The Arhuaco tribe has resided in the lush, emerald expanse of Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta for hundreds of years. It's the kind of landscape that looks surreal, surrounded by the cerulean Kutunsama lagoon, the ivory peaks of the coastal mountain's glaciers, vibrant creatures like the Macaw and a kaleidoscope variety of flora. But the Mamo, the Arhuaco's high priests, want you to know every inch of their beautiful home is at risk.
Mamusa new documentary short directed by Jacques Naude, offers an intimate look at the Arahuaco's imperative warning: their existence, and the Earth's in general, is being threatened by outside forces like climate change, resource mining, and Colombia's armed conflict. According to the Arhuaco, their spiritual philosophy to respect the environment is the only path forward. The 30-minute film, produced in partnership with Imagine Documentaries, XTR, Offline Picture, and Rolling Stone Films, is out today on Documentary+ and RollingStone.com.
Over the course of five years and several trips to Colombia, Naude worked with producer Ramón Campos Iriarte, a Colombian political analyst and journalist, to bring Mamus to life and “carry [the Arhuaco’s] message of conservation to a different audience,” Campos Iriarte tells Rolling Stone. “They really need attention in order to stop the militarization of their territory and armed factions fighting over land and resources,” he adds.
The result is a visually compelling portrait of life inside the Seynimin village, one of the sacred Arhuaco communities. Embedded in the tribe's daily customs are religious rituals that represent the Arhuacan's spiritual connection to nature and responsibility to protect Mother Earth. One scene in the documentary showcases this when a Mamo hands out balls of raw cotton to several men as a way to pay tribute to the land for everything it has given them. “The Arhuaco are highly symbolic people,” Campos Iriarte explains. “Everything they do has a meaning beyond the material activity that you're seeing,” he says.
But what carries Mamus is the wisdom imparted by Arhuaco's own Mamos, which is voiced-over the entire documentary short in their native language Iku. “The Mamo are the spokespeople for Mother Earth, their God and their life revolves around the Great Mother,” Naud explains on the same Zoom call with his producer.
He and Campos Iriarte were able to gain unique access to the Mamo and conduct in-depth interviews with several of the high priests. This kind of access was no easy feat. The last time the Arhuaco's Mamo let outsiders into their world for a documentary was in 1990, when Alan Ereira's BBC project From the Heart of the World: The Elder Brothers' Warningfirst shared the Arhuaco's warning with the world.
Naude and Campos Iriarte credit their tribe liaison, Arukin Torres Zalabata, with their ability to develop trust within the community, which was made easier by Campos Iriarte; his father, Yezid Campos, is an anthropologist who spent over 50 years studying the Arhuaco. “My dad really opened the door for us,” Campos Iriarte says, adding, “I grew up going to La Sierra, they know me as the son of the anthropologist that went there in the Seventies.”
This trust was a crucial component of filming. After all, it's extremely uncommon for large, high-tech video cameras to be brought into the Arhuacan's most sacred spaces. “We really had to approach the whole film in a very lean and respectful way,” Naude says.
Once they gained the Arhuaco's trust, Naude and Campos Iriarte had to work within the restraints of the tribe “They give you a window and that window is all you get,” Naude says. Within the small time frame and against the odds of brutal travel to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Naude and Campos Iriarte captured several Mamo voices across generations. “At the end of the day it wasn't a scripted film,” the director says, describing how the Mamo's way of speaking in parables guided Mamus'narratives. “We were being led by their message,” he adds.
At one point in the documentary, an elder Mamo declares, “No matter what our customs, we all need Mother Earth.” It's a statement that emphasizes the overarching message the Arhuaco are trying to get across. While they are worried about their own home, the effects of climate change and resource mining can, and will, impact nearby cities in Colombia, and eventually the world.
“If you want to preserve this environment, you need to think about the dramatic changes that are happening right now,” Campos Iriarte says. “It's a universal message that you can hear people from all over the world saying. [The Arhuaco] just have a very natural way of putting it.”
It is both Naude and Campos Iriarte's goal that the Arhuaco's message will reach wider audiences with the release of Mamus. Naude says, “This message has its own legs and its own power, and it'll distill itself in the right hearts and minds.”
Film Credits
Director: Jacques Naude
Prod Co: Imagine Documentaries, XTR, Offline Pictures, Rolling Stone Films
Producers: Ramón Campos Iriarte, Arukin Torres Zalabata
Executive Producers: Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes, Meredith Kaulfers, Bryn Mooser, Kathryn Everett, Justin Lacob, Jason Fine, Gus Wenner, Alexandra Dale, Jacques Naude
