Mari mari kom pu lamngen ka pu wenuy,
A few years ago traveling through the plurinational territories of Argentina, I was offered a knowledge that I treasure and claim as a right, it is regarding “Good Dying”. In the voices of innumerable Indigenous nations, I understood the importance of embarking on the path of the stars, from a place of harmony, closing the circle of life to start another.
I am telling you about this because a very dear friend from Ecuador, Alexis Ponce, tells me about his wife’s plea for a fundamental right, the right to die well. Her name is Nelly Valbuena a fighter, a loving and brave woman. A cancer devours her life, she must not only endure pain to unknown thresholds that seem insurmountable in suffering, but also the anthropophagy of the system forces her to live it until the last second of the time it takes her to leave this world. She has made a decision that I would like to accompany and help materialize, but it is impossible for me, I do not have money to make her dream come true, but I do have a resource that I will wield confident that, despite the selfishness, indolence, and inhumanity that seems to reign in the world, there is another world that weaves solidarity, flashes light even in the darkest days, thus my letter written in the wake of a night of anguish seeks your heart, and your voice.
Nelly wants to return to Colombia, her native land, where her family awaits her to embrace her in the final stretch of her journey, where the bones of her ancestors lie on the flowery ground that caressed her feet in the first steps she took in this World. Nelly deserves to return to Colombia, along with her husband Alexis and her beloved puppy Robin Jud, who has been a great medicine for her spirit. They need the Ecuadorian and Colombian governments to solve the logistics of the transfer, air tickets, the adequate sanitary conditions for her trip and that they be resolute immediately so that she achieves her desire to return.
I beg you to write and communicate to the different platforms and networks of the governments of Ecuador and Colombia, help me demand a Good Dying for Nelly. Good living has been taken from us, cancer is an expression of all the pollution, the poor nutrition to which the food industry subjects us, and the ruthless exploitation of our bodies-territories by the system, at least we have the right to decide where to die and how. Rume mañun (Thank you).
Moira Millán, Mapuche weychafe, Puelwillimapu, Patagonia