Copyright 2000 Max Dashu
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 kultrún, 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."