, nearly all of the cultures in the region could be characterized by the shamanic religion and its worldview. Unbelievable enough is this worldview something most indigenous cultures all over the world have in common.
The daily -awake- life is just a small part of the much bigger reality. Where the spiritual worlds, the heavens and hells and their habitants all the time affects our lives in good and bad ways. This is the first foundation of the old shamanic worldview. The second -but as important- is that we humans have the opportunity and ability to affect these worlds trough our own senses. Mainly through our dreams, but also through something called the shamanic trance.
The shamanic trance can be reached in many ways through a big variety of methods. Lingering fast, dance and drum ritual, absence of sleep or the use of a hallucinogen plant are all well know methods. If one knows how to move in these eternal and timeless realities, one can experience the beginning and the end of the world, see the birth of stars and the end of the universe. One can transform one self into all the animals, bacteria’s and viruses. Talk to all the plants and learn about all their healing qualities. Meet angels, demons and yes, even the dead. And one can look into the future.
But to be able to control these experiences, to steer the car the right way, so to say, and get the help or visions you need, you have to know these worlds in and out. Something that only can be achieved through long lasting and hard training, or in other words through becoming a shaman.
In the shamanic tradition of the secoyas, like most of the indigenous people of the amazons, the hallucinogenic plant mix called ayahuasca, or in secoya yagé, is used to enter the shamanic trance. The tradition of using yagé may go as far as 5000 years back.
The shaman was in the old days both the communities priest and doctor. He was the man the community called on if they had any problems physically of mentally. Because he was the man with the right knowledge, experience and qualities in the spiritual worlds to heal and defense his people. Something he had achieved through hard schooldays consisting of violent doses of yagé.
Through his education the shaman meets and makes his allies in the other worlds. He meets the angels and the demons and gets the chance to choose the light or the dark road. This is another important part of the shamanic tradition. Because Brujeria, as the dark road is called, is a well known phenomena for all shamans. And is a road that leads to a well know phenomena in the western world, egoistic power. A brujera will do everything in his powers to reach his goals, even murders can take place.
Yet all the most powerful curanderas agree that the road of the light that leads to the most healing, powerful visions and allies are the by far most difficult one.
In the old days the secoyas would dress in their most beautiful cloths, paint traditional patterns in their faces and place their red and yellow crowns, graced with Tucan feathers, on their heads. Before a yagé ceremony the secoyas would meet in the yagé house at about 4 o’clock, lay down in their hammocks and wait for the ceremony, which always lasted from sunset to sunrise, to start.
Nobody would ever enter the yagéhouse without their ceremonial dresses.
The ceremonies would always be leaded by the shaman, who cooked the Yagé, sang and blew smoke over it before he gave it to the participants. If somebody was sick, he or she would be brought to the ceremony and laid down in a hammock in one of the corners in the house. The shaman would then, after reaching his trance, start to blow smoke and sing over the patient to call on his spiritual contacts. He would then in his visions get a picture of the patient’s condition, what had to be done, what plants or spirits he could use to threat the condition. After one of these ceremonies he would never accept anything but a presents, if the family was pleased.
The intentions of a good shaman were always to heal, not to earn money. An interesting point for us in the western society with a medical industry that heals, but at the same time earns more money than ever. In fact, last year the pharmaceutical industry earned more money than any other industry in the US, even more than the oil industry. With these facts in mind it’s easy to ask oneself what the actual intentions of the industry are? To earn the most money or heal the most people?
Another interesting picture of the difference between the traditional and the western medicine is the doctor or shaman himself. In the west, the doctor gives the medicine, or the magic bullets. In the jungle the shaman takes the medicine himself..
The history
After the Hispanic invasion of the timeless world of the rainforest more than 300 years ago, the secoya culture and their way of life have been through some huge changes. At one point the secoyas counted more than 30000, with a proud culture and spiritual tradition. From that point the population has dropped profoundly, and today no more than 500 secoyas are still alive. The Hispanic introduction of alcohol, Christianity and the European diseases, not only cut the population with nearly 98%, but changed ,at the same time, the secoyas relationship with their own spiritual and healing tradition forever.
The other big explosion hit the timeless world for no more than 30 years ago. With the first oil findings in the region in the seventies, the coming of the oil companies and later the colonists, forced the secoyas to change their way of life yet another time. From living in big communities, where as many as 15 families could share the same house. The secoyas had to divide themselves along all of their area to prevent further invasion. The families that traditionally had no more than 2 children decided to get bigger. Resulting in families today where it’s more common to see 7 than 4 children.
All of this has changed the traditional shamanism..
Shamanism today, my meeting with the two shamans and the Yagé
Traditionally the biggest shamanic festival is celebrated in the middle of august in the secoya communities. This is the time when the heavens are said to be closest to the earth, and have therefore always been the time to celebrate the newly graduated shamans. In the old times secoyas from close and far united, and everybody, men, women and children, participated in a huge yagé ceremony.
This festival is still an important part of secoya culture, but is today more than anything else a perfect picture on the problems the secoyas have with continuing their old traditions. To day no more than 10-20 %, most of them over 50 years, participate in the ceremony, and not in many years have any shamans graduated.
One of the reasons for this change is the fact that the young secoyas fear the Yagé. Christianities position through time and today must of course take some of the blame. As the Christians never have been easy on people traveling to the spirit worlds after drinking a hallucinogenic brew to visit angels and demons. But also the very popular alcohol has a lot to do with the change in the youngster’s mentality.
As Fausto, one of the strongest profiles in the community, strangely enough pointed it out for me.
-After my only experience with yagé I could tell that this stuff is much stronger than whiskey, in other words, to strong for me..

About half of the 500 still living secoyas can today be found on the Ecuadorian side of the boarder. Among these there are unfortunately just two shamans.
One of them is called Don. Cesario. He is a small and frail man around the age of 90 with a constant smile on his mouth. Unfortunately did I only get the chance to meet the experienced shaman a few short, but interesting hours.
Cesarios healing qualities have made him a big national and international reputation as a powerful shaman. And when I met him at his little farm, a family from Santo Domingo had just arrived. The mother of the three grown up children were sick, so sick that she couldn’t stand up. Their plan were to stay at don Cesarios farm for about a month, so that the shaman and the powerful nature could get time to put their healing hands on the sick women.
The very process of healing, hearing, breathing and seeing the enormous nature for a period of time, is as important as the shamans work in the healing process, could don cesario tell me.
Another interesting point for me in the middle of all this, was that don cesario, as the old shamans, just got paid in presents. In this case, a large quantity of salted and smoked fish and the working force of the three children for the whole month.
The other secoya shaman that lives in Ecuador is Julio. A private man in his early 60. who came to the community for no more than 4 years ago after his wife died. Julio was also the man to lead my only Yagé ceremony with the secoyas.
Before I came to the secoyas I had tasted the magical jungle medicine two times earlier, when I visited a community of indigenous tsatilas. That time I was given two beautiful experiences. But I never reached just the point I wanted, where the snakes and the spirits shows you what you just might see in your wildest dreams.

My expectations to the ceremony with Julio were therefore massive. And before Julio started out the preparations I made it clear to him that I didn’t want another tourist dose. He answered me with a big smile and made it quite clear to me that the night would be long and interesting. The preparations, cutting and cooking of the Yagé were then started as the sun was right over our heads.
Around 5 pm. everything was ready. Julio in his traditional shamanic clothing’s, but with a crown without tukan feathers, and I were both calm, but tired after a long and hot day without food. We therefore decided to lay down in the Yagé house in the outskirts of the community, wait and rest.
In one hammock were I, a man from a society where the brew we were about to drink, in the eyes of the law, is said to be as dangerous as Heroin. On the other side of the fire was Julio, with a maybe 5000 years old tradition and experiences from the age of 11 to support what he was doing. A really absurd meeting. Unfortunately didn’t Julio’s magical songs help on the strength of the Yagé. And even after 7-8 big glasses of the bitter brew I hadn’t reached the point I wanted to, even though the butterflies, snakes and colors were dancing a slow waltz when I closed my eyes.
The future
Today the secoyas are facing new big challenges and changes with a future that moves faster and faster, and closer and closer. And with just 500 secoyas still alive to take care of there rich and knowledgeable tradition of theirs, it is really clear to me that no help from the outside is too big.
Through my time with the secoyas I experienced some of the most fantastic mentality of solidarity i have ever seen. If a man is building a house or planting a field of corn, this is a job for everybody. And everybody is helping with their warmest smiles around their mouth. Feelings like this should inspire everybody with the same mentality and an interest in maintaining the old cultures, in the evermore chaotic and globalized culture landscape of today, to help.
The world can not afford to loose another culture like this.
Fortunately a lot of help is already coming. Political support to education in secoya language, documentation of old stories and legends and installation of solar panels in the community are all good and helpful projects.
The biggest part of the responsibility of maintaining the culture, and especially the shamanic part of it, lays, in any case, with the secoyas themselves. And with their continuing dreams about a stronger tourism, based especially in their culture and shamanic tradition, a master plan is needed. With only 4 relatively old shamans still living. With a Christianity that is continuing to get stronger, alongside the growing fear of drinking Yagé, something radically has to be done if the shamanic tradition of the secoyas shall be accessible outside the history books in the nearest future.
My final suggestion, with the terrible reality in mind that 2 small schoolgirls drowned in the river under my visit, is that somebody, with the right knowledge, should visit the community and teach them how to make life jackets of material from th

In the shamanic tradition of the secoyas, like most of the indigenous people of the amazons, the hallucinogenic plant mix called ayahuasca, or in secoya yagé, is used to enter the shamanic trance. The tradition of using yagé may go as far as 5000 years back.The shaman was in the old days both the communities priest and doctor. He was the man the community called on if they had any problems physically of mentally. Because he was the man with the right knowledge, experience and qualities in the spiritual worlds to heal and defense his people. Something he had achieved through hard schooldays consisting of violent doses of yagé.

The batiful lillte community of secoya indigenous

In the beautiful little community with about 100 habitants I was at once introduced to the family I was going to live with and the traditionally secoya life. The family consisting of the father Roberto, five of his seven children and two grandchildren, are all living under the same traditional secoya roof in the only room in the house.
The days and time in the jungle passed by without a sound, as Roberto and I were wondering trough the almost to amazing forest, fishing the family dinners, planting corn and visiting and talking to friends and family alongside the violent river. A fantastic and easy way of life some where lost on the way in our time fighting, western society
The traditional shamanism
Before the Spanish and Christian invasion of the rainforest and its original habitants, nearly all of the cultures in the region could be characterized by the shamanic religion and its worldview. Unbelievable enough is this worldview something most indigenous cultures all over the world have in common.
The daily -awake- life is just a small part of the much bigger reality. Where the spiritual worlds, the heavens and hells and their habitants all the time affects our lives in good and bad ways. This is the first foundation of the old shamanic worldview. The second -but as important- is that we humans have the opportunity and ability to affect these worlds trough our own senses. Mainly through our dreams, but also through something called the shamanic trance.
The shamanic trance can be reached in many ways through a big variety of methods. Lingering fast, dance and drum ritual, absence of sleep or the use of a hallucinogen plant are all well know methods. If one knows how to move in these eternal and timeless realities, one can experience the beginning and the end of the world, see the birth of stars and the end of the universe. One can transform one self into all the animals, bacteria’s and viruses. Talk to all the plants and learn about all their healing qualities. Meet angels, demons and yes, even the dead. And one can look into the future.
But to be able to control these experiences, to steer the car the right way, so to say, and get the help or visions you need, you have to know these worlds in and out. Something that only can be achieved through long lasting and hard training, or in other words through becoming a shaman.

The shamanic traditon of the Secoyas

In the shamanic tradition of the secoyas, like most of the indigenous people of the amazons, the hallucinogenic plant mix called ayahuasca, or in secoya yagé, is used to enter the shamanic trance. The tradition of using yagé may go as far as 5000 years back.
The shaman was in the old days both the communities priest and doctor. He was the man the community called on if they had any problems physically of mentally. Because he was the man with the right knowledge, experience and qualities in the spiritual worlds to heal and defense his people. Something he had achieved through hard schooldays consisting of violent doses of yagé.
Through his education the shaman meets and makes his allies in the other worlds. He meets the angels and the demons and gets the chance to choose the light or the dark road. This is another important part of the shamanic tradition. Because Brujeria, as the dark road is called, is a well known phenomena for all shamans. And is a road that leads to a well know phenomena in the western world, egoistic power. A brujera will do everything in his powers to reach his goals, even murders can take place.
Yet all the most powerful curanderas agree that the road of the light that leads to the most healing, powerful visions and allies are the by far most difficult one.
In the old days the secoyas would dress in their most beautiful cloths, paint traditional patterns in their faces and place their red and yellow crowns, graced with Tucan feathers, on their heads. Before a yagé ceremony the secoyas would meet in the yagé house at about 4 o’clock, lay down in their hammocks and wait for the ceremony, which always lasted from sunset to sunrise, to start.
Nobody would ever enter the yagéhouse without their ceremonial dresses.
The ceremonies would always be leaded by the shaman, who cooked the Yagé, sang and blew smoke over it before he gave it to the participants. If somebody was sick, he or she would be brought to the ceremony and laid down in a hammock in one of the corners in the house. The shaman would then, after reaching his trance, start to blow smoke and sing over the patient to call on his spiritual contacts. He would then in his visions get a picture of the patient’s condition, what had to be done, what plants or spirits he could use to threat the condition. After one of these ceremonies he would never accept anything but a presents, if the family was pleased.
The intentions of a good shaman were always to heal, not to earn money. An interesting point for us in the western society with a medical industry that heals, but at the same time earns more money than ever. In fact, last year the pharmaceutical industry earned more money than any other industry in the US, even more than the oil industry. With these facts in mind it’s easy to ask oneself what the actual intentions of the industry are? To earn the most money or heal the most people?
Another interesting picture of the difference between the traditional and the western medicine is the doctor or shaman himself. In the west, the doctor gives the medicine, or the magic bullets. In the jungle the shaman takes the medicine himself..

The history of Seguaria or Remoino Grande

The history
After the Hispanic invasion of the timeless world of the rainforest more than 300 years ago, the secoya culture and their way of life have been through some huge changes. At one point the secoyas counted more than 30000, with a proud culture and spiritual tradition. From that point the population has dropped profoundly, and today no more than 500 secoyas are still alive. The Hispanic introduction of alcohol, Christianity and the European diseases, not only cut the population with nearly 98%, but changed ,at the same time, the secoyas relationship with their own spiritual and healing tradition forever.
The other big explosion hit the timeless world for no more than 30 years ago. With the first oil findings in the region in the seventies, the coming of the oil companies and later the colonists, forced the secoyas to change their way of life yet another time. From living in big communities, where as many as 15 families could share the same house. The secoyas had to divide themselves along all of their area to prevent further invasion. The families that traditionally had no more than 2 children decided to get bigger. Resulting in families today where it’s more common to see 7 than 4 children.
All of this has changed the traditional shamanism..
Shamanism today, my meeting with the two shamans and the Yagé

Don Cesario

.
Don Cesario. He is a small and frail man around the age of 90 with a constant smile on his mouth. Unfortunately did I only get the chance to meet the experienced shaman a few short, but interesting hours.
Cesarios healing qualities have made him a big national and international reputation as a powerful shaman. And when I met him at his little farm, a family from Santo Domingo had just arrived. The mother of the three grown up children were sick, so sick that she couldn’t stand up. Their plan were to stay at don Cesarios farm for about a month, so that the shaman and the powerful nature could get time to put their healing hands on the sick women.
The very process of healing, hearing, breathing and seeing the enormous nature for a period of time, is as important as the shamans work in the healing process, could don cesario tell me.
Another interesting point for me in the middle of all this, was that don cesario, as the old shamans, just got paid in presents. In this case, a large quantity of salted and smoked fish and the working force of the three children for the whole month.
The other secoya shaman that lives in Ecuador is Julio. A private man in his early 60. who came to the community for no more than 4 years ago after his wife died. Julio was also the man to lead my only Yagé ceremony with the secoyas.
Before I came to the secoyas I had tasted the magical jungle medicine two times earlier, when I visited a community of indigenous tsatilas. That time I was given two beautiful experiences. But I never reached just the point I wanted, where the snakes and the spirits shows you what you just might see in your wildest dreams.

My expectations to the ceremony

My expectations to the ceremony with Julio were therefore massive. And before Julio started out the preparations I made it clear to him that I didn’t want another tourist dose. He answered me with a big smile and made it quite clear to me that the night would be long and interesting. The preparations, cutting and cooking of the Yagé were then started as the sun was right over our heads.
Around 5 pm. everything was ready. Julio in his traditional shamanic clothing’s, but with a crown without tukan feathers, and I were both calm, but tired after a long and hot day without food. We therefore decided to lay down in the Yagé house in the outskirts of the community, wait and rest.
In one hammock were I, a man from a society where the brew we were about to drink, in the eyes of the law, is said to be as dangerous as Heroin. On the other side of the fire was Julio, with a maybe 5000 years old tradition and experiences from the age of 11 to support what he was doing. A really absurd meeting. Unfortunately didn’t Julio’s magical songs help on the strength of the Yagé. And even after 7-8 big glasses of the bitter brew I hadn’t reached the point I wanted to, even though the butterflies, snakes and colors were dancing a slow waltz when I closed my eyes.

The Secoya´s future

The future
Today the secoyas are facing new big challenges and changes with a future that moves faster and faster, and closer and closer. And with just 500 secoyas still alive to take care of there rich and knowledgeable tradition of theirs, it is really clear to me that no help from the outside is too big.

The solidarity the center of the secoya community

Through my time with the secoyas I experienced some of the most fantastic mentality of solidarity i have ever seen. If a man is building a house or planting a field of corn, this is a job for everybody. And everybody is helping with their warmest smiles around their mouth. Feelings like this should inspire everybody with the same mentality and an interest in maintaining the old cultures, in the evermore chaotic and globalized culture landscape of today, to help.
The world can not afford to loose another culture like this.
Fortunately a lot of help is already coming. Political support to education in secoya language, documentation of old stories and legends and installation of solar panels in the community are all good and helpful projects.

the last secoya shamans

The biggest part of the responsibility of maintaining the culture, and especially the shamanic part of it, lays, in any case, with the secoyas themselves. And with their continuing dreams about a stronger tourism, based especially in their culture and shamanic tradition, a master plan is needed. With only 4 relatively old shamans still living. With a Christianity that is continuing to get stronger, alongside the growing fear of drinking Yagé, something radically has to be done if the shamanic tradition of the secoyas shall be accessible outside the history books in the nearest future.My final suggestion, with the terrible reality in mind that 2 small schoolgirls drowned in the river under my visit, is that somebody, with the right knowledge, should visit the community and teach them how to make life jackets of material from th