Yadiko Uruk – Children of Tobacco, Coca and Sweet Cassava

Corregimiento La chorrera, Amazonas

Corregimiento La chorrera, Amazonas

We are a town council called Milan, located two hours downriver from La Chorrera in Colombia as you can see in the map at the top of this post. Most of us don't know about the use of technology, but it is a must for us, in order to record our songs and to spread the word about our Yadiko ritual, so that it reaches other people. Because Yadiko has healing powers. It cures the stone, the plants, the children, the elder, a world war and anything considered as detrimental to the environment.

Through our word for dance, ‘Yadiko’, its empowerment and the bilingual recollection, we will set up a database with our traditions and heritage. The process can be carried out from already existing records that contains the thoughts of our ancestors and forefathers. Besides that, we will produce new content about our lifestyle and about our thoughts and culture, such as music, mode of farming and agriculture, housing, hunting and fishing methods, cooking and food preparation.

This activity will allow us as well to preserve our traditions and safeguard them for our children who will live with inevitable technological context. We believe that new digital technologies are not detrimental to our culture, but are tools that bridge distances and abolish geographical barriers and geopolitical conditions. This way, if our traditions are visible and exposed to the world, we can guarantee that our territory will be preserved.

This is our coordination team:

  • Ever Giralgo Kuiru Naforo
  • Juan Augusto Kuiru Naforo
  • Miguel Angel Kuiru Naforo
  • Calisto Kuiru, propietario de la Maloka.

Our children and youth also represent an important part of the community, and with them we count in total 121 members.

The beneficiaries will be all the members of the town council and netizens of the world as well, who will be able to access our content and get to know about us.

Chorrera1

Jibina, dɨona, farekatofe urikɨ – 
The children of tobacco, coca, and sweet cassava

The Uitoto linguistic family belongs to what today is known as the people of the Center or Children of tobacco, coca and sweet cassava, scattered on the riverbanks of Caquetá, Caraparaná, Putumayo, Igaraparaná and Amazonas Rivers (Leticia e Iquitos). The reasons for that scattering lie in the criminal activities developed by Casa Arana through rubber extraction and the various illegal booms (tigrillada, drug trafficking and lumber).

Our linguistic family is composed by seven ethnolinguistic groups: Uitoto, Ocaina, Nonuya, Bora, Miraña, Muinane, Andoque. Ours belong to the Uitoto group which in turn is divided into four dialects: mɨnɨka, mɨka, búe and nɨpode meaning litterally: “What is it?” However, the term “Uitoto”, however, is stranger to our culture and originates from the ‘’karijona’’ language, and means ‘’Canibal Ant’’

Yadiko uai

Kaɨ Jitómagaro atɨa dɨbenedo.
Bie mei ua moo uai, arera
Uikonide, iemo ɨkoɨfenide
Jiaɨno atɨa dɨbenedo ite
Yadiko uai.

Bie mei baɨna uzumamo
komuide rafue uai.
Dama e jenua baɨmo,
Dama e nɨkaɨa baɨmo
Eri jobide,
Nabefue moo mona.

Dɨnona baɨ kue jɨaɨe uzumamo
afe rafuedo biya,
ua dai kue jiaɨe uzuma afe rafue atɨa.
Dai baɨ kue moo
afe uai yɨnoga.

Meita afemɨe fɨnoka
yadiko rafue iraɨnomo.
iadɨ afe rafue atonomo fɨebide
e tɨiya meinori.

Iadɨ mei kaɨmo
Afe uaiyaɨna fɨebite.
Afe rafue uai
jeire oyena
bie fɨnodɨkue.

Kaɨ naɨraɨ komekɨ
jiyotayena,
Kaɨmataiyena
jietayena.

Yadiko nɨ rafuenɨaɨ mona
ɨere aiyono.
Nɨ moo nanoide jito.
Bie rafue bini ñue
uiñoyena fɨnoka.
Nana kadɨkaɨ ñue iyena
Afe uaiya ite.
Meita jamanomo jitairede.
Afe rafuemo aiyo guye ite,
Jibie, yera,
ñue komɨnɨ kaimataiyena aiyo iga
Ua rua royena afemo
Ñue kaɨ jiyoiyena.
Moo uaiza.
Fɨenidɨnona iñede
Nana kaimafue.

Yadiko uai
The word of yadiko

This is how we bring it, the Jitómagaros.
This is the word of the Moo, extensive
It doesn’t have a starting poiint nor an end
Others have another form of bringing
the word of Yadiko.
Because even before our forefathers
this word of dance was born
At the end, alone he found it
At last, alone he ended up drunk
he got adjusted
Directly from the Moo.
Thereafter, my other grandfather
came with that word of dance
so my other one brought this dance.
Hence after my father
Took that word
and therefore did perform
The Yadiko dance for the last time
so this race remained in the middle
following his death
However,
These words remained in us
This word of dance
to cheer it up
i am doing this
so that the heart of our people
gets cured,
rejoiced,
and enjoy working
The Yadiko dance
is the most important
it is the eldest son of the Moo
This dance is performed
to well preserve this land
so that all beings do well
This is why this word exists
This is why it is quite necessary
In this dance there is plenty of food
Coca plant, tobacco plant
So that people rejoice,
there is enough
so that we all heal.
This is the world of the Moo
Evil doesn’t exist
All is joy and happinness

Translation from Spanish by Thalia Rahme.

Start the conversation

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.