Matses Traditional Maloka, July 12, 2017
The day began like most have ended, with clear skies transitioning into sunrise meaning perfect conditions for flying the drone. The Matses family here were very interested to see my drone camera and I just about had enough battery to take some aerial shots of their maloka. I wanted to save some battery for the 50km trek back to civilisation. We took some amazing unstaged photos of the elders with my DSLR and you can see the amazement in their faces.
Photo by Kane Hameister
Photo by Kane Hameister
Family photo
We did some more filming for a bow and arrow story and Kane’s voice over recording in the afternoon before the sun went down. A selection of fresh fish and plantain was again served for dinner and it was then announced that the locals would perform a traditional ceremony for us under the stars.
Kambo or ‘sapo’ is the name given to the traditional Shamanic frog venom cleanse that is used to strengthen and heal mind, body and spirit and has been used as a medicine amongst the northern Amazonian tribes for thousands of years. The Matses perform the ceremony to gain strength, immunity and for hunting ability. The secretion from the giant green frog is applied to the skin after small burns are made with the tip of a fire stick. Once applied, Kambo stimulates a purge while toxins and ‘bad luck’ are kicked out of the body, with symptons felt about 15minutes after and lasting for about 2 hours.
The stars now filled the sky above the maloka and the chief offered ‘sapo’ to me and I accepted. The ceremony only lasted 10 mins while the chief chanted a native song – and it certainly did purge the body and cleared the mind. Kambo has become popular around the world as a natural form of medicine, used in many new mainstream medicines and I thoroughly recommend the experience when performed traditionally.
