Living with the Mapuche

For friends, viewers, listeners, readers, sponsors,
exhibition visitors, colleagues, in short, everyone who reads this.

As most of you will already know I started a new one

project, which should also become a world-wide work of art. So arise on

different areas of the earth and later merged into a whole.

This time I set myself the goal of following my heart's itinerary

discover because I want to include regions and peoples in this work of art that

lie outside the current Western history experience.

I call this project the shining path. This is a name that best describes the image

that I translated from the project. Of course I also know about the group

rebels or terrorists, as almost everyone is in favor these days

idea comes true and is not called to power, in South America that much

killed people and call themselves el centero iluminoso. But then

the question arises, are such gruesome deeds the only one allowed to do such a thing

beautiful name. At the moment I don't think so and a little rebellion is possible

never hurts to learn something from it.

I'm here in Chile to stay with the Mapuches for a while and make an art work about their culture.

The Mapuches are descended from the peoples who crossed the former land bridge between Asia and America. Originally a hunter-gatherer

society that later settled in the area of the river basin of

Copiapo, about 200 km above La Serena to the island of Chiloe in the south

and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

In other words, large parts of the current countries Argentina and Chile.

Although their territory of some 31,000,000 hectares has shrunk in the meantime

up to about 300,000 hectares they have never been incorporated by anyone and they are alive

in some places still in their traditional way. They make up 9.6% of the

Chilean people and are the country's largest indigenous group.

When we arrived here in Chile on Christmas Day, we first went to a

friend of ours who lives in Qanaqueros.

Actually, I had expected Christmas in this largely Catholic country

would celebrate lavishly, with perhaps three Christmases. But even in it

plane the flight attendants didn't even wish you happy christmas and got

we don't have a special Christmas breakfast either.

In Chile itself people only celebrate Christmas Day, Boxing Day exists

if not, then everyone just goes back to work. Except the kids, those

then enjoy their two-and-a-half month summer vacation. A very thoughtful one

structure in the Chilean school system, which we could do something about

learn because this is how the children come into contact with their own and the earthly

nature, allowing them to become familiar with both and to learn that they are both

should be treated with respect, now and later in life. What hopefully the

salvation will be for Chile, because already here, and especially here in the country

of the Mapuches, which is destroying the most fertile part of Chile

large forestry project on acres of land. They cut down the original forests

or set them on fire to break the quotas on cutting down old-growth forests

bypass and plant American pines and eucalyptus for it in the

Place. Two tree species that grow quickly and therefore yield money quickly. This one

tree species drink a lot of water and not a single plant grows under them

therefore no animal lives. The soil becomes exhausted and acidified and so do the trees

are cut down, the ground is washed away by the frequent rains.

In the time that I lived in Galicia in Spain I also saw this happen,

whole areas that turned into barren rocky deserts.

And yes, we Dutch do this here in Mapuche country too, because royal

shell also grows paper money here.

After writing this I don't have to ask them as a sponsor anymore!

The forestry projects are a thorn in the flesh for the Mapuches because after

their large parts of their land has been taken away, they now also have to see how

others destroy it.

Well, the friend dates back to when I was still in the Falkland Islands as a cook

and winch operator worked on the Forrest, the little red one

supply ship. Quanaqueros is a small fishing village on the

Pacific is located. We feel very happy to be back in Chile, the

space and the vastness around us and the vastness of the Pacific

us.

Of course I brought my book to show it to the people here. It

is viewed with enthusiasm and one immediately starts to philosophize about it.

It's nice to see that the photo and the paintings are a big plus

have universal eloquence, because most people here don't speak

English. This is how a meeting with the couple Vivian and Dany ended

that we have set up a partnership with the aim of 'The Journey of

Seven Winters´ in Valparaiso, Chile's largest port city.

In doing so, they have made all kinds of contacts and we have a chic

Affairs Had dinner with Cheimen Celedon's son, a famous Chilean

actor who is also a member of the cultural ministry. Him and his wife

both got caught up in the project and when I go north again,

I have an appointment with them, they hope to know more by then.

It is my great wish that the Journey of Seven Winters also travels and if

the proverb of what you sow you also reap truth is it should be fine

because wanderlust I have duly tucked into it.

I used the time in the north to learn more about the Mapuches.

I've been able to find quite a bit of information here and one even exists

Dutch Mapuche website, created and maintained by one in the time of

Pinochet fled Lonko. For those interested www.folil.nl

A Lonko is kind of a headman but not in the compentative way we are

because the Mapuches do not have a hierarchical society. Everybody is

directly.

This has often been their saving grace because apart from that they are good and smart fighters

the Spaniards could not be their kings or other highly placed

take captive in order to subdue a people, what the bee

the Aztecs and the Incas succeeded.

During the time that Pinochet was in power, he forbade the communal

land ownership which is another basis of the Mapuche culture. He also decided

that from then on only Chileans lived in Chile, so the Mapuches

lost their right to exist as an ethnic group. There are many Mapuches then

fled like the Lonko who now lives in Groningen and are from there

trying to help people in Chile.

One day I spoke by phone to a man who is now in Switzerland

in hiding and who was sent to the Mapuches by his father as a boy

sent. The question was if he could put me in touch with someone,

but all his Mapuche friends are in jail or by the police

sought! Currently 400 Mapuches are wanted by the police!!

After a few more trips inland, with the friend's car

tearing the gravel and dust roads through vast mountain landscapes,

reveling in that vastness and the feeling of a wonderful living being

and after celebrating my birthday with my Chilean friends,

in bikini and with a view of the Pacific we left for Temuco.

The Mapuche capital.

We arrived on Sunday morning and it was raining.

Everything, even the museums were closed so we were recommended to go to the arts and crafts market on the plaza, the square that every village or town has.

Temuco made a desolate impression with its deserted rainy streets.

Late in the afternoon it cleared up and more people appeared in the square.

I got talking to a woman who told me that Ojos de Caburga is a

nice place to go. It felt good.

Surrounded by volcanoes, there is a mountain lake high in the Andes

crystal clear water which also has a pleasant temperature!

From the lake you have a beautiful view of the great with eternal

snow-capped and still active Villarrica volcano.

Further down are the jet set towns of Pucon and Villarrica

Villarica lake.

The trees here are imposing and tall and very old.

The araucaria tree is the tree of this zone and dates back to prehistoric times

evergreen tree that only grow between 37 and 40 degrees south latitude.

The Spaniards who came into contact with the Mapuches for the first time around 1540

came gave them the name Araucanians after this tree and it is also now referred to

area still referred to as Araucania. The Mapuches of today have 300

resisted the Spaniards for years and even now they are still fighting for their

defend land and recover seized areas.

After camping for two days at the lake and many Chileans across the

Having spoken to the Mapuches, I felt that we went to the thermos, the

hot springs had to go. It was a cloudy day and we hitchhike to it.

The hot springs were natural small pools running along a stream

ice-cold fast-flowing mountain river. They all had different ones

temperatures and it was very pleasant to be here, especially when it started to rain

to rain. Then we met the reason that had been hidden from us until then

of our visit to this place.

A Dutch couple who want to make a documentary about the Mapuches, they

had already interviewed many Mapuches and even experienced a Nguillatun.

A Mapuche ceremony in which the gods are thanked for the good harvest and

asks for good weather and a good harvest for the coming season.

Then we went to Valdivia where another acquaintance of the Falklands

converting a ship into a sea urchin fishing boat. They will go in 5-6 weeks

sail the ship to the Falklands, through all the southern Chilean islands. Already

For years it has been my dream to cross this area, so I immediately got the

wrote a letter to the owner to ask if we could come along.

Then we quickly went to Lago Budi, looking for again the Mapuches, those

quite difficult to find because they do not live in villages but in families.

And then they live far from the main road, often in places where you can only come by horse or on foot. And we travel by bus or hitchhiking and with a heavy backpack, so a detour is not an option. However on the map we have selected a village at the end of the road, the last stretch on a dirt road and here in puerto Saavedra, which is

so hot but has no harbor we found the first Mapuche ruka.

A Mapuche house made entirely of thatch with a wooden door.

And chickens, horses, pigs and dogs roaming around.

However, the Mapuche was not at home. So after two days we had to go again

to undertake a search.

After hours of walking along the shores of Lago Budi, we arrived at one point

a man on a horse. I told him that I have been looking for a while now

had gone to the Mapuches and if he knew where some of them lived?

Well, we had to go over here and then over there and around there and then over there

up and there a little further a Mapuche family would live. An hour

later we saw some buildings and some kids hanging out there. I

she told us that we would like to meet the Mapuches because we know more about them

wanted to know culture, then grandma was brought in who immediately opened us up

arms received. We were invited for coffee and mate and received

Mapuche bread to eat with aji, crushed chili peppers. We had a

animated conversation about anything and everything and I had all the family

to view pictures. After an hour or two it was time to go back

because we had to walk all the way back. There were two of us large

Mapuche breads and we had to come back for them

to visit again, even if it would be years later! But so were we

invited to the Nguillatun, on the 25th of this month, which here a

celebrated every two years. Xek was a bit disappointed that this one

Mapuches did not live in a ruka but in an ordinary house, but the Mapuche

he likes bread very much.

For two days we have been trying to leave Puerto Saavedra to go to Isla Huapi

to an island nearby where many Mapuches seem to live.

I am always told that there is a bus at that time, but if I do

packed and bagged at the bus stop it will be another hour later,

then another hour and then they say ooh maybe the bus has another way

taken. Tomorrow there will be one, but even then nothing will come. Puerto Saavedra

has meanwhile grown into an overcrowded place in my opinion.

Many people from Temuco and the surrounding villages come here on weekends

please. Unfortunately the weather is pretty bad, cold, cloudy and windy.

Xek is happy every time we stay another night because he is the big one

favorite here with his long blonde hair and running around on his

bare feet. Everyone wants to get to know him, from big to small, so the

all day you hear Xek, Xek, Xek! And Xek is just being a little bit pissed off because of that

they like. People are very surprised that I am alone with him

tour. In any case, they all look surprised on the street, as if they had never been

seen such a tall white blonde woman.

But the Chileans are also very cordial and often we get something hot to eat from them

which is good because we don't have any cooking equipment with us.

However, the nights are much less pleasant, the cold and the damp make us crawl into the sleeping bag with clothes on and the partying young people ensure that you don't sleep until midnight.

you fall asleep at dawn, after which you wake up again after an hour

crying babies and screaming children. But I have no complaints on this one

this is how we survive the Dutch winter financially and I don't need my

artistry not to hang on the willows. Because honestly worried

this life on the edge financially, as a single mother and the only one

who has to earn the money sometimes worry me. However, I am of it

convinced that I have to give Xek the example you need in and with your life

doing what you think you were born for, what you like to do and where you

according to you can help humanity. In addition, I started with one

new project where 'uncertainty' forms the basis because then you can enter

jump on the opportunities that present themselves.

Monday we could finally go to Isla Huapi, we soon had something

bought bread, fruit, carrots and sweets and had to stand in the overcrowded

bus, which occasionally stopped somewhere when someone had to get off. We had

of course no idea where to get off, so we did that somewhere

good luck. To the ticket seller who also took my backpack from the bottom of the bus

I quickly asked which side would be the best are......

After walking a bit, I couldn't handle the lead saw anymoreare backpack

in which, in addition to my stuff and the tent, I also carry Xek's stuff around.

I then hid it in the bushes for a while and that way we could go a little lighter

Packed looking for a house to ask if we could go on their land

camping, because that's how it goes here on Isla Huapi.

Dogs, cats, pigs and chickens roamed around at will

it was hard to find a human. In the end we were lucky, a whole lot

old woman with only two teeth left in her mouth opened the door for her

shabby house open. Suddenly I got the realization that maybe she only spoke

Mapudungun.

It must have been the shock, two white-haired creatures at her door.
It sometimes happens to me that people

look at me uncomprehendingly because they assume that such creatures are fasting

don't speak spanish. But later she answered me that we are the owner of the

had to look for land and that she lived somewhere else and that her husband was not at home

was because that one was to Puerto Domingo, ooh!

Then we came to a graveyard where there were souls but no living ones,

further down there was a school, but yes it is summer vacation so there was also

no one to be seen. It's nice and quiet here!!

After walking around a bit here and there we came to the end of it

path and by the water. On the way back we finally saw a woman

a house next to the school, she turned out to be the teacher and we were allowed on it

camping in the grounds of the school. How wonderful to be able to go to sleep when

you want and wake up to the sound of the birds.

Isla Huapi is a Mapuche commune, which means that there are only Mapuches

living. The grounds they have here date back to before the

Spaniards, but they no longer have common grounds here either,

everything is fenced off. The plots of land have changed over the years

became smaller and smaller because when a father died the land was divided

among his children, if that child then died, it was divided again

among his children and so on.

The teacher is married to a teacher and could tell me a lot about the

Mapuche culture, which they also pass on to the children at school. Together

they have three children, the youngest of whom has been plagued for days by

fever and severe abdominal pains. Traditionally, the Mapuches have Machis

, these are medicine men or women, but on this island they don't have them

Lake. Fortunately, my healing hands were able to solve the problem and the

the next day the child was well again. But I would like to meet a Machi

to also get to know the spiritual side of this people a little better.

The next day we decided to explore the island

bus ride saw a sign somewhere with ruka hoppeldepub and thought this

was a ruka that you could visit and where everything would still be in the old style

are. Because there are many rukas on this island, but most people live there

in wooden houses.

The Chilean government has a project 'Techo par Chile', roof for it

Chile, to make sure everyone in Chile gets a house. The

Mapuches or other poor people should put some money on the table and the

government pays the rest for a wooden or iron house with four rooms.

They do not have to pay this money back, which is a nice arrangement in itself

of course, but it does cause the Mapuches to stop building rukas

and run the risk of losing knowledge about this way of constructing.

In addition, the wooden houses are single-walled and therefore much less warm than

the ruks made of thick layers of reeds. Luckily I meet occasionally

to Mapuches who value and are committed to their culture

want it to be preserved. The function of the ruka then changes

however, it does and becomes more of a tourist attraction.

Fortunately we got a lift because I had seen the sign about 15 km ago

and from that borb it turned out to be a walk of a few kilometers

until we came to an orange school building and a purple house. on

the school said Rukaretuwan in large letters, so our ruka was not a hut

of reeds only a school! At the purple house we asked where the te

visited ruka was then and by the headmistress of the school that in

lived in that purple house it was explained to us that it did not exist. Naturally

we had to come in to drink coffee here instead

cookies always get a piece of bread. There were all kinds of souvenirs in the house

from Rapa Nui and the teacher turned out to have been there too, moreover we found

during the conversation that she was also friends with my Easter Islander

girlfriend Piru. And……. her sister seems to live on this island!!!

 

Senora Dora, the headmistress is a green-eyed Mapuche who told that

her great-great-grandmother of Polish descent was stolen by the Mapuches d was in

the time when ships with immigrants came to Chile to discover the country

populate. The Mapuches tied the feet of the robbed women together

so they couldn't escape so I was warned!

We had to stay all afternoon and Xek also had a great time because

here were many more children with whom he could play football. There was

impressed upon us that we had to get our things here then

We could sleep in the school. The ride home was a long one, we could

a bit with the bus, which races over the island three times a day,

but that evening not to Santa Maria, the part where we stayed

went. We had to get off somewhere at a wooden bridge and then sure

another 6 km. walk, Xek barefoot on the gravel road, with the result

that I carried it halfway or we'd never be before dark

get to the tent.

The next day there was a 'Paga', once a month all gather

people from this part of the island join the school for their

receive child benefit, mother's allowance and pension. The whole road was full

with bullock carts between which fires were fired on which fish and pieces of meat

were baked that were sold as well as shoes, vegetables, fruit, sweets

and other handy necessities for the countryside.

The party lasted all day and in the afternoon they started drinking. I was

been warned a few times that if the Mapuche start to

drink that they then become aggressive, but it was mainly old people who

got tipsy so it wasn't too bad I got the necessary marriage proposals and the Mapuches took us in their midst and I had the feeling that I had now arrived at what I had been looking for.

This morning we packed up and headed for Senora

Dora. It was hard to walk the 5 kilometers from our lift but the

reward is great because now we are in a real bed in a room with a

lamp!

At the two Mapuche schools we have visited so far, there is

paid much attention to preserving the Mapuche Culture and their

ways of thinking about life. In addition to the children being taught in the

Mapudungun, their own language and in making life necessities of

natural materials, signs have been hung around the schools with

phrases on it like; I want to live, help me grow, the earth does not care

for man if man does not take care of the earth, we take care of our

school, respect the smaller and the older, we want to be children

who are happy, friendly, responsible and creative. Every day that

I'm getting a little better before I go. My values are respect,

honesty, humanity, soledarity, perseverance and neatness.

In this way, the children are surrounded by positive ideas that they like

automatically into their subconscious. It would be a good and useful idea

can be for Dutch schools, and positive punishment rules will

in that sense also bear more fruit.

The next day the family went to cut grain, this is what the mapuches do on this

island by hand. Thus armed with a sickle I marched with a party

men into the country. The Mapuches help each other harvest, once

they cut grain at one and next time at another. The one whose

grain is cut to ensure that there is good food and wine

served for lunch and dinner and while working on the land

´chicha´´ an apple juice that comes in two variations, one regular and one already

is fermented and therefore contains alcohol.

After a few hours of cutting and quite a few glasses of chicha, the mood kept getting better

funnier and an old farmer started behaving amorously towards me. He wanted

do marry me! Then I will come to live on the island and he will tell me

learn to cut grain very well and very fast!! I was only too happy to thank you

for the honor, but the whole day which is also the day of the

in love here in Chile he of course continued to chase me with

all sorts of declarations of love to the great amusement of the other workers.

The next three days I had to pay for my grain-cutting adventure with heavy

backaches. So I joined the kitchen crew that was busy

preparing meals on campfires.

The grain is later threshed by a machine and then one goes with the sacks

grain to the miller in town, who grinds the grain

sacks of flour as payment. The flour is used to make bread and

sopypillas to bake a kind of fried bread and is also called the

toasted. This toasted flour is typical Mapuche food and it is mixed

with water, milk or chicha.

The third day when I was bent over with back pain, we went to harvest potatoes

this is also done by hand here.

When I was somewhat upright again could walk we decided to visit

Carolina, the sister of my Easter Island friend Piru. Unfortunately she was

not at home and we decided to hitchhike to Puerto Saavedra, there

we went to visit the people of the campsite who then took us

invited to go to Carahue, where that day became the potato feast

celebrated and the largest potato cake in the world was baked to be used in it

guiness book of records to come. We turned out to be true celebrities in Carahue

because we met quite a few people we had in Puerto before

meet. Potatoes are the product of this region and are used in many ways

prepared ways. I'll give you some recipes to try out

to attempt; Milkweed : grate the raw potatoes, squeeze most of the juice

out by putting the mass in a cloth and wringing it out, mix a little

salt through the resulting dough and form flat cakes from that fryer

you in the oil.

Sopypillas of potato : mash boiled potatoes finely mix some flour,

salt and baking powder, form here also flat cakes that you dip in oil

fried. A variation on this is papas renolada, from the same before

described dough , make your dumplings that you fill with a mixture of meat onions and

vegetables, and then also bakes. Enjoy your meal!!

After a few days of potato harvesting, there was something in the air that resonated

to the Easter Islander's house. During the walk there I got

more and more hurry and before I saw the house I already saw the Easter Islands

waving king's flag. Carolina later told me, who is a real Easter Islander

princess is, me that she could not sleep that night and in the morning the flag

hung up and sang Easter Island songs to it. I pushed

the door of her cottage and immediately she stood up to give me a long embrace

to embrace, "I have been waiting for you", she said, "the kings of Rapa Nui

have sent you to me because you have been there and with my family

have stayed."

From my visit to Rapa Nui there are already a lot of special and especially nice ones

events ensued that I could never have imagined when I went to

that island went, however, it is still clear to me that I

I felt very happy when I made the decision to go there.

My Easter Island princess has been living here in Mapuche territory for 20 years

owns quite a few pieces of land. She knows a lot about the Mapuche culture as well

tells me things the Mapuches themselves would never tell me.

And although they fight with the Mapuches to respect the law

for the indigenas (native people), the Mapuche make it

sometimes life is not easy when they get back into the trip; Mapuche country

only for hereborn Mapuches' have ended up.

And that while the two youngest daughters of Carolina were born here.

So did the Mapuche for a year after the death of her husband

Santiago had to work to earn money for her five children, already

stole her cattle, her machines and tools to work the land

and even dismantled her house and taken it away.

With a lot of perseverance and forgiveness, she has the case again

to build on, but her house is no more than a barn

without windows, the toilet is a hole in the ground and you have to bathe with a bucket

in a corner of the plastic greenhouse where she grows vegetables. She's got some

chickens and pigs, which Xek takes great pleasure in running after to eat them

hunt as they move from one field to another.

Isla Huapi was created during the great earthquake in 1970. The epicenter

of the earthquake was in Valdivia, which became whole except for a few houses

wiped out. The tremors of the earthquake also affected the earth in this zone

shaking and the ground sinking, the tsunami, the tidal wave, which the

earthquake that broke out through the coastal mountains and beyond

valleys were filled with water. The people who lived there tried themselves

to save his life and escaped towards the Andes. Many days after

the sea kept pounding the shore with impetuous waves. The former

Machi's, tried to calm the sea with all kinds of requests and incantations.

When they failed to do so, they thought that the sea demanded a human sacrifice!

But no family was willing to give up their virgin daughter for that

the Machi couple decided to sacrifice their own daughter. Standing on the

sacred mountain that lies behind Carolina's land, they first cut the heart

out of the living girl and threw her into the sea. However, the sea remained

furious, then they cut off her left arm and threw it into the sea. Yet

the sea never calmed down. Then they cut off her right arm and

They also threw them into the salt water, when nothing had changed

put the rest of the body in as well. Of course, the sea remained for days

wild and impetuous. This beurtennis is a big taboo among the Mapuches

I was especially advised not to speak to them about this because the

people who took part in this horror are still alive.

Isla Huapi is quite a big island, no one can tell me how big exactly

but I estimate it to be about 35 km long. It has sloping

hills with forests here and there. Lago Budi has whimsical shapes and this one

deep inlets filter into the island, from which small rivers flow

which are usually shallow and whose shores are overgrown with expanses

reed beds. Which change into swamps and then into green meadows.

It looks a bit like old Flemish paintings, with one here and there

small house, where a satisfied plume of smoke rises from the clean stone

circling.

Chickens, dogs, cats and pigs roam around the houses. The roads

are ruts made by the bullock carts.

The starry nights are beautifully clear, you can see the milky way very clearly

containing black holes. And besides the Milky Way you can also see other star nebulae

like some kind of clouds.

There are 5 primary schools on the island, where the children stay until

they are 14. Then they have to go to school in the city. In Carahue about 45

kilometers from here is a secondary school, but in Temocu is a wat

wider choice of secondary schools. Because Temuco is two and a half hours away

is from here by bus, the children stay with a family or

are in a boarding school. So also the two youngest daughters of Carolina,

Lafken and Peche, who attend a girls' boarding school run by nuns.

The children here in the countryside are allowed to go to school in their normal clothes

but in the towns and cities school uniforms are compulsory. They must

be replaced every year because they also indicate which class you are in. This

system is used here in Chile so that the children learn that everyone

is equal and there is no harassment about who has nikes and who doesn't.

However, the flip side of the medialle is that the school uniforms are for the poor

families are expensive.

The Mapuches often complain about being poor. That they only

eat potatoes. But that's their own fault, of course

is about the only thing they plant besides grain! Those potatoes they have here

harvesting by hand, they try to sell in the city and they don't bring

so much because of course there are other areas in Chile where the harvesting

happens with machines. It is logical that they then have little money left over when they are here

then go buy carrots, onions and garlic for it. In addition, they have here

since some years electricity that has to be paid. However, they almost have

all have a refrigerator, a TV, a music system and a video.

If I told them that in Europe and the USA there are also a lot of poor people

are, who have to eat from the garbage can because they have no money to buy one

to buy an entrance ticket to the dunes where they could pick blackberries

and catch rabbits, or to buy a fishing license to go fishing.

And that the people who do have some money are only too happy to have such a large piece of land would like to buy such as their own or own house that they here in two

years to pay off and what the Europeans have to work for 30 years, they look

incredulous at first, but then begin to agree with me about the clean air

they have here and the peace they can enjoy here. And get rich

feeling they hop on and on.

 

In addition to us, Carolina has three guests, two women from Santiago and one

daughter of one of them. From the one without a daughter, the man has become one

hung up a month ago. When she woke up she didn't feel his head

next to her on her pillow but his dangling feet.

The other has a kiosk in a less affluent neighborhood in Santiago en

works every day from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m., for years without ever

to take a vacation. This is the first time in 8 years that they have a few days

takes off. She was plagued by severe abdominal pains under her diaphragm and so

my healing hands had a lot of work to do again.

The good thing about treating people frequently is that my awareness in it

is becoming increasingly sophisticated. For example, during a session with this woman I saw one of her past lives. It was a whole new experience for me, which me 

learned that experiences from another existence are also stored in our cells lie.

Let me explain what I mean by my healing hands. In fact it is 

it is an attunement of my consciousness. Relax through a breathing technique

me and fill my body with a golden light. If I like myself

see all of gold, which to me is a symbol I know I am a

reached a certain stage. Once I feel the light strong through my hands to

flows outside, I put them on someone's body and laate my consciousness that

following light in someone's body. Like a sort scan I travel through the body

where I see where there are blockades or infections. Then I treat

those spots with the light and get images and words through the mental

cause of the physical illness. I also receive information on how to use the

I have to treat places and sometimes I have to treat another place in the body first

before the most diseased part can be treated.

 The day after tomorrow there will be the Nguillatun which will be in honor of President Lagos

held and for which the Mapuches have been preparing for weeks

to make it clear to him on that day what their problems are and what they do and

what they don't want to see changed. The president has already passed by the house of

Carolina came and then she was able to talk to him for a while. Now she's back

planning to stop him because otherwise it is very difficult to get to this one

regions in government. Not so long ago, the

Mapuches undertook a trip to Santiago to present their problems to the ministers

of the second chamber. For a week these people had

walked to get to Santiago, but they were not received there.

To get the president's attention, I had

made a very high statue, which holds up a long flagpole, on which three flags

waver; the Mapuche, the Rapanui and the Chilean.

Carolina has cleaned up the patio and decorated it with lemur foliage,

a sacred Mapuche tree, and benches of logs set upon his

highness can take place.

With washed and even ironed clothes and Easter Island crowns on us

head we went the next morning to the sacred ground on which the ceremony

would be held. However, there was only an old man there and one was hanging

note that the Nguillatun would be postponed until further notice...

An important and more than a hundred years old Lonko had passed away and before him

a ceremony was held in a field a little further on.

The coffin was displayed in the middle of the field, surrounded by wreaths of flowers and

bottles of wine, from which someone occasionally took a big sip, women in their

colorful costumes and decorate with their beautiful jewelry that eat

were cooking on campfires, people were drinking wine and

a few who were already so drunk they were sleeping it off. Among

the oxen and the bullock carts stood with tables and chairs that they placed thereon

had brought. Of course they looked at us a bit surprised, but Carolina introduced me

to everyone as her sister from Rapa Nui and I felt like my

easter island crown the impact of my blonde hair and blue eyes strongly

reduced. It even gave me the freedom to take some photos and bits

filming, something the Mapuches never allow because they believe

that people can practice a kind of voodoo on them with their photo.

At some point, the real ceremony began. Several people told

stories in Mapudungun that were occasionally interrupted by bits

singing and music made on the traditional instruments, and

during which people moved twigs of the Maki tree up and down. Occasionally there was

also poured wine over the coffin. Telling stories in which people

retrieving all kinds of memories that people had experienced with the deceased went well

through an hour and a half. After that, it positioned itself on both sides of the coffin

men who over the coffin their sueka's against a kind of hockey sticks

beat each other, again accompanied by music and shouting. Then became

an Indian dance around the coffin performed in which one is on a hopping

way, while uttering cries, making music and carrying twigs

waving.

The coffin was carried to a hearse and in a long procession of cars,

oxcarts and horses we drove over the island for an hour before we reached the

cemetery arrived. There the men made bows with their suekas where the

procession with the coffin had to pass underneath. At the grave there was again elaborate

spoken, sung, waved twigs and shouted. Finally became

the coffin was then lowered into the tomb with the clapping of the suekas. There were

poured a few more bottles of wine over it and then the grave became

finally closed.

 

It was one of the nights that followed when the dogs went berserk

went, Carolina threw on all the lights and ran under her with her rifle

arm out. There were two figures on the road, quickly moving out of the way

made feet. The next day we heard that a horse had been stolen a little further on

used to be.

Livestock farming is a regular occurrence here. We discovered one in one of the dogs

big round wound on his hip and we understand that he was beaten by the thieves with a

lance was pierced. Lucky for him Carolina had the light done

for sometimes even the watchdogs are killed.

The days fly by on this timeless island with all kinds of chores and too

Xek enjoys playing and taking care of the animals.

Especially the pigs are beloved playmates with the result that we are under the

there are fleas, luckily we are spared from lice that attach themselves to the

other people do nest in their hair, maybe they don't like blond hair!

When I opened the door of the cottage this morning I saw a Mapuche woman

stepping out of the fog in her traditional attire. The second

person I saw this morning was a soldier who was in the back of a

pickup truck sat.

Today was the day the Mapuches and I had been waiting for so long

of the nguillatun and the day the President of Chile visited this

would bring people.

After feeding all the animals, braiding my hair with

having made feathers and Xek somewhat presentable we went out

accompanied by the old don Antonio we had in tow. Princess

Carolina and I provided with beautiful rapa-nuic feather crowns and Xek

armed with bows and arrows that I made for him yesterday.

We were lucky because as soon as we stepped outside the gate a bus came

past who gave us a lift and only one other person was in it.

In front of us, three police officers rode off-road motorcycles and we seemed

therefore a highly honored visit. The bus took us all the way to it

terrain where the Nguillatun took place, where we had to pass several roadblocks. In one, our entire bus was searched to see if we had any weapons or bombs with us. This was all done by the Mapuches themselves. There were also barricades on the site itself and at the last one we were suddenly called back. A message had just been passed that the president was not coming! It was already the third time he finished it let us know and tempers and tension ran high as a result!

We had to wait with this last post for what was to come.

Suddenly it opened and a procession of people began to pass through, going to one

other terrain that was closer to the sea.

The procession never seemed to end, so many people joined it, according to me

guess 5000! The Mapuches had come here from moors and far,

some had already taken the bus at three o'clock at night to get here on time

are. Home and hearth or rather their animals and harvest work left behind

to present themselves here in their beautiful costumes to the president.

When the entire walking procession had passed, we were summoned to

close and walk. Behind us came the Mapuches on horseback.

Suddenly many cameras were pointed at me and I was being interviewed by the

television journalists.

Xek and I were the only whites here, so clearly from a different place

country. I was asked what I thought of the Mapuche culture, of the business

what they were fighting for and what was happening now that the president said it again

declined.

That gave me the opportunity to express clearly that I like Chile a lot

should better look after its original population because there are almost none

undominated and healthy peoples of earlier times are more in the world

and that theirs are the wealth of Chile.

The cause they are now fighting for is not just a noble cause

but also a very smart one. The government wants the coast of them

privatize territory and also the fishing grounds belonging to their territory

opening up to japanese and taiwanese trollers. The rest of Chile already has

to contend with a sharp decline in fish stocks, the

fishermen talk about catching less and that the fish and shellfish

that they catch get smaller and smaller. Privatizing the coasts means

that rich foreigners will come and buy up land and put fences around it

put dn the beaches for the poor people are no longer accessible to there

for example, to harvest seaweed, to fish, or to look for shellfish. What

means that the poor people will become more and more dependent on social security

staff.

The chance that my speech will be broadcast is very small because Chile is then called

to be a democratic country, but there is little real freedom of the press here

talk. Especially where the Mapuche are concerned, the broadcast reports are

greatly shortened so that it seems that the Mapuches do not care much

what happens to their or their lands.

 

When they arrived at the other area, the people formed a large circle,

chairs were placed inside and then the delegation was waited for

which the president had sent to replace his own person.

After some time a helicopter circled over and landed nearby and where the

delegation emerged. With horses they were picked up and taken to

brought to the center of the circle die closed around them. Everyone became

closer and you could see on the faces of the delegation that they had it

got a little tired of that. Then they stood there

an hour and a half in their smart suits and ties in the hot sun, because it was a

hot day today.

They had to listen to what the Lomkos from the different regions had to say

had to say.

In the end they got the floor themselves and the minister of mideplan,

the ministry that handles the affairs of the indigenas climbed on the chair and

tried to calm things down and made all sorts of promises. Unfortunately for this man

had he made promises before that he had not kept, so a loud

cries of "mentiroso!", "liar", fell to him.

However, it was a beautiful atmosphere, because you imagined yourself 400 years ago

in the days when the Spanish officers, clad in their stiff suits, here,

landed in this country with its highly developed cultures.

The Mapuches went home disillusioned, feeling that again

they were kept on a leash and that their president was not interested

has for their people and their problems or visions. With the feeling that the

democracy in Chile is a lie.

After the Nguillatun, I started preparing to leave the island

because I also wanted to visit Mapuche in other areas.

But before that, my healing hands still had some work to do

because meanwhile the story had been doing the rounds on the island

that a white Machi was visiting.

For example, there was an old woman who was plagued by rheumatism.

At the end of the afternoon we went to visit her. In her black

charred kitchen, where she cooks on an open wood-burning fire

chickens and their chicks, the cats and the puppy merry about. Every now and then a piglet tries to sneak in to grab some treats from the kitchen. After the energy flowed freely through her stiffened body again and her hands had become warm and somewhat straighter again, we went home. In the meantime it had become dark and it was here

is dark, it is really dark because there are no lampposts.

On the way we met several drunk people.

It was another 'dia de paga', a day of payouts and then the

Mapuches always get drunk.

Almost home we ran into Carolina and the neighbor. The neighbor

was very worried about her husband because he was still not home and she

thought he was sitting or lying somewhere very drunk by the side of the road. We looking for

the drunk neighbor, some time later we found him lying on the floor near a house where they sell cigarettes and booze. The neighbor hid for fear of his unpredictable behavior. It was up to Carolina and me to transport him home.

Supported by us and wobbling on his legs, he started talking all sorts of nonsense and eventually he started crying too! When we arrived at the gate of his garden

he fell limp to the floor and immediately fell into a coma. The dogs and the

cats walked over him, but he didn't notice that anymore. And we didn't have it

more of a laugh when one of the dogs lifted his hind leg and urinated on him!!

Someone had given me the address of a Mapuche couple who had been in an asylum for 24 years. In Pinochet's time, 10 Mapuche couples had gone to asylum, 1 in the Netherlands, 1 in Denmark, 1 in Switzerland, 1 in England and 6 in France, of which

their were one. They now live in the area of Santa Maria de LLiama, located in the foothills of the Andes and dominated by Chile's liveliest volcano.

In the area where they live, live the Pehueche, people who are so called because the

pine cones from the Araucania tree was their staple food.

In this area the rukas are made of wood that is layered on top of each other. However, there are very few left. The family we visited had returned from France 4 years ago and built a new wooden ruka. They had found it very difficult to return because not only they had changed, but Chile and the Mapuche had also changed.

For example, they had quite a problem with the fact that the Mapuches are so dependent nowadays preparation of gifts from other countries. Chile itself currently receives none

development money that is why development money is requested from other countries in the name of the Mapuche. Incidentally, very little of this money ends up with the Mapuche themselves because the largest part remains in the pockets of those who pay the subsidies.

applications and set up the projects.

Unfortunately, the Mapuches have taken over this slant and instead of themselves

devise a plan to improve their standard of living and conditions they go

wait to see if they can get some money for it first.

This has also caused the Mapuche culture, which originated g is an oral culture

has become much more suspicious. Before the family went into asylum, the word of a Mapuche was the same as a deed signed under our nose by a notary.

The greeting Mari-Mari even means I come with ten clean fingers, in the sense that you don't get involved in dirty business. Today's Mapuches want everything on paper and signed, even among family members.

They themselves try to earn money with tourism, in their ruka they have made sleeping places for nine people. Because they live quite remote, I asked them how they publicize their business, and a leaflet in French was pushed under my nose.

A Dutch address was written in pen in the corner. It was the address of a man where one of my brothers did an apprenticeship when he was at the cabinetmaking school! How connected we walk around this world!

The nice thing about this family is that they are committed to preserving the Mapuche culture, about which less is actually known than I had initially hoped. Very little is known of the time before the arrival of the Spaniards in Chile and the stories that exist after that time are mainly written by outsiders.

Still they managed to tell me a few nice legends like the legend of Kay-Kay and Xeg-Xeg.

Kay-Kay and Xeg-Xeg are two large snakes that have horse-like heads and wings. Kay-Kay lives in the depths of the water and Xeg-Xeg lives in the mountain.

Once upon a time there was a very beautiful valley, with beautiful trees and flowers, life was pleasant there, the sun often shone and the earth gave an abundance of food to everything that lived on it. The elements of nature talk to each other and

understood each other and everything was in harmony. So life went on smoothly. One day Kay-Kay was extremely bored and came up with a plan to kill the boredom. He told his plan to his friends of the water, the rain, the rivers and the streams. But Xeg-Xeg also heard his plan and he warned his friends, the people and the beasts and said; if Kay-Kay is going to carry out his plan I will call you and you must seek shelter on my mountain.

When Kay-Kay began to carry out his plan, he called for the rain to pour down in torrential downpours. As the river grew fuller and fuller Xeg-Xeg called his friends to his mountain and the higher the water became the higher he made the mountain grow.

The rivers became wilder and fuller, dragging everything in their path with them.

Kay-Kay had a lot of fun in his wild game but after a few days he started to get tired of it too.

When all had calmed down again, the beautiful valley was gone and there was

only a wasteland left.

On the mountain were four surviving Mapuche, an old and a young couple. The old couple was there to tell how beautiful everything had been and how people used to live. The young couple was there to pass on life.

The old couple told the young couple their story, about how people used to celebrate a Nguillatun to thank for the good harvest and later celebrate a Nguillatun to ask for rain and then later celebrate a Nguillatun to thank for the rain.

The young couple urged the old couple to celebrate a Nguillatun to ask if everything could go back to the way it had been before.

And that is why the Mapuche today use a kultrun, a kind of drum, with the Nguillatun on which there is a drawing that depicts the old and the young couple. The old couple represents the universe and history, the young couple represents the present and the future .

The drawing also depicts the sky, the earth and the undercurrents, the four cardinal directions, the four elements, water, earth, air and fire, and the four seasons.

 We go fishing for another day in a wild water river with a self-constructed fishing rod, unfortunately we catch nothing and then get on our way to Argentina because we have to go in and out of Chile to extend our visa.

Because of the rain we walk the two kilometers to the road that turns into a gravel road where hardly anyone passes. But the trees are beautifully green under the chasing rain clouds and after an hour we are lucky and get a lift from a man who works with trees and original inhabitants. He had already done projects in Nicaragua, Honduras and Puerto Rico and was now working on the plateau near Icalma with Mapuche. We can ride with him to Icalma on the border with Argentina. We cross the approaches of the Andes and then go steeply up into these mighty mountains. We enter a mysterious forest of huge Araucanias whose trunks are covered with a kind of long-haired Icelandic moss that moves slowly in the wind. At this altitude we drive through shreds of clouds and it seems as if we have entered a movie from The Lords of the ring.

The Araucanias only grow two centimeters in ten years, which means that the average tree standing here, which is about 14 meters high, is already 7000 years old! And so dates back to 5000 BC! Large green bulbs with a diameter of about 15 to 20 cm grow on the Araucanias. it contains the nuts that the Pehuence, the Mapuches of this zone, eat. As we drive further through this mysterious world our conversations begin to become more spiritual and Gaston, our hitchhiker tells me that he can hear the trees talking. He hears them asking him to chop them down because they are starting to get powdery on the inside and that they would like to have a longer life as a beautiful door, sofa or other piece of furniture so that they can be admired by others for a while longer. people eyes and hands.

In Chile it is forbidden to cut down Araucanias and other original forests are also protected. To get around that law, the forests are sometimes victims of people with dollar signs in their eyes who set the forests on fire so they can plant other trees on their land. But this man loves trees and he is very careful to remove the diseased and old trees from the primeval forests so that they remain healthy.

He tells me that the trees themselves also cooperate, that when he cuts them down they somehow twist and that they always fall right in between the young and healthy trees.

Later he shows us the workshop on the plateau and indeed the trees that are there all have a powdered core, something you can't see from the outside.

He teaches the Mapuche who work for him to process the wood on large old-fashioned machines and to adapt too hard to the harsh climate that prevails here on the plateau, because later he wants to take them to the south of Chile where there are many more primeval forests and so more work.

He set up the entire project on his own, because he also thinks that too much money from Mapuche subsidies is in the pockets of the winkas, that the mapuche word is left behind for Chileans and that the Mapuche are fobbed off with a piece of plastic, a bottle of wine and a barbeque.

He does not think highly of the current Mapuche culture, which he knows a lot about, because he sees too many drunk fathers and too many children who have to work. In this way he can give the Mapuche a chance to learn a trade so that they can also provide for their families in these economic times.

I touch on the subject of the Bio-Bio river, one of the largest rivers in Chile where the government has built a dam to generate energy, the Mapuche complain about this because they believe they now have less water in their territory and therefore fewer animals can keep. Gaston explains to me that it is more a political game than reality because the soil is very poor at these heights. In the winter there is 1 to 2 meters of snow and in the short summer there is not enough grass to allow many animals to hibernate.

Because of my interest in the river, he takes us to the birthplace of the river, which here, at its origin, is only a modest stream, but when it finally flows into the sea at Concepcion, it has a width of up to five kilometers.

Then we will visit a Mapuche family who live here on the plateau in a small wooden house and keep sheep and goats that they herd by horse. We are treated to mate and pinoñes! The nuts of the Araucanias that are first roasted and then cooked. I love them, the taste is somewhere between chestnuts and almonds and they are very nutritious. In the meantime it has become night and we can stay with Gaston who lives at the border post with the customs officer as a neighbor. 

The next morning it was a real treat to wake up here, under the bright blue sky lay the reddish mountains of the cordillera, overgrown with the mighty Araucanias, the birds whistled sweet songs in the fresh silence, a clear mountain river babbled cheerfully our feet while it was glistening in the sun and on the other side of that was a Mapuche cemetery painted in the cheerful colors that the Mapuches love so much.

As I wrote, few vehicles pass through this remote border crossing which is closed most of the year. Gaston therefore offers to take us to the Argentinian border, two hours away, but just as I have finished my business with Chilean customs, a ramshackle car suddenly appears and the driver of it wants to take us.

At the Argentinian border a problem arises, Xek, who is just added to my passport, has no own identity number and the Argentinian computer does not accept two names on the same number?!

The customs officer, who says he has only been working here for a month, does not know how to solve it and says that we should wait until someone who does know how to do it. Very annoying, wow Our hitchhiker has an appointment in an Argentinian city for which he is already late, he doesn't want to leave us here either because he also knows that hardly anyone passes this border post.

Together we plead with the customs officer whether he can make a letter with a stamp stating that I am entering the country with Xek, but the man does not dare to make a decision. After half an hour of nagging I tell our hitchhiker to go because I don't want to hold him up any longer.

Just as I have dragged our bags and backpack out of the car, a van arrives with fortunately another customs officer in it, the matter is settled within two minutes and armed with a piece of paper with Xek's name, I can put the stuff back in the car throw and we're on our way again! Another 130 kilometers to Zapalla, the nearest Argentine town.

When we have left the Andes, the landscape changes into a dry pampa.

And it stays that way because most of Argentina is like that; vast, flat, bare, dry and arid. Mapuche also live on this side of the border, here in Argentina they are a bit better organized and also receive help from the government, but they have taken much of their most fertile land from them, during what the Argentines call the 'pacification' of the south. called, which meant that they hunted down and massacred the original population with large armies. Here on the pampas, the Mapuche mainly keep goats.

Then Zapalla appears out of the blue, an ugly town without charm, but they do sell pizza. Just as the Spaniards populated Chile, the Italians populated Argentina and there are many Italian surnames to be found.

Spanish is also different, here people talk with a buzzing zzz in the words.

We stay in Zapalla for two days to use the internet and stop by again the next morning

side of the road with the desire to go to Chile again. We get a lift from a man with a dead and skinned sheep in the back seat who, after an hour and a half, drops us off at an intersection somewhere in the middle of nowhere, from which we can go in two directions. One road leads to an Argentinian hot spring and the other to Chile.

However, the nearest Chilean town of Lonquimay is 250 kilometers away and traveling

on these unpaved roads it will take about 7 hours. And that without the possibility of a stopover.

getting it later and latr in the afternoon I decide to go for the hot spring to spent the night which is not so far, I write the name of the hot spring on a card and after a long time a red truck passes by and points out to go the other way, shit! Later when I try to dig some food out of the backpack another truck comes along and Xek gives a quick thumbs up, the truck stops and the driver says to go to Chile!

We drive 850 kilometers and 24 hours with Antonio in his truck in which he transports gas and in which he is not allowed to take any passengers at all. Every time we encounter a police we have to hide behind the curtain in the cabin. At the Argentinian border it turns out that Antonio's truck is part of a convoy and in the time it takes the drivers to arrange their papers, Xek befriends another driver with whom he drives to the Chilean border. We drive for two hours through the high mountains of this no man's land where only some Mapuche live. When we have passed the highest point and thus on the Chilean side, the world changes, the air smells different, the earth turns green again and impressive forests of Araucanias grow again. We have to cross the Chilean border on foot and the customs officers look at me incredulously when I answer their question how we got here that we came on foot.

A little further from the border, Antonio picks us up again and all three of us are happy to be back in Chile! For now, we will continue on the shining path!

The Araucaria is a genus of evergreen conifers in the family Araucariaceae. There are 19 other species in the genus Araucaria. Xek was born on July 19. The mapuches is the first real physical installation

The snake pine (Araucaria araucana) and the chamber pine (Araucaria heterophylla) are well-known species of the genus. Split in two

Most, if not all, current populations are relicts and the species are not common. They are found in forests and maquis-like vegetations, with an affinity for exposed places. The columnar trees are actually "living fossils". The genus Araucaria dates back to the early Jurassic, this genius was already present in South America 150 million years ago. Fossil finds of the genus, up to the end of the Cretaceous, have also been found in the Northern Hemisphere.

The genus is named after the Mapuche Indians of central Chile and south-western Argentina, who were called Araucanos by the Spaniards, and in whose area the serpents are found (there it is nowadays known as).

known as pehuen). These Indians, who call themselves the Pehuenche ('people of the Pehuén'), use the seeds of the serpents for food.

The species of the genus are mostly large trees with a massive trunk, which can reach heights of 30–80 m. The branches are covered with leathery, scaly or needle-shaped leaves, which usually remain on the tree for many years (up to more than 15 years). The leaves of some species such as the serpent pine have a sharp, triangular, scaly shape, in other species such as Araucaria columnaris they are more needle-like.

The species are usually dioecious. Male and female cones are on different trees, while some plants are monoecious. The female cones, which are often located at the top of the tree, are spherical in shape. When ripe, they contain eighty to two hundred large, edible seeds, which resemble pine seeds but are larger.

The male cones are smaller, narrow, elongated and cylindrical.

Like the pine apple gland. The Snake Pine is the tree of life, the fossil in our brain.

The first tree. Prehistoric tree. Our brainstem with its pineal gland, which acts as our third eye, regulates all the hormonal processes to maintain our body and thinking. Our tree of life. Our own world tree.