Words of wisdom from a mamo
Excerpt from an interview with Duavico, as reported by Jean-Patrick Costa
“The Bunachis are our younger brothers, the lastborn of creation. We call them ‘little brothers’ for simplicity’s sake, but they give us the impression of being unfinished. They have lost their sense of the sacred and even the meaning of their own lives. They have forgotten how to pray, I believe.
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You see, that’s the whole difference between you and us: the Bunachis see evil everywhere and, as a result, live in a world at war. We Arhuacos trust Kak Serankua and Mother Earth. We model our behavior after hers. For example, we purify our thoughts every day to live in a world at peace. We focus on perceiving the beauty around us, and that is enough for us. We don’t need entertainment elsewhere; everything is right here, wonderful, before our eyes, with every sunrise.
The Bunachis really surprise us: they’re proud and lively like roosters, gesticulating and looking in every direction at once, always ready to chase after a female who passes by, which distracts them from their path! (laughs) They always seem in a hurry, with an inflated ego, always searching for something; they aren’t satisfied with what they have and always want more. They seek thrills, a “somewhere else” that must be better. They’re always on the move. Cars, planes, boats—they’ve multiplied all of these, and the pace is even accelerating. We see them arriving in our territories, always eager to take photos. Their first words are questions. They bombard us with a barrage of questions. We don’t answer their questions, because they can’t hear the answer…
When bunachis visit me here in Mamorwa, I observe them. Many arrive telling me they’re going to stay for several weeks, and in the end, they leave after just a few days—if not sometimes the very next day (laughs)! I have to say, I send them up to meditate way up on the mountain, every day at three in the morning (laughs). A good half-hour walk! When day breaks, they have to come back down and bathe in the cold river, nine times like the nine planets of our universe… We don’t see this as a trial; it’s just the easiest and simplest way to connect with the spirits of Mother Nature. All it takes is consistency—doing it every day. Then the spirits speak to us. They get used to our presence and even to that of the bunachis! Mother Nature loves all her children without distinction, even those who rush to make little piles of stones where they’ve meditated—a very strange custom to me…
When they start asking fewer questions, after a few days, I’m the one who asks them a single two-part question: Who are you, and what have you come here to find? That’s because the two are connected: you can’t answer the second one if you don’t know the answer to the first, and vice versa. Many bunachis have no answer to this fundamental question: Why am I here? And what is my place in this world? We Arhuacos have learned to listen to the spirits. They guide us. That is how it is.”
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