La Machi

For centuries, the Mapuche people of Chile have been guided by medicine women called machi. They invoke the Powers, prophesy, heal, and lead blessing ceremonies. A machi enters sacred space by chanting, drumming on the kultrun, and by mounting the rewe, a tree-hewn ladder carved with ancestral images. The great composer Violeta Parra sang of a machi who stopped an endless rain from destroying the harvest. Machis still flourish, and stand up for the sovereignty of the Mapuche, "people of the land."