“Ksxa‘w” subtitles
“Ksxa‘w”
Xavi Hurtado
In September 2009 I went to lead some workshops
for young Nasas from Yadx Tasxka Kiwe (Inland).
Through the CRIC’s UAII,
I met the Walas (traditional doctors).
They talked to me about sleep (Ksxa‘w),
about their visions (I‘khwe‘sx) and “señas.”
Rosalba, Marco and I visited Yadz
to observe… to talk to the “owners” of things
about the amount of time in a short or a long moment,
about the height of a rock in relation to a volcano.
(following words by Marcos Yule)
Nasa Txiwe (the big house) is the mother Earth
like a hen that warms her chicks
it’s a person with a body, feet, ribs, and eyes
when you visit a Nasa family
your body gets harmonized, you bring a gift
when you arrive there are greetings and the reason
for the visit is explained, a dialogue is established, in the end
there will be something to benefit everyone, that’s how the relationships are
between humans and the rest of the beings in Nasa Txiwe
if I plow the land to make a Tul (garden)
I need to know that a lot of families live in this place
therefore before I start I need to ask for permission and pay
all the families that live in the Nasa Txiwe, we have
owners who protect us
and who get angry when we aren’t respectful
of this way of complementarity, of getting along
that we call reciprocity and makes for a full life
this equilibrium is guided
by dreams (Ksxa’w) and visions (l’khwe’sx)
without a harmony provided by dreams and visions
reciprocity is destroyed and unbalance is created
and sickness comes to the families of Nasa Txiwe
(following words by Rosalba Ramos)
you’ve crossed the ocean to visit us and we want
that with this video a clear message is sent
about our lives and our work
some don’t come to observe us with good intentions but to steal
we’ve been robbed of everything even our thoughts
we like that the visits by white men from the other side of the ocean
which are occurring now-a-days, should be
with the desire and interest in giving us support, we know that
on the other side of the ocean there are people who only have
evil thoughts, but also there are people
who are interested in giving us support, who recognize and value
our way of life, and this is important
I’m going to answer your question
all over this region there are Nasa
and everywhere people dream
now-a-days there are skeptical people
who claim that dreams aren’t true
I’m a woman who believes firmly in dreams
for me, dreams have become real
that is why I am going to talk about them
untrue dreams don’t exist, what exists are
people burdened with dead cultures
where dreams don’t have any meaning
…..we are Nasa of Nasa blood
while we maintain our beliefs
and while our hearts are alive
dreams will have meaning for us
when a threat is near, dreams clearly tell us
it’s clear, like the signs us doctors receive in our bodies
(translator’s note: for some The Wala is difficult to rationalize, since
they rely on the “signs”, “the signs” could be referred to as vibrations)
…the images seen in the act of dreaming are messages
but other people… the evangelists of the community
say with contempt that the people who dream
….. sleep too much, are sleepyheads
dreams show us our guides, our teachers
our great spirits
we shouldn’t speak badly or make fun of them
they will be our guides
Ksxa’w means indistinctly two things: dreams and spirit
(following words by Rogelio Chute)
…my commitment working as the High Advisor,
as advisor to doctors (shamans), and their ways,
is to follow-up on their work. As I said earlier, I am not a doctor
I only help them “Catear” ( a Nasas ritual)
the doctors with the high elders…
the high elders are the real doctors ( high elders are spirits).
Why did this come about?... the idea is as follows:
each doctor works alone, people from the community ask them for help
which is not correct (puting personal interests ahead of community interest)
It is from here,the idea of creating an Advisor came about.
The Advisor meets with the doctors and gives them advice.
For example: how should they work in this territory, which is our home.
It’s the doctors that harmonize the land (harmonize is to heal)
and who keep in contact with nature by speaking with its spirits
by spending the night without sleep.
It often happens that doctors, who have the ability to do good deeds,
also have the gift to do bad deeds. The spirit gives the doctor the ability.
The ability to do bad is also a good thing, but only in certain instances.
My job is to guide them in the directions that they should work,
in which place they should sit to conduct rituals, to whom they should help
and to whom they should harmonize (harmonize is to heal).
Guarding against sickness which you can see coming from afar,
and blocking its access. Our being tells us which plants to cover ourselves with
so that the illness can’t affect us.
….this is the orientation work of the doctors
which we’ve been doing since the beginning of the project 12 years ago.
Aldemar Tombé
student of dreams (CEFIC-LAM)
I’m going to talk about the images we see with the eye
for us, there exists one type of image
which correlates with physical, tangible things
and another type of image that is
not tangible but to our physical eyes
they are equally vivid, represent beings
equally vivid, to some people those beings
that aren’t tangible don’t exist because they aren’t physical beings
but to us they are alive
to us everything is alive
those beings we call Ksxa’w
and they appear before our eyes
through images
these images allow us to communicate and
establish a relationship with them
yes, I’ve seen images
I’ve seen lots of images, they exist
If I claimed the contrary I’d be lying
those beings, whether tafxi or tutxhi aren’t tangible
they appear, and one communicates with them
contact can be made while dreaming (asleep)
or through direct contact (sight)
these beings never die, they are always there
and when they communicate with a person
it is during an entire lifetime, from birth to death
(following words by Rosalba Ramos)
you can dream that a serpent bites you
the serpent that bites is a The Wala, a doctor
but not one that devotes himself to healing people
but one who devotes himself to hurting people
the viper symbolizes him
if you have this type of dream you should cleanse yourself
you should rise early and bath or clean yourself with a hot coal
or drink a lot of water when you wake up
or pour a lot of water on your head
….these actions fend off, recoil
so the evil which tries to come close
is driven off….. it withdraws
when a dream is a warning
of coming danger and you do absolutely nothing
you then become predisposed to being affected
by other unknown forces
as true Nasas, if you
believe in the messages that come from dreams
and practice reciprocity
Nature will smile upon you
we hear the sound of thunder on a hill
and we hear the replies from other hills
we hear how they speak… one thunder communicates with another
I should speak with the same knowledge as the thunder
that is why we aren’t reluctant to speak anywhere
anyplace, or amongst Whites
I am a woman who has no fear to speak, like Nasa
I know how to heal, I have the wisdom to create order
like we women do when we spin yarn
it’s like knitting the Jidra de Cabuya in public spaces
I’ve said all of this so that women who hear me
will be able to think like me
you tend to feel debilitated when you feel that you aren’t
supported by the community in the fight
but one thinks with great force
…..like a small flame
even though it is small
it can become very powerful at a given point
there are people who would like to put out this flame
and then the flame appears to be out, but it isn’t
in an instant it lights back up
one thinks of the fight like this flame
when a woman speaks about these things
and also practices the knowledge of the The Wala
some people say bad things, but it isn’t like that….
our knowledge is used to protect these same people
so if we are stricken by illness
or natural occurrences like avalanches
or floods, heavy rains…..we
have to expel the illnesses, the negative
(following words by Aldemar Tombé)
these images which appear
can be compared to a family
(the translator does not differentiate between “image” and “spirits”)
the Ksxa’w and their images are like a family
where the young and the old respect each other
the elders send the youngest Ksxa’w
to be with the newborns
these Ksxa’w are in charge
of guiding the newborns during its life
and the Ksxa’w carry out their mission
they have specific names
but I can’t speak about those names now
because I don’t have permission
….all these things in western thought
….don’t make any sense, they are very different
because they only differentiate between dead or alive
(following words by Rosalba Ramos)
when one (as a doctor) is working at
her job (ritual work) ….
images appear, when this happens
these images help to
make ritual work better
when one speaks about these images seen
some Nasa say that they are illusions
but I as The Wala have no illusions, I see
and speak about the images that I’ve seen
what I speak about what comes from “the seeing”….
to see images that come from the wise elders
I’m talking about communication with them, that is “to see”
to see is a way to communicate with the elders
to manage knowledge involves understanding
the body and its languages, this is in order
to interact, to manage knowledge,
and to understand better
(the The Wala is an instrument from Mother Nature
for good or bad) Abelardo Ramos
when we do other kinds of work
there appears other kinds of images
during this conversation with this gentleman
I’ve talked about these images
of these symbols, because I was asked
with the elders you communicate as if
you were physically speaking with a person
you exchange things with them
in this way we wish to live the Nasa life
we have the capacity to bring about
this type of very interesting communication
maybe you also reach
these kinds of levels of communication
many who have gone about to destroy
these levels of communication are indigenous people themselves
a lot of you have heard of these types of knowledge
but I think some choose to forget them
while others don’t bother to value them
so it isn’t possible to establish good bases for relationships
to establish stable and firm bases
you need to be interested in these ways of thinking
(following words by Rogelio Chute)
In this way, if I see a tiny person who is wearing a hat,
an elder, he is telling us that it is our grandfather
that is going to give us our powers. From there one has
to use their own will to become someone important in life.
This master from the time that you see him gives you powers,
responsibilities and he will give us dreams.
From that point on, you don’t need to sleep while helping the community.
If you have this vision then you don’t need to sleep hardly at all.
You have to sit in order to pay the elder because he asks
for something in return. And I have to have a lot of faith in him
to be able to ask him for remedies for sicknesses.
As I said it is mother nature, our gods which will tell us if you
are going to serve or not.
Or if not, the elder Thunder will caress you, will strike you….
here the power is being given to Him so he can continue to work.
(if one is hit by lightning and survives, you will have special powers)
The elders say that they are the ones who are the most powerful
in working with the community and with anything to do with the Colombian territory.
If I want to be a doctor, I have to have a strong will. But if I have the desire to learn but the spirit doesn’t show me the way and it gives me nothing…..so it doesn’t matter if you want it…. it doesn’t give you the power.
With dreams and with el Cateo one increasingly feels things, doing more and more work in the area where one wishes to work.
What is an El Cateo, may I ask?
El Cateo is the sign that I receive (which is given to one)… for example, if I pick this plant and I am “sentado” sitting (thinking) of a certain problem, then I Cateo that a certain remedy is right for this problem. So, let’s say that I receive the signs on the right side. So in this case it will work for me….. but if I receive the signs on the left then it won’t work for me.
From the time that one is in the mother’s womb you already know who will be the protecting spirit; whether it’s the moon spirit, the mountain spirit…or an elf who accompanies us and is always with us. They make us dream, it is them who make us dream, because you already possess….him….how do you say the name?..... the father or the mother who connects to nature. They are the ones who warn us. But if I don’t believe in them, they get very sad because they have been here with us since the time one has been in the mother’s womb, and they don’t want to force us into believing in them.
I’m going to sleep (dream), I take my preparations, my fresh plants, I bathe, and I go into my ritual, and this makes me sleep dream, and I can travel wherever I wish, discover other places, you can go exactly where you wish….large doors open to you.
If you take me to Spain, and you take me to a sacred place which is adored by your elders, I will
By Xavi Hurtado
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