Birth of the first Shaman

Concept: Izabela Ewa Ołdak

Cast: Paweł Matyszewski, Izabela Ewa Ołdak, Ivana Ranisavljević.

Pictures and video: Paweł Kołaczkowski.

Birth of the first Shaman, was a dance performance, made during Art Colony program in Ećka, Serbia, 2012.

When I was on the shamanic island of Olkhon in Lake Baikal in Siberia, I heard the story of the birth of the first Shaman. According to the legend, once on this island a messenger of the Gods was to appear in the form of a white Eagle endowed with spiritual knowledge. He came with the mission of passing on his knowledge to someone so that he could be a link between the world of people and the world of Gods. As the Eagle flew with a precious gift between heaven and earth, a man noticed it and began aiming at it with a bow. Then the bird asked the spirits for advice. These instructed him to give the gift to the first being he noticed. It was a sleeping woman whose husband was a Buryat. So the eagle pass the knowledge to her. A few months later she gave birth to a son who, upon reaching maturity, became a powerful shaman “with an iron chest and claws.” In other legends, it was this woman who became the first Shaman.