Spanish / Colombia
Kaaliawiri, el árbol de la vida. Relato piapoco
(Kaaliawiri, the tree of life. A Piapoco tale)
Ortiz, Francisco
(text)
Fittipaldi, Ciça
(illus.)
Rojas, Freddy
(narrator)
Bogotá: Editorial Monigote, 2024. – 65 p.
ISBN 978-62-895240-8-6
Plants | Origin myth | Tree of life | Agriculture | Creation | Piapoco <people>
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2025
»Kaaliawiri« is a fascinating creation and origin myth of the Piapoco, a people living on the borderlands of Venezuela and Colombia. It tells how, »in the beginning, when the world was still very small,« Kutzi, the Night Monkey, found the Tree of Life reaching up to the clouds. To harvest the countless things growing on it – among them yucca, pumpkin, banana, maize, and pineapple – animals and humans alike felled the tree. This act marks the beginning of time and the moment when the Creator Kuwaiseiri entrusted the Earth to his creatures, who must now look after themselves. In rich, vivid language, Francisco Ortiz retells the story he heard from a Piapoco elder, incorporating descriptions of the forest’s domestication and the early days of agriculture. Brazilian illustrator Ciça Fittipaldi, who has long devoted herself to indigenous folklore, presents a dreamlike world rendered in intense colours and soft, organic forms. [JW]