Header photograph: Romina Bravo ©

 

PROJECT: Puel Willi Mapu Mew: Taiñ Zungun

 

I sometimes imagine what the Puelmapu villages would be like

if, as you entered, there was a statue of the ñanco

showing its white chest,

but there is only

some dragon

or some dinosaur.

We are in history’s waiting room.

We have no monuments.

(“Kiñe” [One], by Viviana Ayilef)

 

Through Puel Willi Mapu Mew: Taiñ Zungun we present our memories of the history of the Huisca Antieco lof [community] and our collective reflections on why it took so long to present our words. In this performance, where we respect the structural balance of the meli [four], we alternate words, spoken and sung, in four parts. We discuss what it means to be part of the process of rebuilding an ancient culture and the implications of living in a territory surrounded by a hegemonic discourse that monumentalises the Welsh rifleros. Their arrival is commemorated as an epic legend and they are inscribed as heroes who ‘discovered’ our land, silencing our pre-existence as Tehuelche Mapuche people, and leading to the violence of the successive evictions and removals of our lof. We combine stories, poetry and songs, both ancient and contemporary, from listening to the Mapuche Tehuelche people of today, to our kuifikecheyem [ancestors], to the life forces of the area, and to non-Mapuche members of society. We speak our words so that our voices and our truths do not stay in the shadows of oblivion.

Performance:  Puel Willi Mapu Mew: Taiñ Zungun

 

The script for this performance is available here.

Viviana Yanina Ayilef

I am a member of the Colectivo Intercultural Tükulpan [Tükulpan Multicultural Group]. I trained as a teacher and have an undergraduate degree and a master of Arts. I am a university professor on the Arts course at the National University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco (UNPSJB) in Trelew and a member of the Centro de Estudios de Lenguas y Literaturas Patagónicas y Andinas (CELLPA) Andes]. I am co-director of the project ‘Narrativa y representación colonial sobre el pueblo mapuche tehuelche en Chubut: Parques Nacionales, museos, monumentos y efemérides’ [Colonial narrative and representation of Mapuche Tehuelche people in Chubut: National Parks, museums, monuments, and holidays] jointly with Cristian Matías González Valenzuela. In addition, I am also part of the Executive Unit of the project ‘Biopoéticas del sur: Resistencias y disidencias a la biopolítica estatal en el sur de Argentina y Chile (corporalidad, archivos y textos literarios: S XIX, XX y XXI)’ [Biopoetics of the south: opposition and non-conformity to the biopolitics of the State in southern Argentina and Chile (corporeality, archives, and texts: the 19^th, 20^th, and 21^st C)], under the direction of Jorge Spíndola. Today’s geography makes me uncomfortable: it is a world in which we seem like outsiders. So it is and so it was. This sense grew stronger in me over the last few years when I travelled into the mountains with my lamgen [sisters and brothers]. There, it was impossible not to discuss the blue signs that mark the Welsh tourist trail and that are in complete contrast to the routes of the indigenous people. I have published several volumes of poetry: Agua de otoño/ Kelleñü [Autumn water] (2011), Cautivos [Captives] (2013), Meulen [The body’s capability] (2017), Mailen (2020) and Ayün/Memorias del agua [Memories of the water] (2023).

Gerónimo Gil

I studied music at secondary school and am now training to become a music teacher at Instituto de Formación Docente de Trelew [Trelew Teacher Training College]. I entered the world of music when I joined Andrés Chazarreta’s orchestra. I have been attending meetings of the Movimiento de Orquestas latinoamericanas de Patagonia (MOLPA) [Patagonian Movement of Latin American Orchestras] for four years. I received an honourable mention for my Mapuche weaving at the Feria Nacional de Artesanía y Arte Popular “Augusto Raúl Cortazar”.

Mónica Viviana Melipan

I am a member of the council of representatives as president of the Mapuche Tehuelche ‘Huisca Antieco’ community. I have worked as a radio presenter and producer on the Mapuche program ‘Awkin Mapu’ [Echo of the land] on Radio Nacional Esquel. I am currently completing my undergraduate degree in Social Work at the National University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco (UNPSJB) and I am currently working as a kimeltuchefe [traditional educator] at Escuela N^o 107 in the Nahuelpan area. Above all, I am a mother.

I started on this Mapuche path in earnest when I was about twelve and was told: ‘your last name is Mapuche and it means four pumas.’ After that, I started searching for my cultural identity, looking for answers to the question: what does it mean to be Mapuche? What is the Mapuche ngen [guardian entity]? Some time ago, I had a pewma [dream] where an old woman told me, among other things: ‘you must start talking.’ And that’s when my journey started to gather momentum. So, for a while now, I have been following in the footsteps of my grandparents and great-grandparents, visiting different Mapuche Tehuelche communities and territories and participating in different traun [meetings], ceremonies, conversations, and other experiences. I still want to learn more about our language, the mapuzungun-chezungun, and strive to tread this path correctly.

Iván Paillalaf

I belong to the Mapuche-Tehuelche Laguna Fría-Chacay Oeste community on the central north plain. I study History at the National University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco (UNPSJB) in Trelew, and between 2020 and 2023 I was part of the specialist team that coordinated the Multicultural and Bilingual Education programme of Chubut province. At the moment I am Kimeltuchefe on the Youth and Adult Continuing Education course (EPJA) N° 7716 and N° 763 in Trelew and at Escuela N^o 7705 in Rawson.

Selected sources

Ancalao, Liliana (2015). Sobre el feriado provincial del 3 de noviembre, Facebook.
Pérez, Liliana (2015). El cacique Antonio y el derrotero de una carta. Política indígena y avance colonizador. Chubut, 1865-1870”, Revista Tefros, 13, Nº 2 : 126-148.  
Pérez, Liliana (2015) Keu-kenk: Política indígena en la Patagonia 1865-1956. Trelew: Remitente Patagonia.
Ministerio de Agricultura de la Nación, Oficina administrativa legalizaciones- entradas y archivo, Expediente N° 104588, 1919. 

Acknowledgments

Thank you to:

Our fütakecheyem and everyone who has educated us and listened to us. 
Centro Cultural por la Memoria de Trelew  and its staff.
Grupo de Estudios sobre Memorias Alterizadas y Surbordinadas (GEMAS).