Draw God, please
30.04.2010
The Chilean religious sister, looked up at the small group gathered in the church hall in southern Chile and asked, “Does anyone want to explain what 
they have drawn?”. The participants, indigenous Mapuche* farmers, were asked to draw how they saw God in their lives.
Present was a young catechist and her mother who came out of curiosity. The mother was silent. When Sister asked what she drew, the mother presented a beautiful picture of the Piedra Alta. Piedra Alta, which means “High Rock,” is a large natural stone formation rising out of the sea some few kilometres from the coastlines of Wapi. The chapel is located near this coast. Sister asked the mother to explain.
The natural world is holy
The Mapuche woman responded, “This rock is holy to us Mapuches.
As you can see in my drawing all the birds are flying up to the heavens and back down upon the rock. We Mapuches believe that this place has the actual presence of God. It is where all our prayers are lifted up to heaven. Often I go there to pray.” Both I and the Sister marvelled at her sense of God in her life.
Her spirituality was connected to the earth. Of course, this all made sense because the word Mapuche means “the people of the earth.” In my time in Wapi, I was impressed how the people revered the earth and held on to their deep indigenous spirituality.
How Mapuche pray
For the Mapuches the most powerful prayer moment of the day is the early morning when dawn is approaching.
It is a time for “rogativas” or prayer sessions. The community will rise before dawn and congregate in the open. There they face the rising sun and begin their prayers. Usually the men begin and the leaders will praise God and remember all their ancestors.
Then the women step forward and their leaders do the same. This continues back and forth for as long as two or three hours while all participants are standing or kneeling. To think about leaving and giving the legs a rest is unheard of. It would be disrespectful. Once you begin you must stay until the end.
To a Catholic Westerner accustomed to a one hour Eucharist this could be exhausting. This is the impressive nature of the Mapuche prayer session in that all the prayers are spontaneous. It is closer to the Pentecostal tradition of prayer than the systematic, ordered prayers in the Catholic Church. This probably explains why the Pentecostals are having great evangelical success in Mapuche areas.
Funeral rites
This spontaneity is also evident in the Mapuche funeral rites. Often in our communities when a Mapuche dies the mourning period is three days and the various communities will arrive in those days, mourning and eating with the family of the deceased. Many visitors will bring their own food but the family of the deceased is expected to provide the lion’s share of the food.
If the Mapuche is a Catholic the family will ask for a Catholic funeral to be held about 2:00pm at the house. However, the priest is expected to arrive before and look for the “head” of the funeral. The head often would be a relative. The priest introduces himself and determines the family’s expectations. Then the family will serve the priest something to eat.
The funeral is more than just the ritualised words given by the priest.
At the appointed hour the Catholic rite will be performed. Afterwards, the people carry the deceased to the cemetery and perform the Mapuche rite. This often consists of two male elders who knew the deceased, delivering a dialogue between one another, discussing all the deeds and attributes of the deceased. This will take place before the body is placed in the ground. “The dialogue will be spontaneous, humorous at times and could last for an hour or more.”
In fact, Mapuches interactions are based on trust. For the Mapuches it is important to know who the other is, where one is from and who one’s people are. Therefore, they often will seek a priest with whom they have great familiarity. Once again, for the Mapuches, the functions of the priest or his ritualised words are not the priority. What is important is to share the sacred with a trusted, known friend.
How Mapuche ‘see’ God
Mapuche spirituality has a four-fold imagery. The Mapuches believe that God is imaged as: old man, old woman, young man and young woman. The images on the “kultrun,” the sacred drum used by the Machi during various ceremonies of religious and healing natures, represent the four cardinal points: north, east, south, west, and the four stations: spring, summer, autumn and winter. Once again, these four-fold imageries are connected to nature.
What I learned from the Mapuches was their emphasis on the earth, spontaneity, practical outlook and strong sense that faith is more than words: it is sharing and building of relationships. It’s evident that the Mapuches have a spirituality that is built upon a rock - solid and firm.
Fr Chris Saenz has worked in Chile since ordination in 2000. At present he is on study leave.
* Mapuche – people of the earth
