CITAS

Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians will join the International Day of the World´s Indigenous People

On the 9^th of August the documentary made by Hernán Vilchez will be available to watch for free all over the world at www.huicholesfilm.com

The documentary has subtitles in seven different languages: English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Czech and Spanish.

Mexico City- August 6, 2015- Since the premier in May 2014 of the independent documentary Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians, the producers Paola Stefani and Hernán Vilchez trusted that exhibiting the film on the internet would assist the spiritual and political struggle of the Wixárika (Huichol) people to protect life in Wirikuta and in the whole Earth. This through maximizing the number of people who would be able to access the film as well as the resources that could fund the production, promotion and distribution costs.

Since May 2014 the documentary has been rented on Vimeo 1,756 times in more than 55 countries. The countries where it has been watched more times are: Mexico, United States, Canada, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Argentina and Australia.

The way the documentary has been exhibited independently has been considered a success. We have presented it widely in Mexico as well as in three international tours in the United States, Europe and South America. More than 30,000 people have watched the film all over the world.

For the international day of the world´s indigenous people, declared by the United Nations (UN) in 1994, the producers will give free access to watch Huicholes: the last peyote guardians since 8:00 a.m. 9^th of August to 8:00 a.m. 10^th August (Time of Mexico City) with the purpose of reaching out to more people so that they know about the defence of Wirikuta.

This year´s theme for the international day of the world´s indigenous people is to guarantee the wellbeing and health of indigenous peoples. This theme is not foreign to the case of Wirikuta since mining activity is considered as a highly polluting industry, for which it is urgent to make known the impact of these activities to the environment and people.

Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians can be seen on the 9^th of August free of charge at: http://www.huicholesfilm.com

The Last Peyote Guardians in London

by Richard Arghiris –May 13, 2015

The award-winning ‘Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians’ screened in London last night to a full house.

At SOAS. London

Two indigenous Huichol shamans from western Mexico met a packed lecture theatre at the University of London’s School of Asian and Oriental Studies (SOAS) last Tuesday night, where the audience enjoyed a screening of the intimate and urgent ‘Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians’.

Playing rustic violins and guitarritas – sacred instruments that are ever-present in Huichol ritual life – Enrique Ramírez Ramírez and Juan José Ramírez García entered the stage attired in traditional Huichol costumes, including white trousers and tunics embroidered with emblems of their culture: peyote, maize and deer. The audience was invited to participate in a ritual blessing that called on the five Huichol cardinal points before the film’s director, Hernán Vilchez, opened the screening.

Shot between the rugged sierras of the Huichol homeland and their five places of spiritual pilgrimage, the Last Peyote Guardians proved to be a fascinating and ambitious odyssey into the complex cultural landscape of Mexico’s ‘purest’ indigenous people. Known as the Wixárika in their own language, the Huichol claim pre-Toltec ancestry and an unbroken living tradition said to be more than two millennia old. Unlike many other Mexican cultures whose cosmovisions were diluted or destroyed by overzealous Catholic missions, the Huichol guard a form of untainted pre-Columbian mysticism rooted in the worship of land and nature. Pantheistic and animistic, their spiritual life orbits around the collection, cultivation, consumption, and reverence of Lophophora williamsii – the hallucinogenic peyote cactus native to Mexico, whose visions teach, bond and connect the Huichol with their ancestors and guardian spirits.

During its two hour running time, The Last Peyote Guardians supplies an astonishingly personal document of Huichol cultural life, including scores of startling scenes never before captured by outsiders. Punctuated with otherworldly songs, chants and ritual dances, footage of an all-night peyote vigil dedicated to the light of dawn marks the stunning visual climax of Vilchez’s highly aesthetic work.

Such images are entirely thanks to a collective decision by the greater Huichol community to open their doors to the media in an effort to raise awareness and solidarity. Starting in 2011, the Mexican government has granted some 78 mining concessions in and around the ore-filled deserts of Wirikuta, an ecologically diverse stretch of arid wilderness sprawled at the foot of the sierras near the crumbling colonial town of Real de Catorce. Here, the desert’s the fragile cacti garden is the land where the beloved peyote blooms – the holiest of holy sites in the annual Huichol pilgrimage.

Thus the Last Peyote Guardians is not simply a treasure of anthropological inquiry, but a vital record of social and political struggle. Bolstered by an army of experts and interviewees on all sides, Vilchez explores a thorough and almost sprawling range of themes as he narrates the Huichol’s efforts to protect their ancestral heritage: the economic benefits of mining versus its environmental impacts; the sacred and profane in the pursuit of profit; the destructive nature of neoliberal economics; sustainable development; modernity and cultural tourism; to name a few. At the end of two hours, viewers are confronted with their own contribution (or lack of) to the state of the planet – what are you doing for nature, asks Vilchez.

Beafore the screening at SOAS. London

The screening in London last Tuesday was not without problems: the start was delayed by 30 minutes due to a technical hitch, and later, less than half-way through, a tripped fire alarm caused the entire building to be evacuated until the fire brigade arrived (‘there are strong energies in this city’, joked Vilchez, adding that the previous night’s screening had had to be cancelled due to a technical problem). Nonetheless, the audience remained patient to the end, when they were rewarded by a Q and A with Vilchez and José Ramírez.

Questions ranged from ‘do you let foreigners take the pilgrimage’ to ‘what are the best ways to support you in your struggle?’ One of the most intriguing responses came from Ramírez as he explained why, according to Huichol thought, nature had bestowed humanity with powerful plants such as peyote.

“It is like food and water.” Said Ramírez, translated into English by Vilchez. “Five days without that and you don’t have energy. Spiritually, it gives you the essence… these are the tools the earth gives us to connect to the essence… to realise that we are all temples, each one of us, we are temples…

“This is the seed of the essence of what is contained in the earth. The plants come from this essence, all the plants of certain use. The bees are carrying pollen and fertilising the flowers and bringing all this mixture of herbal knowledge that is contained in the earth. The peyote and the other sacred medicines are like the essence contained and concentrated. They are very old plants.

We are connectors, antennas between the sky and the earth… for humanity there are no frontiers, we are all one. There are no borders and we all have to check that from our own temple… each one of us is important in this big network.”

Vilchez and his companions have a few more stops on their UK tour, including a Stonehenge ceremony on Thursday 14 May and a screening in Leeds on Friday 15. For the latest news, see their website,https://huicholesfilm.com/en/ or their Facebook page,https://www.facebook.com/HuicholesTheLastPeyoteGuardians. If you can’t make it to a live event, the documentary is also available to watch online: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/huicholesfilm

Source: http://unseenamericas.com/2015/05/the-last-peyote-guardians-in-london/

Life Accord in Wirikuta – Productive and Cultural Projects

We are very proud to share with all of you the effort of a  very important number of civil organizations who are working in Wirikuta.

The Wixárika people since the very beginning of the movement has shown its concern about the living conditions of the inhabitants of Wirikuta; their concern is both for the present as well as for the future, and particularly if mining companies work in their territory.

For many years, a bunch of organizations and private initiatives have started productive and cultural projects in the region with the aim of developing and strengthening sustainable alternatives for the inhabitants of the Bajío and the hills of Catorce. These alternatives want to raise the living standards, to reinforce the social fabric and to preserve the natural environment of the region- unique in the world in terms of biodiversity.

What we call today LIFE ACCORD is the intertwining of people, communities, organizations and projects that have the following guidelines:

• Culture
• Exchange of knowledge
• Environment
• Tenement and food sovereignty
• Conscious and participative tourism
• Conscious businesses
• Community health
• Culture of saving and self-financing
• Human rights

The strengthening of the social structure of the area we have so far seen is an incentive to continue to search for new technologies, capacitation and support form other organizations to attain a healthy relation between the inhabitants, pilgrims and environment of Wirikuta.

You can download english and spanish Life Accord document from our Dropbox.

Plkease, read, support and share. Thanks

Huicholes film lands in Vancouver amidst promises canadian mining companies will change

Nov 18, 2014 (COAST SALISH TERRITORY/VANCOUVER) ––Canada’s government last week promised renewed protection for communities facing Canadian mining companies, as a film tour of the Wixárika (Huichol) People of Mexico made its way to Vancouver to give its own report on Vancouver mining companies.

The film Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians is an award-winning documentary presenting the emblematic case of the defense of Wirikuta, sacred territory to the Wixárika (Huichol) people, against the threat of Vancouver mining companies First Majestic Silver and Revolution Resources (now IDM Mining LTD). The Wixárika people, native to the Sierra Madre, have since time immemorial made their pilgrimages to this land; now they find themselves at the forefront of a campaign to protect life and defend lands, thanks in part to Canada’s lax approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Minister for International Trade Ed Fast announced on Friday that Ottawa will start punishing resource firms that break social-responsibility rules abroad. It is still industry-led however, and media watchers suggest it is no more than more social-washing. “There is ample evidence of the government’s failure to take seriously the issue of Canadian companies’ impunity for human rights abuses abroad,” states Irwin Oostindie, with W2 Media, the local event producer. “After years of consulting with industry and a year without anyone filling the vacant CSR post, today the feds claim the start of transparency and results. This appears to be spin,” said Oostindie.

Mining and human rights critics are concerned that Canada has abandoned the Indigenous and local communities which have been negatively impacted by Canadian companies abroad and which have sought redress through a Canadian process. Representatives of impacted communities in Mexico will be in Vancouver Nov 28-30, 2014, for a weekend of education presentations and visits to First Nations communities. First Majestic Silver and Revolution Resources (now IDM Mining LTD) — at the centre of the controversy—purchased underground mineral rights in Wirikuta.

The Western Canadian premiere screening will be Friday, Nov 28, at SFU Woodward’s 350-seat Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema. Argentine director Hernan Vilchez and two Mara’kate (Huichol spiritual leaders), the father and son protagonists, will be in Vancouver for three events and a ceremony with Sundance Chief Reuben George (Tsleil-Waututh). Local hosts include S.F.U. Institute for Humanities, Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival, and W2 Media.

The documentary speaks about an uneven and controversial fight, which stimulates the complex global debate between ancestral cultural values, the exploitation of nature and community self-determination in the face of imposed models of ‘development.’

“This documentary combines stunning cinematography with engaged and compassionate storytelling to bring an underrepresented tale of resistance to Canadian audiences,” said Ezra Winton, co-founder of Montreal’s Cinema Politica, host for the Montreal screenings.

“This is more than a movie – it’s a movement,” said Vilchez, the film’s director, who received the request to make the movie from the Wixárika Elders’ Council when he visited a remote mountain community on a different assignment. Vilchez left his job and took the challenge, following the deeply spiritual Huichol people for more than three years. Together with the production crew he interviewed more than 30 individuals, documenting the growing storm as a movement swelled in Mexico’s civil society to support the Huicholes in their quest to save the Birthplace of the Sun.

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