First of all, the person who is writing this story is non-Indigenous, so all the views here reflected are from an outsider. I grew up in a small European town, totally unaware of who were the Indigenous Peoples of this world and, more importantly, what it means to be Indigenous. I ended up getting to know and growing close friendships with Indigenous People because, more than 10 years ago, after I finished my studies in biology, I decided to move to the tropics in Latin America. I ended up working in wildlife conservation in places where a significant part of the local population belonged to one or several Indigenous communities.
A journey towards indigenous wisdom
My first contact with an Indigenous community happened in the Peruvian Amazon, with the Ese Eja of the Madre de Dios department. I was arriving back then to support some research projects with harpy eagles and jaguars, and I didn’t know much about the rainforest but what I had read in books. So, one thing I constantly did was try to learn from people who had spent a lot of time in the jungle. When listening to dozens of advice, stories, and facts, other researchers and local guides were constantly mentioning one particular Ese Eja old man as a source of wisdom when talking about the ways of the rainforest.
I was told he knew how to find harpy eagle’s nests, track jaguars, and imitate the song of dozens of birds. I was told he could even smell the rain coming kilometers away from him. How come? I was so fascinated by this type of knowledge and skills. They seemed supernatural to me, a young man with just books in my head and very little practical experience about how the forest works.
I tried to meet him a few times, but he was always very busy, always surrounded by people learning from him. I remember the first time I saw him: short, wide shoulders and a very strong, wide back made his presence imposing, but what I remember the most was the wrinkles and lines on his face. Those facial expressions almost spoke for him, letting you know the myriad of experiences he must have undergone.
During my long three years in the Peruvian Amazon, I actually never gathered the courage to bother him and ask him all the questions I had in my head about the dwellers of the rainforest. He looked so unique and knowledgeable, his energy strong and blending with the jungle. I didn’t meet him, but he definitely sparked my curiosity about Indigenous People and their lives, and especially about their knowledge and skills related to Nature.
Discovering the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta
After my long Amazon experience, I moved to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. In this amazing, mysterious, and extremely biodiverse mountain range, there are 4 Indigenous groups thriving across its valleys, hills, rivers, and forests: the Kogis, Arhuacos, Wiwas, and Kankuamos. I arrived in Colombia, attracted by its insane diversity of birds. It is indeed the country of the world with the highest number of bird species. So, I decided to develop my own bird conservation project by working with several schools in the region.
Thanks to this, in a couple of months, I got in contact with one 19-year-old boy, Manuel, half Kogi, half Wiwa, who was also very interested in birds. We started to meet often to birdwatch and to become friends. Finally, I started to learn a little bit about the skills, knowledge and wisdom that had captured my attention for so long. Very soon, I started to realize the depth of his connection to the land.
It was a sunny day in Guachaca, a small village in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. My new friend Manuel came to visit me in my cabin near the Guachaca River. I needed some stones to mark the limits of my small garden, so I asked him to come down to the river to give me a hand to pick up some stones. Manuel nodded and started to walk toward the river. But when I was going to pick up the first rock, he asked me very seriously, “Hey, did you ask permission to the stone before you move it?” I looked back at him, half smiling, half confused. He read me and told me, “For real”. The half smile disappeared from my face, and full confusion took over.
I muttered, “ What do you mean by asking the stone for permission? ”. Manuel gave me a compassionate look, and he explained to me that rocks and stones have spirits and that they need to be asked permission before they are touched or moved. I mumbled a shocked “Ooohhh”. Without knowing very well what I was doing, I looked at the stone I wanted to take. I closed my eyes and asked the rock for permission. At the same time, I could hear my brain saying, “It’s just a rock; it’s not like it is alive or anything.”
I felt pretty silly at that moment while a 19-year-old boy was shattering all my previous understanding of Nature. After I finished trying to internally ask the stone for permission to move it, and I opened my eyes to grab it, Manuel asked me, “So, what did the stone say?”. Even though it looked obvious, I was not ready for that question. I put what must have been a funny face of “Kinda yes?” and Manuel laughed loudly.
The Indigenous Worldview of the Wiwa
Then, with time, living in the land and observing the land, you start realizing those small connections that make the world look the way it is. When it rains, or the wind hits the rock with sand or other particles, it erodes it, and part of the rock flows into the river as sediment. Then, this sediment deposits in the riverbank, for instance, or in the mangrove, where a tree will absorb it along with water to use the minerals contained in it to grow through photosynthesis, producing oxygen and storing CO2. Then the fruits of that tree may be eaten by an animal or yourself, who knows. The point is that something “non-alive” suddenly becomes “alive.” So, it may make sense to be considered and grateful to rocks and stones somehow.
For western people like me, this knowledge comes from books or from whatever your teacher tells you at school. But for Indigenous people, the knowledge that our existence is intertwined with every creature and with every non-alive entity in the world is something that comes from their own observation, from their own experience. They inherently hold a gratitude that allows them to establish a special bond with the land, a reciprocal relationship, where they acknowledge that they are part of that entity in some way (a stone, a plant, an animal) and vice versa.
The four Indigenous groups of the Sierra Nevada, as well as many indigenous people in the Americas, believe that we humans are equals with the rest of creatures and elements of the natural world; they are kindred relationships. That is what it means to be Indigenous. To be one with the Land, honor her, and nurture her with your actions, thoughts, and beliefs.
This is why is so unique to do a type of experience like Lost City with the Wiwa people. Because their understanding and knowledge of the land is vast, deep, and owned. They have been living in this land for thousands of years since they are descendants of the old Tayronas. They know the ways of the forest, they ways of the rivers, the ways of the sky. As we humans have been doing since the dawn of our species until the industrial revolution forced most of us into cities, the Wiwa people still grow in the forest, their children play in the river and climb trees, walk barefoot feeling the Earth and grow a bit portion of the food they eat.
They follow the moon to plant and gather to tell stories after the sun sets. They thank their mountains, forests and rivers through offerings and rituals, bringing awareness to their interdependence with the land, which they are also deeply connected with through the plants they use for medicinal and spiritual purposes. The coca plant, so mistreated and misused in Western countries, represents the divine feminine with which they meditate and connect with themselves, their ancestors, and their roots. The birds are not simple creatures that make up a bucket list of feathered beings, but messengers that deliver different kinds of advice, warnings, or information to those who can listen properly.
The Wiwa people of the Sierra Nevada know their way through the rainforest and will guide you to Lost City in the most authentic manner while they share the stories of their people about their sacred places and the connection to the plants and animals that appear on the trails. You have the unique opportunity to learn and explore through the jungle with the people from the jungle itself. It is theirs. Their Lost City.
The consequence of the Indigenous akin line of thinking, living, and believing with Nature is paramount because it means that their existence and survival are possible thanks to the soil, the water, the plants, and other fellow creatures. Therefore, they feel also responsible for their survival and possibilities for thriving. That’s why they understand the land as their home. And, of course, as anybody would do, they will do everything that it takes to protect their home. This is why such a high percentage of environmental leaders killed in the world are Indigenous.
Even though Indigenous People make up to 6% of the total population of the world, they represent 43% of the environmental guardians killed in 2023, and 70% of them were from Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and Honduras. Particularly, Colombia has become the deadliest country in the world for environmental activists.
This is why it is so important to have an experience like Lost City with the Wiwa people. Since Spanish colonization, their lands have been taken away from them.
By force and violence, they have been subject to a process of displacement for 500 years. The colonization process that started 5 centuries ago has been kept alive in modern times when people from the United States and other European countries started to buy massive pieces of land to establish the first large coffee properties in the Sierra, impeding the access of the Indigenous people to their original lands.
Since then, more and more Western citizens have been buying tracts of land in the Sierra Nevada, perpetuating the inability of the Kogis, Arhuacos and Wiwas to live where their ancestors once lived. Moreover, during the 20th century, an unknown number of Indigenous people died when trying to defend their ancestral lands from the armed groups that wanted their lands to grow coca and marihuana. We need to help them recover, take care and honor their lands. It is fair, and not just to them, but also to plants and animals. Indigenous people across the world are the ultimate guardians of life.
They hold the key to the most pristine and wild places on Earth. Indigenous communities have been recognized as protectors of approximately 80% of the world’s biodiversity. And you can support them in the stewardship of their lands when you do the Lost City tour with the Wiwa people.
Of course, there are other companies that can take you to do the Lost City tour. I am sure they do a fine job, too. And that is the point.
They are doing their job, because it is what it is. For the Wiwas, it is an honor for them to take you around what once was their home. It is their pride to share the stories of the magnificent Lost City with you. It is their blood that has been shed in the forests that you will go through to get there. Who can guide Teyuna better than the children of the people who once built it?
And that is why it is so appropriate to have an experience like Lost City with the Wiwa people.
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