SILVANIA, Colombia — On a warm but overcast afternoon, hundreds of Indigenous representatives and spiritual leaders gathered to witness a remarkable convergence of native nations from across the Americas. Serving as ambassadors and messengers, runners took off from Alaska and Patagonia, some covering up to 16,000 kilometers (10,000 miles) across treacherous landscapes in seven months. Along the journey, they collected sacred staffs imbued with prayers from almost 200 native nations. The runners, also known as chasquis, the name for messengers in the Inca empire, said they embarked on the journey to honor ancestral wisdom, restore balance with mother nature, strengthen the identity of Indigenous peoples, and promote global solidarity. There were two routes. Runners on the Eagle route began their journey on May 2 in Fairbanks, Alaska, representing Indigenous peoples from the north. On May 23, runners from the Condor route left Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, in the south. Both routes met in Silvania, Colombia, on Nov. 29. They were led by runners and coordinators with more than 25 years of experience, like Jose Malvido and Nuna Wayna (also known as René Vergara), who guided the Eagle and Condor routes, respectively. This was the Peace and Dignity Journeys, an intercontinental Indigenous spiritual run that seeks to realize the ancient Quito Quechua prophecy of Kuntur Anka. After 500 years of division and oppression due to colonization and Western civilization, the prophecy predicts the reencounter of descendants of the Eagle and Condor to restore the world’s harmony. “The task is to find…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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