In the sacred symbology of the Pemón indigenous community - which inhabits the lands of the Canaima National Park in the south of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela - the jasper stone weighing approximately 30 tons, called "Abuela Kueka" and known as "Piedra Kueka" , is considered guarantor of the balance and harmony of nature.
It was removed from the Gran Sabana during the government of Rafael Caldera in 1998, in a process that disrespected the regulation of the National Park as an Area Under Special Administration Regime, to be exhibited in the Tiergarten metropolitan park, in Berlin, as a work of the plastic artist Wolfgang von Schwarzenfeld.
After the steps taken by the National Government, which since 2000, assumed the repatriation of "Abuela Kueka" as a historical debt to indigenous peoples and communities and the consequent struggle of the seasoned Pemón people, today January 20 begins its removal process, to be transferred to his home, in the Pemona community of Santa Cruz de Mapaurí.
The acceleration of this process was found in 2010, when the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry focused on following through on the request emanating from the original people.
The repatriation of Grandmother Kueka, 22 years later, is the product of a friendly agreement, the constancy of the Pemón people and the effort of the Bolivarian Government of President Nicolás Maduro, emphasized the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, through his Twitter account.
Repatriation process
The process of repatriation of the Kueka stone to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela formally began in May 2018, with a healing ritual by a representation of the Pemón people who traveled to the German capital, considering it part of the cultural and spiritual heritage, and certain that on their return the environmental and ecological balance of planetary dimensions will be reestablished, which, the ancestral people consider, was broken by the separation of the Kueka grandparents.
“We are here to give a spiritual healing ceremony to our grandmother because we found her ill; the grandmothers in her vision have seen her crying because she misses being on her mother earth: Venezuela, ”said a young member of the indigenous community on that occasion.
The representatives of the ancestral people thanked the Government of Venezuela and its institutions for their efforts since the mandate of President Hugo Chávez and more recently of President Nicolás Maduro, to achieve the return of the Kueka stone.
By then, the Minister of Popular Power for Foreign Relations, Jorge Arreaza, highlighted the character of equality, not only political but also in the established practice that the indigenous peoples obtained as of 1999.
A story that is kept alive in the Pemón people
Grandmother Kueka is a wise old woman and protector of the town and her story refers to a beautiful and seasoned love legend.
The Pemón and Macuxi communities have been enemies since time immemorial and their peoples separated with strict zeal for the God Makunaima, until Taure Pam, a young man from the Pemón community, married the most beautiful young woman from the Macuxi community, disrespecting the established norms.
The irreverent lovers fled, breaking the rules of the god Makunaima, who forbade the union between both peoples, so they were turned into stone, so that they lived eternally together.
With information from AVN.
