The Kogi People - Elder Brothers of our World

Visions of the Rewilding Renaissance Media Reviews & Recommendations
#1

This is easily the most astonishing thing I ever saw, I urge, no, I BEG you to see this documentary!

The Kogi are an indigenous people living in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of northern Colombia, in South America.

They are the only civilisation to have survived the Spanish conquests and to have kept their individuality. They are perhaps the only indigenous people in the world who, because of the particular nature of their surroundings, have been able to keep themselves apart and sustain their culture inviolate. And not only that.

The one anthropologist who managed to study them in the 1940’s and 50’s concluded that though they are similar in some ways to the other Indian peoples around the Caribbean, northern Central America and south to the Andes, there are such profound differences that “in the end the Kogi stand alone”.

They have survived to this day, keeping their traditions and relying upon, and looking after, the mountain environment. They believe it is their duty to look after the mountain which they call “The Heart of the World”. They call themselves the Elder Brother and refer to the new- comers as the Younger Brother, who they believe is destroying the balance of the world.

In 1990 the Kogi decided they must speak out to the rest of the world. They had survived by keeping themselves isolated but they decided that it was time to send a message to the Younger Brother. They could see that something was wrong with their mountain, with the heart of the world. The snows had stopped falling and the rivers were not so full. If their mountain was ill then the whole world was in trouble.

http://www.onlinedocumentaries4u.com/2008/05/kogi-from-heart-of-world-elder-brothers.html

#2

That link leads to a site that seems to be for sale. For now, at least, here it is on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2tIVwGwiDc

Andy

#3

That link no longer works, instead you may use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vLaeenrGpY

#4

Here’s their message:

We work to take care of the world. We respect the Mother Earth…We know that the land is our Mother Earth.

If we plant an orange tree or any type of tree and then pull it up by the roots it will die. Digging out the earth’s gold is the same thing. It could die. We’ve all heard many stories that the world is dying. Why is it dying? It is because they have robbed so many tombs. The world is like a person. Robbing tombs, stealing its gold, it will die. We don’t take out the Earth’s gold. We know that it is there but we do not take it. We know from our divinations that the advice of the Mother is not to take the gold. We know where it is but we decide only to make offerings to it.

How is it that we are able to live? Without blood we cannot live and without bones we cannot walk. Here all the Mamas are in agreement about what it is we are going to say and how to speak. If I cut my foot off I cannot walk. When they (the Younger Brothers) dig into the earth and take its gold it is the same thing…Gold has its own thought and it can speak. It is a living being. They must stop stealing it.

If they take all the gold the world will end. The Mothers of the banana trees, of all the trees and of all the birds, they have all been stolen. They are cutting off the flesh of the Mother’s body. They have taken everything. They have stolen the spirits of all things from the Mother. They are stealing the very spirit and thought of the Mother…

It is the mountains that make the waters, the rivers and the clouds. If their trees are felled they will not produce any more water. We do not cut down the trees that grow by the rivers, we know that they protect the water. We do not cut down huge areas of forest like the Younger Brother does, we cut small clearings for our fields. The Mother told us not to cut down many trees, so we cut very few, tiny patches.

If the Younger Brother keeps cutting down all the trees, there will be fires because the sun will heat the earth…We are the Elder Brothers so we have to think clearly…

Younger Brother, stop doing it. You have already taken so much. We need water to live. Without water we die of thirst. We need water to live. The Mother told us how to live properly and how to think well. We’re still here and we haven’t forgotten anything.

The earth is decaying, it is losing its strength because they have taken away much petrol, coal, many minerals. Younger Brother thinks “Yes! Here I am! I know about the universe!” But this knowing is learning to destroy the world, to destroy everything, all humanity…

The Mother is suffering. They have broken her teeth and taken out her eyes and ears. She vomits, she has diarrhea, she is ill.

If we cut off our arms, we can’t work, if we cut off our tongue we can’t speak, if we cut off our legs, we can’t walk. That is how it is with the Mother. The Mother is suffering. She has nothing.

Does the Younger Brother understand what he has done? Does he?

#5

I’ve seen this documentary and it’s definitely a noteworthy message from those really in tune with Pachamama. My friend also made contact with the Kogi while in the peace corp and outside of the documentary they do NOT like outside visitors.