Mapuche means people of the land. It is the name of the people who have ancestrally inhabited Wallmapu, in the south of the American continent. A territory invaded by the Spanish Crown in the 16th century and later by the states of Argentina and Chile, through a genocide still unrecognized by official history. Today, on both sides of the Andes Mountains, hundreds of Mapuche communities are rising up in defense of water and land. They are on the front line against the advance of oil, forestry, salmon farming, hydroelectric, and mining industries. That is why they are persecuted.
Mapuche: The Return of the Ancient Voices, a project spanning more than seven years by photographer Pablo E. Piovano and journalist Maxi Goldschmidt, portrays lives shaped by a deep connection with nature, spirituality, and the recovery of ancestral knowledge.
This long-term project, which has been exhibited in more than 30 countries, was carried out alongside communities from three regions of Wallmapu —La Araucanía, Vaca Muerta, and the Pilmaiquén River— documenting ceremonies and central aspects of their lives, some of which had been hidden for two hundred years.
As machi Millaray Huichalaf, spiritual leader and reference for her people, says:
“The hardest thing is to be understood by people with another way of thinking. They despised us so much, they mocked our beliefs and customs so much, that one becomes afraid to speak and reveal secrets. But if today we decide to do so, it is so that sensitive and spiritually prepared people may accompany us in the struggle to defend the continuity of life.”
