Who is Pakeliah?

She is a living entity, as is the island, every forest, every lake, every lagoon. Once, millennia ago, they were like us walking around the island until they decided to rest. They laid down and got comfortable. They decided to not wake up again. So, they became part of the landscape, giving us wisdom, calm and resources like food and other things. As a community we don’t know her original name. She was an ancestor. She protects us and gives us opportunity to get to know her story. She gives us language. We listen to her, the forest surrounding her, the guanacos going around, the movement of the water under the surface. This helps us to learn to pronounce words that were lost. She is like a great great great grandmother, not a piece of land that we like to photograph and just talk about. She is a family member that we get to know. She feeds us. In her wetness she provides for us. She grows berries, she is home to guanacos and birds, she gives us water and clean air to breathe. She is 9300 years old, almost as old as my own culture. She holds knowledge of the history of the island and of my people.