Machi
The Mapuche healer and ritual leader of Chile and Argentina, most often a woman, who works with a drum and a ritual ladder.
Also: machis, mapuche machi, kultrun, rewe, ngillatun
A machi is a Mapuche shaman-healer, in southern Chile and Argentina. Most are women, though men, sometimes called machi weye, also fill the role. A person is believed to be called by illness or dreams, then trained by an older machi. The machi uses a drum, the kultrun, whose surface carries a map of the Mapuche world, and a rewe, a notched ritual pole or ladder, to heal, speak with spirits and pray for the community. The machi also leads the ngillatun, a communal ceremony of prayer and thanks. Under Spanish and Chilean rule, the Mapuche religion was suppressed, and the land conflict between Mapuche communities and the state continues, in which the machi has often been a public voice.