A handful of indigenous guards watch over the jungle to prevent a tragedy that their grandparents see in their dreams: the destruction of their "sacred houses", the hills. A young leader remembers the day that the tranquillity was disrupted in his community. When he learned that there was a 30-year license granted on his territory to extract coltan, one of the most scarce and precious minerals, used by the world's big technology industries when manufacturing cell phones, computers and electronic devices. In Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo has the largest number of reserves of what is considered the new 'black or blue gold'. In Latin America, there are mines in Venezuela and Colombia.
Indigenous people from Vaupés, in the Colombian Amazon, led by experts, watch over the hills to protect themselves from mineral exploitation.
Twenty minutes away from the Timbó community of Betania, through the jungle, is Hamaca Hill, one of the sacred sites of the ancestral villages of Vaupés. At the top of the hill are five indigenous people guarding their territory. They protect it from unauthorized people who come to exploit the natural resources. They are 300 meters above the Amazon floor, on a gigantic grey, solid, cone-shaped rock. From there they can see the immense jungle, thick with trees and bushes of all shades of green, olive, emerald, turquoise, dark and light. They can also see other hills, ten imposing ridges sprouting from the weeds, some very close to the Brazilian border. For the indigenous communities their lives, stories and memories come from these places that are threatened by mining.
