Shaman Aracá holds the frogs from which the poison is extracted to apply the kambó, a natural medicine that regenerates the immune system
“To connect with oneself, to be able to be free, grow and remember what we do here , it is necessary to feel Nature”, the photographer tells me Patxi Uriz , regular contributor to Conde Nast Traveler and co-director of this documentary with Axel O'Mill that brings together the testimony of shamans, druids, alchemists and herbalists.
The last thing we had heard about Patxi was that he came and went traveling to the Amazon contacting all kinds of wise men (and women): those who are capable of healing with what Mother Earth gives us . His intention was to make an informative documentary about medicinal plants with the idea of preserving them, and at that time (I am talking about more than a year ago), he already had the well-deserved support of the Government of Navarra.
Rapeseed fields next to the hermitage of Eunate, in Navarra
Today the project is finished and was presented in June at Casa de América. In fact, one of his most ardent collaborators, Ricardo Awanach, a shaman of the Ecuadorian Xuar ethnic group , who had accompanied him with the "indiomentaria" during the presentation at the Filmoteca de Navarra and at Casa América, had died (or "had packed his suitcase" as the bearer of the news metaphorically explained by telephone). The sad event took place three days after the long-awaited presentation of the documentary in Madrid.
Apart from this farewell (a coincidence that could not be such, but rather a mission accomplished), the documentary had begun its journey through the circuit of national and international festivals and it was beginning to reap successes (Zaragoza Film Festival, among others).
It was not be for lowerly. More than 150 hours of recording in five different countries and cultures summarize how natural medicine is a World Heritage Site, which is being attacked by large pharmaceutical laboratories, "which send their best technicians to the jungle to learn the properties of medicinal plants with shamans, to later synthesize and patent these active principles”, without practically noticing.
In addition, "these drugs have many side effects while medicinal plants lack these effects . It is not that we say that chemical medicine is bad, simply that natural medicine should be a complement to this medicine. But the hypocrisy of the system, which protects the interests of the pharmaceutical industry prevents us from having access to this knowledge ”.
The shaman Josefina Chávez, professor of medicine and naturopathy at the University of Michoacán
It all started in 2011, when Patxi received “an invitation to make a photography book on medicinal plants from the Iberian Peninsula and the Amazon”. However, the idea had already crossed his mind some time ago, during the days and nights he spent doing the ** Camino de Santiago –from St Jean de Pied de Port to Finisterre–** “a path that in its day it was a pilgrimage and passage to adulthood, considered as a stage of spiritual maturity”.
Seeing the interest that she had aroused with her story, Patxi continued: “The druids They came from Celtic Europe, they made the Camino de Santiago to Finisterre and it was the journey to the end of the known Earth. for them it was a kind of master's degree both spiritually and in the vast knowledge of medicinal plants. The people, aware of that, he took the sick to the road to be cured ”. The seed of this informative need ended up germinating when an anonymous naturopath and botanist, a university professor in São Paulo, proposed that he write a book on medicinal plants. During their meetings and his travels, he related all kinds of experiences with "the wise men of the jungle" . “He and his wife had bought some land in the Amazon to preserve certain species of plants” and they were very loved and respected by the shamans. “That is to say, they had all the contacts and the way to reach them”, concludes Patxi.
Celebration of the Gorset (spring equinox) by the Mogor Druid Order
“The documentary began by being called Navazonia for that symbiosis between the medicinal plants of Navarre and the Amazon . As we drove around we saw that there were many more prophets, children of the earth , who generously passed on their knowledge, such as druids and alchemists here in Europe. In fact, we renamed the documentary Druids and Shamans. But, during the editing, we discovered more and more people who worked and knew the rhythms of the Earth, and finally we believed that the title Children of the Earth it really encompassed everyone.”
Among the fourteen interesting personalities who participate in the documentary, are the renowned ethnobotanist John Plants, a wise man from Madrid who shares his knowledge from his farm in La Vera, in Cáceres; ** Josep Pamies ,** the father of stevia, or the great druid Terry Dobney, who lives in Avebury, England.
At this point in the conversation with Patxi Uriz, it was time to examine one's conscience, Patxi added: “The human being cannot prosper by violating the natural laws to which he is subjected. We are in a moment of emergency in which either we stop and become aware that we are children of the earth, or we will go from bad to worse”. It is evident that materialism and the stress to which society subjects us distance us from nature and awareness. But once we see the documentary, maybe we will feel the call from him: “ We live with our backs to nature without realizing that we exploit it voraciously”.
The great Druid Terry Dobney, who lives in West Kennett, Avebury
CHILDREN OF THE EARTH (Trailer) Español, English, Français, Português from Patxi Uriz on Vimeo .
CHILDREN OF THE EARTH will be presented february 4 in the Sala Nueve Norte (C/ del Norte, 9), in the neighborhood of Malasaña, Madrid, within the Cycle of Cineclub Carlos Velo –themes related to the rural environment and the recovery of the material and immaterial memory of the peoples of the world–.
_ Article published on January 22, 2015; updated on January 12, 2016_*
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Shaman of the Guarani ethnic group
Ricardo Awanach, medicine man of the Amazonian Xuar ethnic group