Yurupari Jaguar Shamans are guardians of the Pirá Paraná sites, which are believed to contain spiritual energy that nourishes all living beings. It is practiced in the department of Vaupés, along the Pirá Paraná River where multiple ethnic groups live along with the mythical and cosmological structures of its traditional knowledge.
The Pira Paraná is located at the heart of a large area called the territory of the Jaguars of Yurupari, whose sacred sites contain unending spiritual energy that sustains all living things. Based on their sacred tradition, jaguar shamans follow a calendar of ceremonial rituals that draw the community together, promote healing, prevent sickness, and rejuvenate nature. There are songs and ritual dances to help the healing process.
The shamans' vital energy and knowledge are believed to originate from an anaconda who lived as a person, Yurupari, and to be embodied in sacred trumpets fashioned from palm trees. As part of the Hee Biki ritual, each ethnic group preserves its own Yurupari trumpets. The ritual involves the transmission of traditional guidelines for maintaining the health of the population and the territory as a part of their passage into adulthood. While the traditional knowledge in regards to childcare, pregnant women, and food preparation is passed from mother to daughter.
For more than 300 years, Pirá Paraná tribes have lived in intermittent contact with European colonists. Throughout the 20th century, pressures continued on traditional ways of life and spirituality, as well as the indigenous people's relationships with natural spaces. The emigration of young people to more densely-populated cities as a result of mining policies has had an impact on the lifestyle of the peoples of the Pirá Paraná, especially in terms of the management of natural resources and sacred sites. These threats threaten the viability of the knowledge systems.
An in-depth study of the process by which the Pirá Paraná people responded to these threats and successfully protected land, culture, and traditional knowledge is worthwhile. Furthermore, these efforts have led the Pirá Parana communities to engage in a series of exchange visits with African community leaders, who have visited the heart of the Colombian Amazon to witness the revitalization of traditional knowledge and the safeguarding of sacred natural sites.
As a result, on April 10, 2018, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a Decree of Non-Municipalized Areas which recognized the role of indigenous peoples and the environment. Communities of the Amazon Basin have been exerting considerable effort over the past 30 years to preserve and protect their cultures, spiritual practices, and sacred places.
References
(https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/traditional-knowledge-of-the-jaguar-shamans-of-yurupar-00574) (https://www.gaiafoundation.org/the-jaguar-shamans-of-the-pira-parana-river/)