I was born from an native Indian-English father from St. Kitts and an African-Dutch mother from Curacao on an Amerindian island called Aruba at the northern coast of South America. Thus I am a Métis woman, belonging to an Indian island.

 

Aruba is one of the ABC islands in the Caribbean Sea with finger-painted images of at least 2000 years ago that native Indians left behind on rocks. The Arubian ancestors of the island were Caquetios, an Arawak speaking Indian people. They were part of the 30.000 people of the Caquetios Nation around the Maracaibo Lake in Venezuela. The Arawak speaking tribes came from Colombia, probable even from the Andes in Peru and migrated till Puerto Rico between 2000 and 500 BC. But the ‘bird-drying-wings-motif’ on Arubian rocks are scattered over Latin-America and are common in the U.S.A. They silently ask us to take in account the initial migration-routes of indians about 15.000 years ago from south-America into north America.

 

About 900 BC the Caquetios came to our islands. They migrated in groups of 30 people to the islands and stayed temporally in caves. Their Caves were Ritual Places and Storytelling was Sacred to them. They had rubber, tobacco and stone pipes. They made pottery at their natural harbours, sailing with their boats to Venezuela. Remarkable is that they called their Temples ‘Caney’, which sounds like ‘Canoe’. Travelling by boat must have been part of their migrating, but the Sea was also their primary food supplier and trading life. Male Indians enjoyed playing daily a ballgame with a calabash. We still can find ball playgrounds in Costa Rica, like the ones in Chichén Itzá.

Historicists wrote that they were strong, very tall, beautiful, good swimmers and that their Centre of Power had lots of gold. German colonists told that the peaceful Caquetio Nation was very rich and Gave Away gold to them at the amount of 3 thousands pesos, which was 5000 Rheinisch gulden then. One R. Gulden in 1526 was about 0,90 Euro now!

 

When about 1522 the colonists came to our islands, we had a chief called Cacique Manaure, living in the state Falcon in Venezuela. He was a wise and peaceful man, who was betrayed by the colonists. He let one of his daughters marry a colonist, trying to keep the Peace between the people. But the colonists still did force him to leave his centre of power when he was an old man.

Aruba had as Curaca( deputy cacique) called Baltasar and Curacao had Curaca Baracoica. The colonists brought illnesses like cholera and influenza to these people, killing in that way most of the strong Indians. The surviving ones did die because of unhealthy work as slaves or in goldmines. The island Indians lost all of their fertile lands to the colonists, who then brought African slaves to work on the islands.

 

Since years I live on the island Curacao, located next to Aruba. Often I go to Manaure’s Holy Place. An old man told me that Manaure came here, with his ‘Curacas’, to bath in the pool and make it transform into Healing Water. The Great Manaure was known as Rainmaker. I am still the only one who prays with the Land before the pool. Twice I tried to sing the anthem of Curacao to honour Manaure, but only the anthem of Venezuela came to mind! It seems that the place still knows the old Indian Spirit of the Cacique. The pool is now a forgotten place filled with brown Rainwater that flows through the rocks and probably inhabits an underground spring. Yet somehow the place attracts people, because I see beer bottles scattered around.

 

It is still not know if the name of the island Curacao comes from the Indian word ‘Curaca’(Chief), the Colombian totem bird ‘Kurassow’ or from the Portuguese word ‘Curazao’(Heart) or Spanish word ‘Cura’ (Healing). I think that all four words had their influence in different times.

But I love to think Curacao is a Healing Island. To swim in a turquoise Ocean, between high brown-reddish Rocks, under a bright Sun in a blue Sky is an experience of a Full Medicine Circle. I am sure the Indians experienced their islands as an Indian Paradises, in the time that there still were fertile lands. Now the islands have the appearance of dry Arizona, but surrounded by the sea.

 

The Arawak speaking Haiti Indians had an Altar of a sitting Dog God called Opiyel Guaobiran. The medicine man got through Him to the Spirit world to contact the beloved of a family. He used a Turtle bowl in the ritual. On the island the turtles come to mate. The African slaves called the Indians of Curacao ‘Jucán’, which means also ‘Turtle’. They had the saying: “Jucán a pari gene,” which means that ‘an Indian woman had birthed an African baby’ or ‘All races are brothers’.

Inspired by the Dog Altar, I searched by an Indian cave for wood that lay around and made a wooden Altar. I made a wooden Dog God and recreated also Mayan fertility symbols like the Singing Dog. The Mayan ritual Singing Dog was a bridge between Life and Death and was the one, who took care for New Seed. This ‘Seed of Heaven’ was the nourishing Rain that brought Fertility to the land. So I honoured the Caribbean Goddess Atabeyra and the Mayan Spider Goddess Mam by creating a stone Frog in front of the Altar with a Shell to fill with Water.

This I did also because Aruba has still an Arawak Frog song: 

 

 

 

What I remembered, when I made the art piece, was that pregnant women of some tribe worked on the land, while priests prayed to the Spirit World to enable a deceased be reborn. The Caquetios believed in reincarnation.

The art piece was dedicated to the people of Curacao and their future generation.

One day I had to leave Curacao for a while and a friend took the art piece in her garden, joking that it could help her to become pregnant. And it did: she became mother of a twin! While the twins grew up, the Rain worn down the Altar into pieces. This way it could find its Way Back to the Ocean.

 

I love Spider Goddesses like Mam, Tse Che Nako and even Kali. They are Fertility Bringers and Creators. Curacao has stories about the Spidercouple Nanzi and Shi Maria. Shi Maria is an African Spiderwoman, who has suffered during the slavery from a male oriented mentality. In Africa she was a wise woman, who had to advice (A)nazi with everything he did. They were equals and worked together to solve their problems. Ananzi got to own all stories and tales with the wise advice of Shi Maria and could call the stories ‘Ánansesem’. They were created as moral teachings and explanation of Life. But on the islands, even in our time, the wise Shi Maria is often beaten by Nanzi! We need some Fertility back into our thinking, so we can change our images and care for our seeds of True Love. This change will demand of us to relearn how to be connected with the Land. This is the Legacy of our Caquetios.

I live with lots of spiders in my house. I even saw baby spiders being born and cared for. Every morning and evening I try to shower with utmost Care, so I do not destroy a web of a tiny white hunting spider. Once I even fed her with a little ant. I feel that I should Share my shower space with her and feel honoured with her trust. Also at the kitchen table I have a fat black Spider waiting for food in her web. Time after time I clean away her left-over insect bodies. People call me crazy, but I find that I am blessed.

 

Inspired by all these Holy Spider Women, I made my own Indian Spidergirl puppet called Toma with her own puppet theatre. A friend painted her and I gave her a website: www.tomastories.com.  So maybe it makes sense, that Toma has helpers that are a Dog Boy, called Spoiler and a Frog Woman with the name Dori. But Toma also needs to help someone, who is still invisible for our naked eye.

 

When I write this story, I look straight up and see a picture of the huge Nazca Spider painted in the sand of Cusco in Peru. She appears to me that it is a map to the stars, painted in the Land. Walking the Spiderwoman’s Way shows me the Medicine of the Universe. Our Indians believed that everything is related and connected. The Mayans and the Caquetios knew their future by searching the stars and pray to the Spiritworld. Spiderwoman’s weaving partner showed them which Directions to look. The Pawnee Indians give us the advice to keep our eyes on the Polar Star, while following the Great Wheel of Cycles of the Bear constellation.

 

I feel honoured to be able to present you these Teaching Words, which I have learned weaving from the Great Spider Woman. Walking her Spidery Roads taught me, that She is known around the Globe and in the Sky.

And if you look between these Words and the Stars above, you can see our dear Sky Serpent, the Sacred Dragon, working together with Grandmother Spider.

She-He is always there as the First and the Last.

This is what the Snohomish people shout when they lift up a large canoe or was it the Sky they lifted?

“Yahu!”

I need to know, because my Medicine Name is Blue Sky Bear.

 

 

 Velma Solomons 2007