Amazon Taitas are fed up with scammers

Ten respected shamans have joined forces to prevent an invasion of impostors and charlatans that threaten their traditions. This is their manifesto:

Posted on January 25, 2020 by Las2orillas

We are the indigenous peoples who have inhabited this indigenous land of the Amazon for millennia, growing medicinal plants and practicing the knowledge and wisdom of our grandmothers and grandfathers to live in peace and harmony with Mother Earth. 

More than five hundred years ago, we were attacked with the aim of seizing the resources and wealth of our territory, where we lived in union with Mother Nature. Along with colonization came religions that caused irreparable damage and promoted the Bible and alien gods in our millennial spiritual culture. 

Strangers wanted to erase our holy connections with nature, denigrating our spiritual ceremonies and laughing at our plant research. 

Even today we are colonized and attacked. Armed groups, traffickers, colonizers, international miners, as well as hydrocarbon miners and cattle ranchers continue to threaten our nation seeking to protect the Amazon ecosystem, in other words, the vital organ for life of the entire planet. 

The spiritual leaders of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin are responsible for preserving spiritual traditions and knowledge of the sacred medicine of the Yagé (Ayahuasca). Through Yagé treatment, we resisted the invasion and protected our automia. We also use medicine to treat community diseases, protect our territory and the lives of our leaders. 

Thanks to the sacred plant Yagé, we have been cultivating our wisdom since childhood and talking to the spirits of Mother Earth. We learn which plants are suitable for the treatment of diseases. Yagé is not a hallucinogen or psychedelic plant. Yagé is a plant that has a living spirit and that teaches us how to live in peace and harmony with Pacha Mama. 

Indigenous Yagé physicians and Indian chiefs must meet strict standards and abide by spiritual laws, as stipulated in the UMIYAC (Union of Indigenous Yagé Medics of the Colombian Amazon) document, "Reflections of the Elders: a Code of Ethics for Indigenous Medicine in the Foothills of the Colombian Amazon". The process of learning to be a traditional healer, a woman psychic, an ayahuasca healer is difficult and can take a lifetime. 

In accordance with our cultural customs, it is the indigenous communities that, through constant observation, value true ayahuasca healers, chiefs or Iach (the person who symbolizes wisdom) who, thanks to their familiarity, wisdom and lineage, can take responsibility and supervise the physical and spiritual health of the Amazonian peoples. 

Some young natives perceive Yagé healing superficially, do not have wisdom and do not know the Yagé plant. They leave the community far out of the sight of spiritual leaders to perform ceremonies and inappropriately assume the role of traditional healers. They wear feathers and necklaces and have themselves called taitas, a word that only means "father" and is a generally accepted term used by the Inga community. The goal is to get rich at any cost, risking their mental health and even the lives of their patients. 

Also, people who are not natives appropriate and abuse our practices and without knowledge of the original Yagé healing, organize rituals, "spiritual paths", "ayahuasca tourism" and "schools of shamanism". It is a phenomenon of self-serving use, consumerism, manipulation and appropriation of our traditional medicine, our knowledge and our image. These practices abuse the sacredness of our vision of the world, attack our leaders, and are contrary to negotiated agreements and treaties that protect the intangible spiritual and cultural heritage of the healing of our indigenous peoples (for example, the 1991 Colombian Constitution, the 169/OIT Agreement, 1989, and the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and others). 

The sacred Yagé plant is part of the common ancient cultural indigenous healing heritage of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon and aims to cure diseases. Yagé cannot be used for profit or trade without the support of those practicing traditional ancestral medicine and with the guarantee of indigenous communities and organizations. 

There are persons and businesses who have appropriated our symbols for the purpose of trade and adapt to our image and imitate our habits and habits.  

Social media is filled with offers of supposed indigenous practices, the result of cultural appropriation aimed at gaining clients and monetary gains. 

The mixing of traditions and indigenous practices such as the use of San Pedro, Yagé, Peyote, Kambó, Bufo Alvarius, Iboga or Temazcal is taken out of context, violating sacredness and weakening ancient traditions that are vital to the survival of indigenous peoples, and also risking the health of those involved in these events. 

Also worrying is the commercial sale of seeds and Amazonian plants to prepare Yagé. This new extraction process and overexploitation threatens the sustainability of our resources and weakens communities, creating money traps and reminiscent of the economy of traffickers. 

The international public has access to these services without realizing that the appropriation and commercialism of our indigenous traditions hinder our path to self-determination. Bad practices damage the delicate community balance, undermine the collective spirit of our communities, and weaken our spirituality. All of this is weakening the resilience of our peoples, risking our lives and the Amazon ecosystem that we want to preserve and protect. 

As an organization of indigenous peoples and political and spiritual authorities of the Amazonian peoples and peoples of Siona, Inga, Coreguaje, Kamentsá-Biya and Cofán, declared by the Constitutional Parliament of Colombia in April 2009 at risk of physical and cultural extinction, 

we report the illicit appropriation, misuse and commerciality of the sacred Yagé plant, our traditions, customs and knowledge.

We reiterate that businesses such as the European School of Ayahuasca, Mr Albert Varel's Inner Mastery, and Mr. Antonio Valverde's Verein Sol Jaguar, and others, are still trading in Yagé medicine, spreading bad practices, risking patients' lives and threatening the sacred rights of indigenous peoples, among which is the right to life. 

No indigenous healer Yagé, chief, Iacha, woman scientist or traditional leader, has the right to confirm or authorize non-indigenous persons to perform the Yagé ritual, in our original system of indigenous health there is no person in charge or represented who shields a non-indigenous person as a traditional healer. Spiritual wisdom is a great commitment that under no circumstances can be diminished by the issuance of a certificate. 

No one other than the indigenous people of the Yagé people can cultivate, sell or perform Yagé rituals. In accordance with their own regulatory systems, the only persons who can perform Yagé rituals are Yagé healers, Iacha, chiefs or women scientists who count on the support and recognition of indigenous Amazonian communities, traditional authorities, indigenous organizations such as UMIYAC, in accordance with the original law, their own and higher law. 

Faced with this misfortune, we urge all conscious persons not to risk their health by participating in these commercial activities and to respect the cultural and social development of the resilience of indigenous peoples. 

We also call on national and international organisations, the United Nations, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, to take note of the will of indigenous peoples to protect the integrity of our traditional knowledge, because our lives and the preservation of the Amazon territory depend on it. 

We appeal to the international organization to build alliances and create active solidarity to create a great movement to defend and protect Mother Earth and the Amazon. 

 

Yours sincerely, 

LUZ MERY BECERRA JACANAMEJOY - Colombia- Official representative of ASOMI

ERNESTO EVANJUANOY CHINDOY – Colombia – Official representative of UMIYAC

FRANCO EVER PIAGUAJE - Colombia- Official representative of OZIP

HERNANDO CHINDOY CHINDOY –Colombia – Official representative of Entidad Territorial Pueblo Inga

HUMBERTO PIAGUAJE – Colombia – Spiritual Advisor UMIYAC

ELEUTERIO QUETA – President of ASMIC – Representative of the Cofán Nation

JULIO CÉSAR LÓPEZ JAMIOY - Colombia- Official representative of OPIAC

TIBERIO LUCITANTE QUETA – Colombia – Official representative of UMIYAC

LUCIANO MUTUMBAJOY Colombia – Spiritual Advisor UMIYAC

TABEA CASIQUE CORONADO - Ecuador - Colombia- Official representative of COICA

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