From the Heart of the World, the Elder Brothers’ Warning – Dec. 10, 2008
Awareness Film Night Weds. Dec. 10 “From the Heart of the World, the Elder Brothers’ Warning”
The Kogi are an indigenous people living in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern Columbia in South America. They are the only civilization to have survived the Spanish conquests and kept their culture intact and themselves isolated. In 1988 the Kogi decided they must speak out to the rest of the world and so allowed a BBC journalist, Alan Ereira, to film a documentary about them. This visually enchanting film explores the culture and spiritual understanding of the Kogi, who call themselves the Elder Brothers of the human race, and brings a strong message to us “Younger Brothers” who are causing an ecological imbalance that is destroying the Earth. The Kogi “Mamas” or spiritual leaders, are chosen from birth and spend the first 9 years of childhood in a cave in total darkness learning the ancient secrets of the spiritual world. They are said to have memory of the beginning of time. The Kogi have survived by relying upon and looking after their mountain environment, “the heart of the world”. They could see that something was wrong with their mountain. The snow had stopped falling and the rivers were not so full. If their mountain was ill then the whole world was in trouble. Believing that our only hope is to change our ways, they have set out to teach us what they know. “We work to take care of the world….we do not cut down huge areas of forest like the Younger Brother does….If the Younger Brother keeps cutting down all the trees, there will be fires because the sun will heat the Earth….the Earth is decaying, it is losing its strength because they have taken away much petrol, coal, many minerals. Younger Brother, stop doing it! You have already taken so much. We need water to live…We’re still here and we haven’t forgotten anything.” This is an amazing documentary that is even more relevant today than it was 18 years ago when it was made, and 10 years ago when it was first screened at Awareness Video Night.
The evening will begin with a 10 minute film on Muir Creek. This beautiful and artfully-made visual tour of one of the Sooke area’s watersheds was created by local student Lisa Hamelin and other students from West Shore Centre for Learning and Training this year. Lisa will be in attendance, along with representatives from the Muir Creek Protection Society, to remind us that this area, which is home to magnificent trees and a wealth of flora and fauna, continues to require our efforts to protect it from destruction. The film night will start at 7 p.m. in the Edward Milne Community School theatre. Admission is by donation. Proceeds to Muir Creek Protection Society.
