The Condor and the Eagle

The story of the Condor and the Eagle is an ancient prophecy told by Indigenous Communities in all North, Central, and South America. Their ancestors, Knowledge Keepers of this Earth, foretold a time when people from the four directions of the world would come together to heal the masculine and feminine energies that are imbalanced and harming our Mother Earth.

This prophecy, where the Condors are the protectors of the lands in the South and the Eagles protect the North, was demonstrated to attendees of Photographers Without Borders Storytelling School Colombia by Buntkua Yari Maku (image above), Knowledge Keeper of the Muysca Fowe Indigenous Community in Fomeque, just East of modern day Bogota, Colombia. He continues to explain to us, “the North is now marked and consumed by the extractive energies of colonization, or masculine energies, and has lost sight of its agreement with their land, the feminine energy, and continues harming the Earth instead of protecting it.” The coming together of the South and the North, the Condors and the Eagles, prophecy says, “will grow a mutual collaboration and renewed relationship with the land, bringing healing to what is broken.”

The Muysca Confederation inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyacense (a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes) long before the Spanish empire dispatched the conquistadores in 1537. Bogotá, originally called Muyquyta by the Muysca, was the center of their civilization, sustaining a large portion of the inhabitants of this Confederation.

Their territory spanned around 25,000 kilometers squared, from the north of Boyaca to the Sumapaz Paramo and to the western portion of the Eastern Ranges. At the time of the Spanish invasion, the area had an estimated population of three million inhabitants. Their economy was based on agriculture, salt mining, trading, metalworking and manufacturing.

The conquistadores, funded through the Catholic church, conquered and settled modern day Bogotá on August 6, 1538, and due to this Spanish colonization, the population of the Muysca drastically decreased to less than 4,000 people.

The Wiwa Nation, residing in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, a monumental mountain range that still exists today in northern Colombia. Their nation refers to themselves as the Elder Brothers to the People on Earth. They are one of the few Indigenous peoples that have had almost no contact with outsiders, along with the Kogui, Arhuaco and Kankuamo Nations. The nations that exist within these mountains have traditions that are well over 2,000 years old, with languages much older than Latin itself.

Both the Muysca and Wiwa Nations are being faced with attempts from the Colombian government to overthrow their Indigenous Governments as well as their protected territories. This is the reason as to why Buntkua aims to reclaim lands between the Muysca and the Wiwa Nations. Specifically, lands that have been deeply affected by deforestation.

“The north is now a colonized world,” says Buntkua, “taking too much from the Earth and not giving back. Turning what is taken into cars, technology, cameras, etc., that are all made from hot metal that cannot be replaced after you melt it. This way of life takes a lot of energy away from the Earth. This way of life was learned from the colonizers who created the Western World and has taken over the North.”

“Every time someone uses a single-use plastic item the Earth knows this and begins to cry,” Buntkua further explains while walking carefully alongside craters of collapsing earth and half-sawed trees. He comments, “You see the ground, our Mother Earth, has been scarred for life. When you take from the Earth and use the resources for things that cannot be replaced, the Earth starts to die.”

Kata Azerah, wife of Buntkua and protector of land and the Muysca traditions, teaches visitors about creating an established agreement with nature: “The land that you live on should provide you food, shelter, water and everything else you need to survive. What you take from the Earth should be given back to the Earth in a healthy cycle of planting seeds for generations to come.” Kata continues, “the Earth listens to what I need and she provides me with the healthy foods that feed my family. I listen to her and give her the seeds that she wants after we harvest. When we take, we also give back so that Mother Earth can continue to give us life.”

Sadly, planting seeds for the future is a very hard concept for the colonized world to grasp, as we as a society have lost our connections with the Earth and are no longer listening to our Mother. But Kata’s teachings remind us that every time we take home-grown knowledge and wisdom from the Earth—the fruits and vegetables—a seed is replanted so that more can come in the future.

Kata also mentions a barrier between the visitors and the Muysca that resembles the barriers that now exist between the North—the colonized world—and the Earth. “We have a language barrier where I cannot understand you and you cannot understand me. We are like two birds—the Eagle and the Condor. Our language is different, but we can understand why we are both here: to talk about Mother Earth and what we have to do to save her. Even if you cannot understand what I am saying, you can understand my energy and my intentions. The same goes for Mother Earth. If you listen closely, you can feel her when she is in pain or when she is happy. It is like the way I am speaking to you.” By building a true relationship with the Earth, we can start listening to the words of our mothers and bring life to our ancestral traditions on the planet.

“In order for us to keep our ancestral culture alive, we must at all costs do what needs to be done to pay respect to those who lived before us. Those who are the original protectors of Mother Earth,” Buntkua explains during a visit to the Museo del Oro in Bogotá. On display, the Golden Quimbaya Poporos that were once looted from Indigenous tombs in the early 1900s by Spanish Invaders.

As such, the Muysca and Wiwa communities continue their traditions of using the Poporo, a pre-Columbian ceremonial device for the chewing of coca leaves. The Poporo is made out of a hollowed out gourd-like plant which stores a white like phosphorus powder within it. By using the Poporo, the Muysca and Wiwa contribute their knowledge, current thoughts, emotions and feelings back to the Earth because they believe that wisdom and knowledge in their DNA is to be passed down through conversations, meditations and rituals that are then painted on the outside of the Poporo.

“Whenever men ponder something in life, like how to become a better provider for their family, they get their information from the materials inside of the Poporo, the crushed phosphorus. The minerals inside of the Poporo are formed from the energy of Mother Earth, her ancient knowledge is then mixed with our own DNA—our saliva and the information is then painted on the outside of the Poporo, Buntkua explains. He continues, “…think of it like praying and then meditating on that prayer. For the Muysca and Indigenous communities of Colombia, the answers come from the Poporo. We do not need Google to tell us how to be good providers for our families. We have ancestral traditions that are passed down generation after generation.”

As illegal deforestation—carried out on land stolen from the Wiwa, Muysca and Colombia’s Indigenous peoples by corrupt government agencies, continues to run rampant, Bunktua also shares his visions of reforestation, as Colombia has lost 1.92 mega hectares of humid primary forest between 2002 and 2022, making up 39% of its total tree cover loss in the same time period.

Deforestation is also directly linked to the displacement of Indigenous Peoples in the country, as such, protecting the land becomes a pivotal point for Indigenous peoples to reclaim their territories. Thankfully, the seeds of the true protectors of the Earth are finding a way to grow, like a tree through the cracks—and just like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the Condor and the Eagle will come together so that the Earth, which was given to all of us, can be reclaimed by those sworn to protect her.

The Indigenous communities of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta are part of our Protectors of the Sacred initiative to make tangible impact with the stories we make for the communities we create with, as well as our partners for Storytelling School Colombia.

Learn more about our Protectors of the Sacred initiative and Storytelling School Colombia below: