The Wayúu, Indigenous Peoples of Colombia

Travel is also about immersion in a culture, and in Colombia we’re talking about so many cultures, given the diversity of the population.

This is the beginning of our series on indigenous cultures in Colombia. We won’t be able to cover all 80 indigenous peoples on our travel blog, but we’ll try to tell you about some we know a little bit about.

While discovering Makuira Park, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to talk at length about Wayuu culture with Mayerli, a national park ranger and Wayuu guide.

Later we meet Lizandro, a Wayuu with whom we also shared a lot about Wayuu traditions.

Disclaimer: we apologize in advance for any grammatical or syntactic errors, as our native language is not English (we're a Colombian-French couple), so we hope you'll forgive us and still enjoy the information we share with you! Please note that all the information on our blog is based on our own experience, and is checked and updated regularly.

Contents

1. Cosmovision Wayuu

2. “Encierro”, Wayuu transition ritual

3. The clan system

4. The role of dreams among the Wayuu

5. The color red

6. The Yonna, sacred dance

7. The Wayuu Mochila

8. Sustainable tourism in the desert

9. Wayuu cultural immersion

Related posts

• Guajira desert tour
• Cabo de la vela
• Punta Gallinas
• La Macuira Natural Park
• Los Flamencos Reserve

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Cosmovision Wayuu

Indigenous people of La Guajira

Four “generations” succeeded one another to create the world:

• The first generation consists of the earth, rain, moon and sun
• The second generation, the trees
• The third, the animals
• The fourth, the Wayúu people.

At the beginning of time, Wolunka, daughter of Mother Earth and Rain, was the only woman on earth, but her vagina was impenetrable and she could not give birth.

While she was bathing in a river in today’s Makuira Park, Kashi (the moon) sent the “three formers” iipatuchon (heart of stone) and the Simirio twins to set a trap for her. They fired an arrow which destroyed the teeth at the entrance to her vagina, preventing her from procreating.

So Kashi and the 3 trainers mated with Wolunka, and Wolunka gave birth to the Wayuu people.

This legend may seem to have a direct connection with a very important ritual in Wayuu culture: the Encierro, which marks the arrival of the first menstrual period in young Wayuu girls.

“Encierro”, Wayuu transition ritual

Indigenous people of La Guajira

There are two periods in a Wayuu woman’s life: when she’s a little girl, and when she grows into womanhood.

When the girls become teenagers, they are locked up in a house in the rancheria to learn the ancestral knowledge needed to be a Wayuu woman. This is the Süttüsü Paülü’ü, the encierro, the confinement: a rite of passage with a symbolic character of cleansing the body and mind and learning about the world.

Traditionally, the young girl must remain locked up for a year, visited only by the women of the clan. Today, however, this ritual has been relaxed, and depending on the family, the duration can vary from a few months to a few weeks or even a few days.

During this period, she receives important elements of Wayuu tradition, including body care, a special diet to cleanse the body, practical training in weaving and cooking, and advice from the women of the family to prepare her for life as an adult and a Wayuu woman.

Before entering the house where she will remain locked up, the young girl must get rid of everything she owned to let go of her childhood spirit. Her hair is cut (previously, her entire head was shaved), and her clothes and shoes are removed.

The new hair that grows during the encierro symbolizes the development of this new life that the woman will begin to weave. The women of the family will teach her to weave, to weave mochilas, to weave chinchorros, to weave her life. During el encierro, she’ll finish weaving a chinchorro that will become the chinchorro she’ll use with her future husband.

The clan system

Wayuu, indigenous people of La Guajira

The woman is the pillar of the Wayuu community, which operates on a matrilineal system, meaning that filiation is through the mother’s blood. Inheritance of a name, membership of a clan and any possessions – everything comes through the mother, through the woman.

Wayuu society is also matrilocal, meaning that the man changes clan when he marries and joins his wife in her family.

In many ways, it’s also an avuncular society, meaning that the mother’s brother has a special role. It’s a bit complicated to explain, but for example, a man will consider his sister’s children as his children (from his clan), perhaps more than his own children, who belong to his wife’s clan.

To support this particular role of “maternal uncle/mother’s brother”, the one who settles conflicts within the community is the Pütchipüü, “the palabrero”, who must be the uncle on the maternal side of the clan.

The Wayuu are often referred to as a matriarchal society, but as far as I’m concerned, these characteristics are far removed from any notions of “power” that might justify the idea that this is a truly matriarchal society, on a par with a patriarchal society, where the man is all-powerful.

Wayuu society remains a macho society where it’s the woman who cooks, serves the man and so on.

But it is said that women are the leaders within the community and that men are its “representatives” to the outside world. And women also play the role of guardians of ancestral knowledge, in particular the all-important skill of weaving. Knowledge that she communicates during the encierro, in particular.

Money is often handled by the women, as they are the ones who sell, and Wayuu women are reputed to be good traders. The man milks the goats and the woman sells the cheese at the market. The man goes fishing and the woman sells the fish at the market. In the end, it’s only the mochilas and chinchorros that are made AND sold by Wayuu women.

We can imagine that giving women the responsibility of going to market was also a way for the men to protect themselves. Given the problems of clan warfare, the men had many enemies and therefore avoided going out too much in public on the markets to avoid giving the stick to be beaten (Dar papaya)..

The Ouutsü is the spiritual authority of the clan. The Ouutsü, who may be male or female, has medicinal knowledge and the ability to communicate with the natural and supernatural world through dreams. Dreams are an important part of Wayuu culture.

The role of dreams among the Wayuu

Indigenous people of La Guajira

Dreams are of particular importance in Wayuu culture.

Dreams are the spirit world, but it’s an accessible world with which we can communicate. It’s a world in which we can communicate with our ancestors, who can deliver messages.

Dreams are analyzed within the family, interpreted by the elders, and their content can have a concrete impact on daily life, decisions to be made or tasks to be carried out. If someone wakes up in the middle of the night because of a nightmare, he or she should get up immediately and wash off any bad energy with cold water.

When weaving Mochilas, it is said that women draw their inspiration from their dreams.

The color red

Wayuu, indigenous people of La Guajira

Red is a very important color in Wayuu culture.

Red is the color of the blood Wolunka spilled in the river. Blood and the color red also represent the Wayuu’s bond with their maternal family.

Red is the color of the earth that women use to coat their faces and protect themselves from the sun. It’s also the color the Wayuu use to draw traditional symbols on their faces before celebrations.

Guajira’s emblematic bird, “el Rey Guajiro”, is also entirely red. Legend has it that just as the river was being stained with Wolunka’s blood, the Guajiro king bird passed by. He dived into the bloody water and came out entirely red!

Finally, red is the traditional color of the dress used by women to dance the Yonna, the traditional Wayuu dance.

The Yonna, sacred dance

Wayuu, indigenous peoples of Colombia

Yonna is a traditional dance that is performed at all important moments in the community.

The music and movements will change according to the celebration. There are four types of Yonna:

• Ritual de inmortalidad (immortality ritual)
• ritual de sanación (healing ritual)
• Ritual de salida de la señorita (ritual of the girl’s exit from the bull run)
• Ritual de armonización con el territorio (ritual of harmonization with the territory)

The faces are painted with traditional motifs : warrior features for the men, spirals for the women, one of the most recurrent forms in Wayuu culture, symbolizing the path of life, the cycles of nature, the figure that also forms the basis of the Wayuu mochila.

Yonna is danced in a circle, around the fire, and it’s the woman who always advances towards the man, who must retreat and delay as long as possible the moment when he’s bound to be thrown off balance and fall to the ground.

The woman represents strength, while the man represents the wind.

The steps recreate animal movements. Animals are very important in Wayuu culture: they are the ancestors, each animal has its own legend, each clan has an animal emblem… Each step, each animal is accompanied by its own drum rhythm.

The Wayuu Mochila

Wayuu, indigenous people of La Guajira

The Wayuu mochila is one of Colombia’s most famous crafts, but the role and aesthetics of the mochila are not without meaning in Wayuu culture.

As mentioned above, in Wayuu tradition, it is during the encierro that young girls learn the trade of weaving.

Legend has it that it was the spider Wale’Kerü who taught the women to weave mochila. Wale’Kerü wove every night, and in the morning beautiful objects were made.

The Wayuu asked her how she managed to make them. So, in exchange for gifts, Wale’Kerü decided to teach them how to weave. The Wayuu gave her clothes, which she ate, and from her mouth came cotton thread ready for weaving. With this thread, Wale’Kerü taught them shapes and patterns , and since then, throughout the “encierro” rite, the young women learn to weave from their grandmother, mother and aunt, accompanied by the spirit of Wale’kerü.

The mochila is seen as a living body. The round shape of the mochila represents the mother’s womb. The base of the mochila represents the navel, the circumference of the bag the body, and the handle the arms and legs.

The base of the mochila always features a spiral symbolizing the creation of life and a kaanas (motif) representing the cosmos, the sun and the stars. On the body of the mochila, the kaanas represent the woman’s stories, dreams and life paths. Each kaana has a name and a meaning.

There is a very close relationship between the woman and her mochila and traditionally, mochilas were only woven for close friends and family. For example, to make her first mochila, a mother will weave for her son. When we say this, we understand that the Wayuu don’t weave an object, they weave their lives.

As our friend Jeanne, who lives in Riohacha, explains: “We have a pen and paper to tell stories, while the Wayuu have a needle and thread.”