With her first documentary film, Hauxita Jergeschew tells a story of individual and planetary health through one of the most powerful and ancient trees of the Amazon Basin: SHIWAHUACO (Dypterix micrantha), also known as Shihuahaco or Shiwawaku. Known as “iron wood” for its properties, it is the most sought-after Amazonian tree on the international timber market. It is one of the tallest growing trees of the Amazon Basin, providing in symbiosis for its ecosystem. But Shiwahuaco is endangered, due to the exploitation and destruction within and of its natural habitat.
The director learnt about this tree and its medicine being venerated in the Amazonian healing system through Percy Garcia Lozano (*1973), curandero (healer) from the Cocama People. At the end of 2022, she experienced its spirit and healing during a 28-day long Dieta (diet), ingesting the tree’s medicine daily, learning from and about this powerful entity. Having had consulted Lozano for the first time in 2013 for her own personal healing, Hauxita has been studying under his guidance since.
In Lozano’s tradition, plants and trees are understood as medicines and spirits, who support healing, help us connect to nature and empower consciousness-
building.
He describes himself as an intermediary between the realm of plant/tree doctors and the patient. The fundament of this ancient knowledge and practice of healing is the Dieta. This is a strict framework of exposing oneself to ingesting the medicine (in form of a tea or extract) of one plant or tree in the setting of the jungle in isolation and silence, with specific dietary restrictions, over several weeks or months. Through his grandfather, Enrique Garcia Mosombite, Lozano has been initiated
since the age of 10 into the traditional healing practices of his People. In current times he is sharing his knowledge as an Ayahuascero, Camalongero, Dietero, Huesero and Vegetalista.
The Amazon provides us with a natural pharmacy of more than 500 medicinal plants. But this habitat and its People are in danger through international forces contaminating, destroying and exploiting the natural resources and the indigenous knowledge.
Even though scientists warn about Shiwahuaco being about to disappear, governments will not include it on the red list of threatened trees. The country of Perú has earned an estimate of US$531 million between 2012 to 2020 through extracting this species for the timber market. Per year alone, approximately 184.000 Shiwahuaco trees are felled only in Perú. Its wood being sold as parquet, in polished form or as lumber, Shiwahuaco gets exported mainly to China (71%), Europe (13%), to the US (7.5%) and other
countries (5%). The growth rate of extraction is increasing warningly: In the year 2013, the extraction rate of Shiwahuaco was 22 times higher in Perú than in the year 2000.
The director highlights the ambivalent situation an old, wise Amazonian tree finds itself in: Maybe soon to be history, if the trajectory of its current extraction will not be altered. On the other hand, its spirit and medicine being valued in the Amazonian healing system, represented through Lozano, who is also the last of his lineage, the director gives space to explore this dichotomy.