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Voices of the Mapuche | Mapuche Dungu


The Napülkafe, Travelers from Wallmapu, in the Old Mapuche LandJosé Ancán Jara

…so, as before, the people went to Puel Mapu. My father went there because he had become very Argentine… who knows for how many days, months, who knows for how

long. They say that I was about to be born… I was born at dawn and some day I’m going to die at dawn… that’s how it is… just like the way the old people used to make

up their minds, that’s how it turned out… Later that morning, with my father’s animals all around, they say that now-deceased Ankañ came to see my mother… ”I had a

baby,” is what my mother said… “What is it?” asked the man… “Ay!” said my Uncle Pancho… that’s how old people used to talk… ”Bring it here, Señora…” and they say

he took me in his arms, I was very little, just born. At that moment my late uncle said, “My laku has been born, Señora, my laku has been born. He shall be called Juan

Ankañ!” Because Juan Ankañ was his father… Then he put some of his saliva into my mouth. “Some day he will be a wise man, he will be an orator, he will be among

good people,” is what now-dead Pancho said… Then do you know what he did? He brought an old shirt and wrapped me up in it… “He’ll have my wisdom,” is what he

said… “It’s good to be wise.” So, by the time my father came back from Puel Mapu, I already had a name… Dead Pancho was his grandfather, his real grandfather… that’s

how I was brought up… (Story by my paternal grandfather, don Juan Kalfin [Ankañ] of Wilio; translated from Mapudungun first into Spanish, together

with other testimonies, by Víctor Cifuentes Palacios)

IntroductionIt’s been a good while since I heard this fascinating story from my laku Juan for the first time. Occasionally it springs anew from his mouth, now well-worn but still lively and cheerful in accordance with the occasion. It’s a story he heard from his elders; a story that in the fading trace of another time places the past and the present within the powerful circle of oral history. My old man always tells me this story because he knows more than anyone that through blood ties and direct allusion to the ancestors, I become a part of it, and in doing so, connect my misplaced time with that epic aroma embodied in the leading figure of the father of my father – kimche and napülkafe – who made his mark in the time of freedom. I knew nothing about him other than what was in the somewhat diaphanous nütram, which reproduce his words and his famous voyages to Puel Mapu. They say he returned from these voyages with symbols of prestige and power – enigmas even to people now, but that some day we may be able to decipher.

My beloved tata Juan, who never became a farmer, is almost or more than 100 years old. Since he’s so old, he can’t get on his horse, which is always ready and saddled, waiting for him at the door of his ruka. With a smile, he always waits for my questions, which invariably lead to other questions because I am anxious to recover, even just in the imagination, a speck of what has been lost. The following, which is like an old road that you can barely make out unless you’ve been on it before, is undoubtedly a direct reference to all of that…

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The napülkafe travelersThose of us who have had the good fortune to overcome supposed great distances, by belonging to the privileged circle speaking the traditional Mapuche language, uttered in its full splendor by some old person with a good memory, have heard many times, in the heart of song or prose and in tones resonant of epic deeds, about the expedition to the other side of the Andes Cordillera of some traveler, sometimes a direct ancestor, a napülkafe. “A word used by the old people,” say the old men nostalgically when mentioning it. Not in common use anymore, it has meanings that today seem strange, in its derivation from nampülkan, that some translate as “liberty.” One thing is clear: the concept was always attributed to the long trips taken to the land of eastern Puel Mapu (Argentina), that vast territory that in its incredible immensity stretches as a great promise all the way to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

Of another setting and with different aims, these napülkafe horsemen, who were active until a little more than a century ago, journeyed along roads carved in the Ngulumapu – now Chilean Araucanía – in the midst of enormous, dense temperate rain forests that can scarcely be imagined today in the landscape of highways and towns that now covers this part of the Mapuche Country. Ngulumapu, the land between two mountain ranges up to the edge of the Pacific Ocean, was a concept derived from the peculiarities of this western area, which was far larger than Chile’s present-day Región de la Araucanía.

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In the Mapuche language – in Mapudungun – “lake” is lafken, the same word used for the sea.

Lake Verde, Conguillío


This world is undoubtedly difficult for us to imagine, but clearly reflects a surprising ability for mobility and adaptation. In their constant travels, in that faraway time when the horse had stopped being a novelty and was increasingly becoming the pride and necessity of the distinguished, these Mapuche men were learning about and incorporating into the collective cultural imagination a complex and efficient geographic network, giving function and coherence to this immense region. The name they gave it, based on a defined spatial logic, emphasizes its east-west direction. This “nervous system” of landmarks adapted to an exuberant natural world, but not antagonistic with human occupation, included multidirectional trails, rüpü; elevated lookouts, adkintuwe; rivers, lewfü; seas/lakes, lafken; volcanoes, seiñ; hills, rivers crossings confluences, fields, menoko and more, each with its own name and secret. These were all natural and cultural features that facilitated communication and movement among the different jurisdictions in autonomous Wall Mapu.

Puel Mapu, the eastern part of Wall Mapu, had a radically different physiognomy from Ngulumapu, the western part. Even today, any somewhat observant traveler crossing the Andes in this zone will notice how this land almost suddenly appears. It is a land with defined borders and ochre tones, once the last mountain spurs have been left behind. It is also called Waiduf

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Mapu, or “all the land behind the mountains.” Here the level, dry, flat and far-reaching pampa opens up; so different in feeling and shape to that enclosed and wet greenness on the western side. A sudden change in spatial perspective occurs. The land is now open and lacking in important reference points, except the stars in their nocturnal paths, and the secret language of the winds. There, the gaze met a broad and continuous line of bluish distant horizon that was disturbingly attractive to the Nguluche adventurers. So, the concept of Puel Mapu – where the flat land reaches – made sense to these old napülkafe. It represented a paradigmatic and overwhelming promise of prosperity

and power (in the full meaning of the concept). Of course, it was only the heterogeneous continuation of a single large country, where the snowy mountains and imposing passes were just features along the way and a circumstantial part of sovereign Wall Mapu.

Accustomed as we are, though we should not be, to the recent history of enforced and relatively effective Chilean and Argentine acculturations that in more than one way threaten to become permanent, we have come to see only the small and increasingly restricted reservation spaces as exclusively Mapuche Territory. This feeble assumption is now beginning to be questioned. Beyond this and despite the closeness of the political-military defeat at the end of the 19th century, it is still hard to imagine any other scenario than that of the opposite image: farmers surrounded by barbed wire, emaciated ears of corn and strange trees, or the harsh invisibility of Mapuche migrants and city dwellers.

But that other vast and memorable time is not so remote that it remains forever enclosed within the fantastically blurred outlines of myth or legend. Something more than the distant echoes of a distinctive intonation in manners and gestures continues to haunt the fragmented reminiscences dwelling in the oldest memories, those that were able to build their first defenses in the final moments of the autonomous tradition. These recollections are found in their most inscrutable dimensions, and for that reason the deepest of all human knowledge, in the memory. At first to the outsider, these reminiscences seem to confuse the so-called real with the magical. However, they contain not only irrefutable proof of “the truth” among their twists and turns, but also a real Pandora’s box of multi-shaped and inexhaustible surprises.

In effect, the trip to Puel Mapu for our “old ones” was much more than an economic or commercial venture to trade goods… much more. It was an unparalleled learning experience for men and also an initiation rite that separated childhood from adulthood. To travel from Ngulumapu to the eastern lands, usually carrying a load of textiles and silver, was irrefutable proof of courage, and evidenced the trade relations established or to be established along the way. Sometimes, if the trip lasted more than originally planned, the returning traveler received a bigger welcome and earned greater prestige. Eloquent testimony were the head of wild cattle or the secret newen, which in the shape of “walking stones,” they say, could conquer those less brave in these forbidden lands. Just as important, if not more so, were the family alliances made along the way. These were an important part of the weft of parental ties that horizontally crossed the autonomous Mapuche society more than a century ago.

From the end of the 19th century, the implacable borderline, which dominated the collective imaginations on both sides of the Andes, marked not only the division of the Mapuche into two

To travel from Ngulumapu

to the eastern lands, usually

carrying a load of textiles and

silver, was irrefutable proof of

courage, and evidenced the

trade relations...

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Mapuche basketry and women’s silver jewelry. Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino


groups – one in each of the two republics – but also their future configuration and participation in the respective nation states. While it is true that with their defeat and incorporation into Chile and Argentina, the Mapuche abruptly lost their political independence and, as a consequence, the Wall Mapu concept lost its true significance, traces remained of the old journeys, communication lines and cultural mobility among the families on both sides of the Cordillera, eventually becoming an important part of the traditions on this side that are occasionally reflected in the prestige attributed to the traits defined as “Argentine-like.” Riding gear and horses, artifacts, clothing, songs and a certain wit are even now associated with cultural prestige in the eyes of those who remember the itineraries and the stories that settled on the dusty faces of those napülkafe.

Riding gear and horses, artifacts,

clothing, songs and a certain wit

are even now associated with

cultural prestige…

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Mapuche riding gear. Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino



All peoples and cultures, regardless of the time period or circumstances, order and label their world, both the immediate and distant, to contain their own concept of the universe. People orient themselves in their cosmos by establishing certain temporal and spatial dialectics, mostly in accordance with the place where they prosper, become smaller or larger in number, lose or win. The Mapuche did not look to the sea as a key reference point, nor as a vast space that most likely should be absorbed into their culture. Because they were situated in the middle of the Araucanía region, the relationship they had with the sea was evidently not powerful enough so that, for example, in their cosmogony, there were mythical heroes who had come from the open sea in canoes braving ocean swells and cataclysms. In most of our stories, the sea appears in complementary opposition to a land where the human species is redeemed from the exclusive dominance of water, and settles. Even in the Lafkenche areas, only circumstantial benefits are obtained along its shores and immediate area. Venturing out into the open sea is generally discouraged by tales of fabled restrictions, like the Mankian stone or Nometulafken – the land on the other side of the ocean – where, for some Mapuche, the spirits of the dead go. This place, however, is not so far off and inaccessible that it cannot be spied from the

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OPPOSITE: Mankian Panku near Piedra Alta, Lake Budi

Mankian Ruca Lame, Lobería

In the Cordillera, there was a stone… my father said… where you have to kneel, to pray… there. If you are not going to do well, you

trip, fall down and you won’t do well, you’ll be sick, you won’t find work, that’s the sign it gives… if it turns out badly you have to turn

back… you have to dream… Afterward, Waidüf Mapu, that place [that is] just a little further… Waidüf Mapu is just a little farther over

there, said my father… there they begin to work a little… any work… It’s like the first step… when you enter Argentina… they went to

Bahía Blanca… Buenos Aires too… Wenusai they called it… (Testimony by Rosa Kuriwentru; Wilio)

Wall Mapu: a platform stretching between two seas


Nometulafken (Isla Mocha) – the land on the other side of the ocean – where, for some Mapuche, the spirits of the dead go.


mainland as an island, since the trip made by the transmuted spirits is not a long one. Incidentally, the traditional canoes – wampo – which are like those in the world of the dead that transported passengers in death to Nometulafken, were never designed for long sea voyages.

In the times of the napülkafe’s splendor, both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans – one close by and the other known from adventure – were antipodes, the consciousness of the end of terra firma at both extremes of the roads. This was because the shores of both precisely defined the full meaning of the Wall Mapu concept. This extended platform, rising and falling between one lafken and another, is where the essence of the Mapuche culture, which has always looked inland, was and still is expressed. In the far distant past, that wise observer, according to the evidence we have, first gazed out over the land with his/her back to the Pacific coast. The Andes massif with its many undulations is the backdrop, the focal point for the first glimpse of the culture’s dawn, and its days, naturally viewed looking to the east, the land of mountains and seiñ – vigorous volcanoes – from which benefits and power are asked for in prayer. All the land that rises above the plain, a simple rocky hill or the peak of a volcano or mountain, and the adkintuwe – the lookouts – were enormously important features in the mental map of this independent territory. From there could be seen a different landscape, which at ground level was delimited by slopes and leafy forests.

In those earlier times, that Mapuche gaze had also rested on the principal cardinal points, so there are always a north and a south, too. Throughout the historical post-contact period with the Europeans, however, these points were defined by a foreign presence from which it was impossible to become disentangled. By the mid-17th century, the Bio Bio River marked the northern boundary, and spared those below, who in the beginning of the 19th century went on to became the country’s Native Peoples. To be Mapuche was synonymous with being a people from south of the Bio Bio

Venturing out into the open sea is generally

discouraged by tales of fabled restrictions, like

the Mankian stone or Nometulafken – the land

on the other side of the ocean.

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From there, to the southern point

of Lake Calafquén, or Trailafken,

as it was called then.

on down to Chiloé – a south that, with its diversity of identities and cultural forms, was also divided by the enclaves inherited from the Spaniards and later by the early European colonization. But the view to the east remained open, to the land that was behind those snowy mountains, where the sun rises and where the eyes normally turn as one emerges from the main doorway of the ruka.

The complex set of trails made by traveling caravans in the midst of the ancestral countryside was truly the center of that orientation that lasted efficiently and freely until the end of the 19th century. The roads – rüpü – were not created haphazardly in this territory, since they facilitated communications and traffic that probably existed here well before the arrival of the Spaniards. Apparently a central trail – equivalent to Chile’s current north-south (Panamerican) highway – interrupted by towns and everything that a largely undisturbed natural environment contains, was the backbone of this territory. Beginning at the Bio Bio border, this was the main route that traders, travelers and then Chilean soldiers used to penetrate the Mapuche Nation. Another important path was one along the ocean shore, a route that the Spaniards had followed in their first incursions, and that in the south, from Valdivia, travelers such as Paul Treutler were able to cross. The

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other important road that he traveled along was the one out of Valdivia heading northeast to Mariquina, then further inland to near what is now Loncoche, and from there, to the southern point of Lake Calafquén, or Trailafken, as it was called then. The other possibility was to continue north, again in the same direction as the current Panamerican Highway, to arrive at Pitrufquén, a vitally important place in Ngulumapu.

Many of the trails, especially those with an east-west direction, used the river courses as references, and depending on the currents, sites were chosen where travelers could cross. Numerous pertinent testimonies and documents mention the Toltén River as an important orientation feature in this arrangement. Testimonies, such as those of Pascual Koña and many others, attest that a track went along the south side of the entire river, from the coast of Lake Budi to the Villarrica, Paimún and Carrerriñe mountain passes. Perhaps because of this and because of the importance of the road system, the town of Pitrufquén had such singular geopolitical importance during the independent period that the descendents of the Paillalef, the traditional owners of these lands, still remember it.

A second element associated with the watercourses and essential to the adjustment and perception of the autonomous space was the importance the lakes assumed in ordering their surroundings. In the Mapuche language – in Mapudungun – “lake” is lafken, the same word used for the sea. To the Mapuche way of thinking, it would be like saying that the lakes are something like inland seas. Because of their location in the territory, heading from the sea to the Cordillera would give the perception of a horizontal extension of open landscape, a place that unfolds along the way, like a platform or a table that has various features, such as forests, mountains and volcanoes, but that becomes a single totality when the lakes are seen as extensions of the ocean. “Sea eyes,” as they are remembered, may sound silly to some, but is a concept accurately reflected by the toponymy of such names as Calafquén (Kalafken, the other sea), mentioned above as Trailafken (rising sea), and Mayolafquén (Mallolafken, white water sea). Huechulafquén (Wuechulafquen, the sea at the limit, on the border, or at the end) is the mountain lake-sea that allegorically begins in ngulumapu and dies in one of its extended arms, at the start of the flat lands in the eastern pampas. This is a convenient approximation to the meaning itself, not only for those watery mirrors that in central Araucanía are like entryways announcing the adventure of the narrow mountain passes. The presence of the component word lafken eloquently implies that the names of those places were given by the first napülkafe, who in some faraway time, before or after the arrival of Spaniards, began to venture intoPuel Mapu, to that open, sprawling land, where the horsemen, as they went further inland, could end up with the solid platform under their horses’ hooves and so experience the incredible sensation of having crossed the land and reached the horizon.

But even before seeing that flat land beyond the rough Waiduf Mapu, one had to cross the Andes Mountains, the very mountains that favored the establishment of the border, which is much more than an imaginary line drawn arbitrarily by some agreement or surrender. It exists, it is fully tangible and at some points is almost inexpugnable. Even today, except for the authorized border passes, the old Mapuche crossings are known only to initiates. In other times they gave power to those who knew their secrets and controlled their access routes.

Narrow mountain passes such as Villarrica (Mamüll Malal – apparently the oldest and the most renowned since it can be used year around – the one at Lakes Lacar and Pirihueico

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A track went along the south side of the Toltén River, from the coast of Lake Budi to the Villarrica, Paimún and Carrerriñe mountain passes.

The east, the land of mountains and seiñ – vigorous volcanoes – from which benefits and power are asked for in prayer.

Villarrica Volcano


(Huahum Pass), and those at Ranco and Riñihue have been known and used for many years. A large number of lesser passes oftentimes can only be used in the summer. Then there is the “lost” Carrerriñe Pass that was used by Pascual Koña’s expedition to travel to and from Puel Mapu. In the Lake Huechulafquén area, it is known as Paimún, or “belonging to the volcanoes,” since part of the route goes by the Lanín and Quetrupillán volcanoes.

When horses became a requirement of the Mapuche cultural repertory, the concept of Puel Mapu probably crystallized into a promise of prosperity and challenging adventure for the nguluche horsemen. This was when the snow-capped mountains had to reveal their secrets and let in some travelers – those who asked permission and looked for omens at Kuramalal, the sacred stone that guarded the entrance to the Cordillera’s peaks. There the napülkafe had to ask for strength and good omens, in order to continue along the route. A successful trip to Puel Mapu was one that brought back the power – newen – that was won there, which awarded wealth and long life to those who had it and that, depending on its strength, could be passed

The old Mapuche crossings are

known only to initiates.

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on to one’s descendents. In the collective memory, these powers were usually associated with blue- or green-colored stones: “Those pebbles they say possess power… if you don’t know how to use them the person dies… they are in Argentina, those powerful walking stones…” (Rosa Kuriwentro; Wilio). Other stones “are sometimes used for certain diseases… you boil them and they say that the steam from those powerful stones can heal.” Also mentioned are the white stones called mallo, which have similar characteristics. “Stones that had a secret… so they called them, they ground them up and drank them[…] To make the blood circulate, so the blood is strong…” says don Brunildo Ñankulaf; Wilio).

Skillful horsemen left vein-like tracks here and there, searching for the best way out, forging the narrow trail through the foothills, adapting it to the slopes and cliffs and finally opened a way to where the rivers run backward. On the other side was a strip of land just like one before

Part of the route goes by the Lanín

and Quetrupillán volcanoes.

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the mountain’s western side. After that rough land and a descent was the beginning of what was called Waiduf Mapu, which could also be used to mean “all of the land behind a mountain or hill,” and even “those who rode backward.” This Waiduf Mapu was the perfect threshold for the trip to that faraway blue horizon. It could be the place where Pascual Koña first glanced east and saw the promise of his arrival in its silhouette. Only when all trace of mountains and trees disappears, well beyond the current boundary responsible for the existence of Chilean and Argentine Mapuche, does the real Puel Mapu begin… the land that, in the words of Manuel Mankepi,

goes up to where the ground stops, because if I take another step I’ll step in

the water. Puel, this is Puel for us, when they say Puel Mapu… the hard land,

where we can step, beyond we just find water. Puel Mapu…

The pampean plains – the Puel Mapu itself – were irresistibly attractive to the nguluche because they were far away and contained hidden riches. There was no “halfway” in that land; you came back with prestige, power and livestock or you died in the attempt. This was a land that was remarkably receptive to the cultural elements brought over by the Europeans, such as cows and horses, which fortuitously found an ideal habitat to freely reproduce, and contributed so powerfully to the organic enrichment of the soil that eventually thousands were able to graze and thrive in the area. This surprising mechanism rapidly changed not only the landscape, but also the cultural imagination of several towns. Extraordinary tales of Puel Mapu began to be told in the wet western forests, along with the news of wealth and promise on the other side of the Cordillera. These references surely reached Ngulumapu, together with such exciting stories as for instance that of the sea of ownerless, wild horses that surrounded a mid-18th century traveler for three weeks.

This image became profoundly imbedded in the Mapuche’s collective consciousness and fantasies, and manifested itself in the compulsion by the western napülkafe to travel thousands of kilometers on trips lasting two or three years. In effect, a traveler was obligated by that imagery to return with tokens of his passage through distant places, and his elevated status was denoted by the troops of horses, guided by the leading mare’s bell, which from afar announced his return. He arrived with endless stories and was received with banquets given by relatives or by the kastaimpe, his awaiting wife.

The Mapuche’s sudden change from being simple trekkers to proud horsemen ushered in a period of true, socio-cultural

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expansion out to the eastern pampas, transforming much of the culture, and even its concept of the territory and surrounding space. The most important change was the radical expansion of the possible geographical limits, within which the culture and its customs had meaning. No matter how far away that horizon was, so distant but still so blue, to actually reach that extreme and extensive Puel Mapu was even more esteemed. It was hard getting to that promised land, but the challenge was enthralling. While few actually did make it, they had to merit their distinction by bringing back riches, represented by the spirited horses and cows they found there. Like the newen won in those lands, their fame had to resonate in the memories of their relatives when they returned.

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OPPOSITE: Chiripa and Huasca. Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino


Beginning in the 17th century, a powerful, mysterious force caused a large portion of the male Mapuche population of Ngulumapu to travel back and forth to the eastern pampas, and the entire society to abandon an apparently tranquil way in a land with, for the most part, readily available resources. In effect, this force compelled them to abandon their ancient homeland, where they subsisted through incipient agricultural practices, as well as through hunting and gathering in a lush habitat characterized by sweeping forests, and innumerable hills, rivers and lakes, providing them with abundant small game, bark, wood, roots, sap and herbs that they could use for food, to make medicines and to meet any of their domestic needs.

For a society that was used to moving constantly in search of natural resources that varied according to the season, to own a horse became an essential part of life and an absolute necessity to be a part of that culture. The world looks very different on foot than it does on horseback, although in both cases the same terra firma is being crossed. Mounted on a good horse, distances and times are reduced, all of the surroundings are viewed anew, and reaching the still far off horizon becomes a tantalizing possibility. That horizon – that distant Kallfü Mapu of pampas where thousands of the desired horses lived – became part of the culture, and in the process, many traces – vestiges of the journeys, sojourns of human faces and gestures – were scattered along the road and in the memory.

Today, it is hard to imagine, in the midst of poor and meager farms, a society and a culture whose members were, for the most part, constantly moving from one place to another. At first, these relocations were probably motivated by the opportunities offered by the spacious, available territory in Ngulumapu, which gave an extended family group, or a part of it, the chance to move freely to another uninhabited place among the many that existed. Another element, not often considered, is that a lofche – community of relatives – would need to have two or three available places where the members could live depending

Kallfumapu:the land with an infinite, blue horizon

People who have traveled know about life, they used to say… And the one who doesn’t go out doesn’t know anything about

what has happened… there he is laying around in his house beside his wife just drinking mate… but the man who has gone

and suffered knows about life, my father used to say. That’s why he wanted to bring me [to Puel Mapu] when I was a kid.

(Segundo Curihuentro; Wilio, Chile)

My grandmother said that Kallfumapu is… a place… that would be the pampa… [and that] you can see that it’s very different

from this place… [there] you see everything bluish… (Teresa Tripailaf; Lower Aukapán, northeast of Junín de los

Andes, Neuquén Province, Argentina)

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The chañuntuko, a textile saddle that was more aesthetic than utilitarian.

Chañuntuko, or textile saddle. Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino

Here the level, dry, flat and far-reaching pampa opens up.


on the time of year, due to possible dangers from attacks or from outside aggressions, diseases, climatic catastrophes, or simply, the search for seasonal resources.

Most of Ngulumapu was covered by impenetrable forests, above all in the central part and in the Andes foothills. Due to the reigning climate, it was better at providing plant products than big or small game for food. In both cases, but especially with reference to game, such resources are less abundant and varied in number than in a temperate rain forest. The big game resources in the central forests were scarce, limited to pudus, or pushu, and some guanaco herds roaming the open plains of the central zone, while huemules – wemul – invariably scarce, were found only in the spurs of the mountain ranges. Foxes(ngürü), pumas (pangi), and mountain lions (wiña) were not considered game animals for normal consumption, and were stalked only in cases of extreme hunger or absolute necessity.

Despite their diversity and number throughout the area, birds could not be depended on as a stable food source for a moderately settled society. Within a closed forest like this one, most people even today would surely delight in watching the spectacle of its heavy, rustling dampness penetrated by sunbeams that manage to filter through the crowns of giant trees, now and then stirred by the wind. The latent, encompassing silence is only occasionally broken by the songs of the chukao or the rere – woodpecker.

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We believe that rather than on game, the original Mapuche diet was based on a number of plant products and byproducts gathered in the surrounding environment. In addition, corn, quinoa, potatoes and other crops – cultivated on a small scale – were a part of the Mapuche’s cultural resources since before the arrival of the Europeans. The later mass-introduction of other crops, and livestock, in no way resulted in a substitution of the ancient ones, which coexisted together in that vast Nation when both sides of the Cordillera became occupied.

This independent Mapuche circulation, in our judgement, should not be understood as a static or rigid process, in the sense that all the components of the society occupied space in the same way. On more than one occasion it has been proposed that the Mapuche society, in Puel Mapu, as well as in Ngulumapu, was a heterogeneous enough society to have included very different and even opposing cultural practices. Various and supplementary modes of occupation probably coexisted.

First came the domestic space, consisting of groups of ruka in a lofche, or “puebla,” the basic Mapuche family unit – that is, collections of houses situated no less than 500 meters apart. Their worked surroundings included a fruit orchard, springs or sources of drinking water, watercourses for cleaning, corrals for livestock and land for crops used exclusively for domestic consumption. The varied livestock belonging to the homeowners was not necessarily located on land next to the “puebla,” except for those animals destined to be consumed. Often, nearby open forests were used as grazing grounds for these animals, which could be traded with the many merchants traveling through Araucanía in those days or with other Mapuche in areas specialized in producing different kinds of articles.

Corn, quinoa, potatoes and other crops

– cultivated on a small scale – were

also a part of the Mapuche’s cultural

resources.

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On the second level were probably the lofche’s public use areas, which were generally associated with natural elements, such as trees, water and land, in their different and changeable states. This category included rotational collective pasture lands or forests: land for growing vegetables, groves with medicinal plants, and a large number of toponymic features with different cultural meanings related with the category ko – river water; menoko – underground streams; trayenko – waterfall; wüfko – spring. Something similar occurred (and still occurs) with the different-size knolls and attributes – volcanoes, hills, lookouts, outcrops or large rocks – all non-productive features, but highly significant culturally and ritually because they are related to socio-religious, individual or collective practices. Zones for public use or of an open, collective nature included: the eltun – family cemeteries, more numerous before than now; nguillatuwe – fields for public prayer; trawünwe – meeting grounds; paliwe – palin or “chueca” [similar to field hockey] playing grounds. Each was located in a different place, depending on the available land.

The third type of space was definitely the one most affected by the defeat and the subsequent creation of reservations, and has practically disappeared from use, remaining largely in the memory of the successive usurpations. This space included the land with all its surrounding features, and as part of the jurisdiction of some lonko or ñidol lonko, could be occupied by a new family. These lands were used many times to hold the extra cattle brought from Puel Mapu, which, given the big gap between the satisfied needs and the available resources, could remain in these fields in an almost wild state, serving sometimes as sustenance for some passing traveler. But most importantly, although these large spaces were not used for houses, this does not signify that they lacked meaning. As part of a territorial logic – a big country with distant horizons – uninhabited spaces had a different meaning from that of enclosed areas, a city or a modern state. These uninhabited lands, with all of their many components, in their wild state or probable human occupation, remained an indispensable part of the collective imagination.

Beyond the subject of the individual ownership of these spaces, the important point is that this was the original land of the western napülkafe. This kind of occupation was not the same as that in the first level of habitation, since it involves the visual perspective of a horseman who is passing through on his way to somewhere else. They are stops along the way, land only a rider passes through, where he stays for a few hours, to camp, to feed his horses and animals, land that he knows and uses

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from this perspective, which is not the same as that of someone who is not mounted on a horse. Eventually, a vast network of trails, rüpü – a veritable nervous system running through the foliage – was created by so many horsemen on expeditions and in cattle drives, who in different times and ways gave an everlasting name to each turn, each ford, rock, hill or feature along the way.

First came the domestic

space, consisting of groups of

ruka in a lofche, or “puebla.”

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The movement of a large number of cattle was intimately tied to the establishment of a complex system of roads and trade in goods, and of multiple social relationships based on kinship, which in large measure were maintained until the period immediately following the defeat. Long trips were organized from Ngulumapu using the known trails and mountain passes, some of which had a variety of uses depending on the point of departure, the destination or the main reason for the journey. The departure point and destination also defined the transported merchandise, consisting of different silver and ceramic goods, but above all textiles. One of the most highly regarded of these latter in Puel Mapu, was the chañuntuko, a textile saddle that was more aesthetic than utilitarian.

Juan Kalfin says, “two pontro and lama brought three Argentine horses… a black chañuntuko, two heifers.”

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Lama and Chañuntuko. Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino

The eltun – family cemeteries, more numerous in the past.

Mapuche cemetery, Misión de San Juan de la Costa


After the occupation of the Mapuche nation, the People of the Land experienced many radical changes. They lost their independence and their self-determination. The old Wall Mapu – so big that people could move anywhere in all directions – remains only as a confined memory in the reservations and persecutions imposed by the Chilean and Argentine states. Kinships were broken and movements between both sides of the Cordillera were restricted to the bits of land where agriculture is poor and to the mountain enclaves where the descendents of the owners of the pampas went to seek refuge from the last uprising. The songs evoking the deeds of the free napülkafe still haunt the memories of the people on both sides .

This is a past that surprises many of those who see the fenced reservations as the only possible horizon, a past laden with eloquence on both sides of the border that despite seeming to hint at an unfulfilled history, still resonates in the collective memory of the elders. They like to recall that time. The trips and the napülkafe bring alive an epic and heroic past where everything was better than it is today. So it is with most peoples around the world. Brave deeds and warriors of the past give meaning to a present marked by deficiencies and exclusion. There are signs still in the old trails and in the people and in their circumstances and in the ruined but “silently explicit” countryside, like the heads of the deceased in the Puel Mapu cemeteries that are gazing at their distant Nguluche origin.

The memory of these travels is still fresh on the lips of our old people who yearn to ride along those roads once again, to meet their distant but familiar relatives, to find once again their own history, which is here in every step taken, in the rich imagery that can almost be touched in each “Argentine” story that we hear:

…when we were little… we were looking after the pigs… suddenly we heard a bell, clang-clang, a beast came toward

us ringing the bell and in Mapuche we said, “kiñe, epu, küla, meli… mari… kawellu man…” frightened, we didn’t see

any people, yet… The Madrina’s horse walked in front… suddenly, we saw the horses rearing up with people on them…

a whole family… big and small, saddled and mounted… we sure admired them, we had to go tell them at home… so

many people, horses, two people on one horse… a grandmother who came [said], “ahhh napülkao, arkentino tati chaw.

Napülkao tati akutui arkentina... for sure tomorrow no one will have to work.” (don Brunildo Ñankulaf, of Wilio;

translated from Mapudungun into Spanish by Víctor Cifuentes Palacios)

AcknowledgmentsTo Margarita for her light. To the old men and women from my extended family in Wilio – land of the venerable napülkafe – particularly the memory of the peñi Manuel Kañikul from the community of Rakitué, on the shores of Lake Huechulafquén – today Argentine – who passed away in May 2001. I had the honor and privilege of riding horseback with him along the mountain trails in Carrerriñe and Paimún. For the gift of his friendship and wisdom, which made me feel that we are truly children of the same People, today artificially separated by a border.

This text is based on ruminations that begin with a family story, which is complemented with data and observations collected during the development of Fondecyt Project N°1000097/2000.

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The memory of these travels is still fresh on the lips of our old people...

Sacred Dance

The sea has returnedrising up thickover solitary Tren Tren hilland on the rocksgoes along leaving its word

The snakes dance,there aboveawaiting the moon,

The waves dance there belowawaiting the dew of Kai Kai

And the sun falls heavyon his back

Behind the row of stonesKalfukura dreams.

Waichef Purrun

Wüñoy lafken

wenuntuwi tren-tren leufumu

wenuntuwi

wente kura

elmey ñi dungu

Pürumekey

wenu filu

Küyen pürun

Nagmapu

pürumekey lafken,

ka kiñe pürun nentuy Kay-kay

Deuma gütrüfnaküm-uwtuy antu

Alüpu

ka mapupüle

Kalfukura

Pewmayawi.

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