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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| February 20, 2004 |
Unknown History of Patagonia – Myriam Angueira |
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| Argentinean documentary filmmaker Ms. Myriam Angueira talks about life of the Mapuche in Argentinean Patagonia |
Patagonia is a region that covers 1,100,000 square kilometers of the southern tip of the South American Continent, stretching over parts of Argentina and Chile. Patagonia is three times as big as Japan, and its dynamic nature and beautiful landscapes attract visitors from all over the world. Since navigator Ferdinand Magellan, the first European who sailed past this southernmost tip of South America, “discovered” Patagonia in 1520, generations of Europeans traveled to and settled in this area.
Ms. Myriam Angueira, an Argentinean documentary filmmaker, joined Peace Boat from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, the southernmost city inhabited by human beings. As a documentary-maker, who has won awards for her films that center around human rights and environmental issues, she came onboard to introduce the little-known life of the indigenous people in Argentinean Patagonia to Peace Boat participants.
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Soon after Europeans landed in the sixteenth century, the first inhabitants of Patagonia, the Mapuche, began to die at an extreme rate. The diseases brought by European conquerors served as an effective, if incidental, weapon alongside the more conventional implements of murder. Today, a small community of Mapuche continues the traditional way of living. However, exploitation of their life by outsiders seems never-ending.
Ms. Angueira, whose grandmother was Mapuche, first showed the audience documentaries of Mapuche people introducing their highly spiritual and peaceful lifestyle. In Esquel, Argentinean Patagonia, such way of life is under threat by a Canadian multinational corporation, which plans to mine gold by a method which involves the extensive use of cyanide, a highly poisonous substance, which will have a devastating effect on the surrounding natural environment. While the mine may provide the local Mapuche community with new jobs, its construction, if carried out, will change their lives permanently. Ms. Angueira is currently working on a project to support Mapuche school children who live in Esquel in making their own documentary film “Eyes of the Wind.” Through the project, she aims to let the children express themselves as Mapuche by use of images as well as helping them to acquire computer skills. “Eyes of the Wind” will give the Mapuche children a voice to be the witnesses of their own reality. Through the process Ms. Angueira hopes that the children will learn that Mapuche, not “European settlers,” are the ones who can and should make decisions for their people and their land.
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