1. WANADI, THE CREATOR
Creation myth of the Yekuhana (Makiritare)
Source: Marc de Civireux’s Watunna: An Orinoco Creation Cycle

3. YEKUHANA
Indigenous people of Venezuela; remote areas
Name means ‘log-water-people’; canoes
True descendants of Wanadi
Nomadic farmers, no domesticated animals
No stone or metal

5. WATUNNA
Sacred text
Recited orally by shamans
Very secretive, known to select few
Secular text
Read by families
Tales of how to live

6. WANADI OVERVIEW
Creation of the Earth from the Sky
Temptation of people by evil forces
Foretells the end of the world
Tells people what and what not to do

7. THINGS TO LOOK FOR
Struggle of good versus evil
Gods & humans living together in “golden age”
Resurrection
Birds are important to the gods
Trinity/three faces of same god
Oral retelling; repetition is everywhere

8. THE BEGINNING: SKY WANADI
Sun (male) has wiriki, or magic crystals, and blows on them
Wanadi, the Creator, or Sky Wanadi is produced
Sky Wanadi creates Sky People, with houses, food, and life
Earth and Sky are one, all is happy
Constant daylight

9. HESIOD
Golden Age of Man

10. WANADI I & ODOSHA
Sky Wanadi wants good people on Earth
Sent Wanadi the Wise (Wanadi I)
Cuts his own navel cord, buries it; this rots
From the rot comes evil, Odosha
Ugly, hairy (animalistic)

12. WANADI I & ODOSHA
And so it came to pass that Wanadi sat down to think. He
sat silent and still, with his head in his hands and his elbows
on his knees. And he thought. And he dreamed. And
while he thought and dreamed, he smoked his tobacco.
And he sang to the accompaniment of his maraca.

13. WANADI I & ODOSHA
Creates Earth People
Odosha gets jealous; wants power and dominion over Earth
Whispers evils to the people; turns them to kill their fisherman
Wanadi I punishes them by turning them to animals
Leaves to live in Sky

14. WANADI II & HIS MOTHER
Wanadi II created in same fashion, with wiriki
Has same mission, but wants to preempt Odosha
Decices to show that death is merely a trick of Odosha
Creates his mother (!?)

15. WANADI II & HIS MOTHER
So it came to pass that Wanadi II sat down to think. He sat
silent and still, with his head in his hands and his elbows on
his knees. And he thought. And he dreamed. And while he
thought and he dreamed, he smoked his tobacco. And he sang
to the accompaniment of maraca. And he dreamed that his
mother was born.

16. WANADI II & HIS MOTHER
“Now I must make you die.”
Kills his mother, brings her back to life
Kills his mother, brings her back to life
She was symbol of his power
Death is not real; only a trick

17. ISIS & HORUS
Horus kills his own mother, Isis.

18. WANADI II & THE HUEHANNA
Huehanna: great big, extremely thick egg filled with happy people
Doesn’t want it to open until Odosha is gone for good
When his mother rises again, the Huehanna will open
If Odosha kills them, he will resurrect them
Assigns orange-winged parrot to alert him upon his mother’s rebirth
Nephew (Iarakaru) comes out of nowhere, also guards Huehanna

19. WANADI II & THE HUEHANNA
Wanadi II goes to hunt, but accidentally leaves his chakara
Magic herbs, plants, tobacco, wiriki, and darkness of the night
Odosha discovers this, tempts Iarakaru to open it
Darkness spreads, Odosha claims it, creates dwarf to guard grave
Equally hairy and ugly version of Odosha, but smaller

20. ANDVARI
From Sigurd the Volsung; turns
himself into a fish at will, curses gold.

21. WANADI II & THE HUEHANNA
Poison urine: Odosha pees in gourd to throw on the mother
Parrot alerts Wanadi II, who starts to run back
Lizard throws urine, burns her to bones
Odosha goes to break open the Huehanna, fails (too thick)
Iarakaru is blinded, freaks out, runs away
Wanadi II arrives to much dismay, punishes Iarakaru (white monkey)
Returns to Sky with remains of mother, revives her

22. WANADI III: HOUSE WANADI
Creates stars, sun, moon, to light the sky
Animals turn into people, praise him, ask for help against Odosha
Curses Iarakaru, who is really thin, to remain thin (along with his
descendants)
Goes to Sky, speaks to Yucca Mistress for food (cassava)
People grow evil once more, Wanadi III learns his lesson

23. DEMETER
And many many others

25. WANADI III: HOUSE WANADI
Turns into red-headed woodpecker, pecks out wood for house
Builds on Mount Wana, makes houses for his future followers
Second wave of Earth People live in these houses
12 men get knowledge and strength
Odosha builds house in front of Wanadi III
Tries to dream up food, but is thwarted by Odosha

27. WANADI III: HOUSE WANADI
Move to Wade’s cave at foot of tallest mountain
Rebuild, re-farm, settle in, live well
Wanadi III goes to hunt, nearly gets killed by a Spirit Cougar
Tells his followers, they suggest it’s Odosha
Also suggest he wear a disguise to trick him
Next time, Odosha sees old man out hunting; Wanadi III disguised

28. ODIN
His old man disguise seems to work
really well, too

29. WANADI III: HOUSE WANADI
Wanadi III plays dumb, tricks Odosha
Does this for a really long time; followers trick Odosha too
More and more people created; Food Master teaches farming,
forestry, brings first rain
Takes form as chief of the birds

30. WANADI III & WANADI IV?
Wanadi III foretells his death; makes man and woman from clay
These two are grandparents of Yekuhana
Taught everything from farming to hunting to living well
Farm Wade’s land; others live on Mount Kushamakari
Wanadi III tells about the end days and the next coming

31. WANADI III & WANADI IV?
Odosha will die, evil will Wanadi IV (of the New Earth)
disappear will be master of Earth
Sun, moon, stars fall from sky Will find Huehanna inside Mt.
Waruma and open it
Darkness will disappear
Happy people inside will settle
New Earth will take over, on new Earth
joined with Sky
People will see greatness of
Sky Wanadi, source of light

32. RAGNARÖK
Great epic battle, ‘end of the world’,
reinventing the earth

33. WANADI III & THE 12
Wanadi III’s 12 followers will live on Mount Kushamakari forever
Guarded by mountains, rapids, anacondas, and a giant bat
Shamans will visit, seek advice, but never see the 12
Non-shamans will never even see the house where the 12 are

34. WANADI III’S ESCAPE
Sings, dances until dawn with headdress on; even woos Odosha
Odosha chases him to river, both singing and dancing
Wanadi III hops in canoe, Odosha in hot pursuit
Turns Odosha’s dog attackers into jaguar, grinds their bones into
mosquitoes and gnats
Creates butterflies who lie to Odosha about Wanadi III’s death
Tell him to cut his stomach out

35. WANADI III’S ESCAPE
Butterflies become Columbians; wealthy and friendly
Wanadi III makes clear water, then heads for Sky
Odosha puts on bird wings and flies around; never finds Wanadi III
Story concludes with reminding people of what is coming