{"id":373757,"date":"2023-03-18T10:27:32","date_gmt":"2023-03-18T09:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doogreporter.com\/newen\/"},"modified":"2024-12-31T08:49:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T07:49:04","slug":"newen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doogreporter.com\/en\/newen\/","title":{"rendered":"Newen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The indigenous peoples of the American continent define themselves essentially through their relationship with the land. Land is identity: past, present and future.The Mapuche people of the Araucan\u00eca-a region south of Chile where the largest percentage of the indigenous ethnic population is concentrated-embody and proudly defend all this. The very word Mapuche means “people of the land<\/em>“(mapu<\/strong> – land<\/em>; che<\/strong> – people<\/em>). And it is not the land understood purely as soil but extends to the whole Wallmapu<\/em>: the earth, the sky and its newen<\/em> (energy and spirits). The land represents, in the words of an indigenous activist, ‘the living pages of our unwritten history<\/em>‘ (P. Wearne).<\/p>\n\n

It is easy to understand how for this people, centuries and centuries of land expropriation mean more than ‘mere’ theft. They are a denial of their own identity.<\/p>\n\n

But the earth is also the one who heals, the one who through the figure of the machi<\/em> (which could imprecisely be translated as ‘healer<\/em>‘) provides remedies for alternative medicine therapies. Over the years, this medicine has been trying – not without difficulty – to make its way into even the most traditional circles. Rooted in their culture for thousands of years, and now also studied in some of the country’s medical school classrooms, Mapuche medicine is striking in its complexity and solidity. The machi<\/strong> is the pivot of all this (in most cases a woman): she is the bridge between Nature and human beings.<\/p>\n