Day 2

Video Edit from Kimün Mapuche, a festival celebrating We Tripantu, the Mapuche New Year.

Note: We made subtitles, activate them!

This morning we headed out to Teatro de Temuco, to attend the Mapuche event we had seen in Padre Las Casas again. After the show, we were able to speak with Jano, the singer of the group Weichafe, which performed at the event. He explained to us that We Tripantu was the most important date in the Mapuche calendar. It means in Mapudungun 'the new rise of the sun and the moon'. The day of We Tripantu is the shortest of the year, and marks the beginning of winter. On this day, the Mapuche believe that the energies of nature are at their strongest, so as to enable the arrival of a new sun cycle. During We Tripantu, the earth begins to cleanse itself, with the water sent by Ngen-ko, the water spirit. The Mapuche celebrate the arrival of the new cycle, and rejoice in the fact that they may themselves be cleansed of the negative energies that they encountered in the previous year.

During the performance, we were struck by the hybrid character of the music. Rock instruments like electric guitars and drums were accompanied by traditional Mapuche instruments such as the jaw-harp or the 'trutruka', which is a horn-like instrument made from reeds. The resulting music sounded almost disharmonious to us at first, but after a while, we became enthralled by the beat, which resonated in the room. It was also interesting to see how these artists mixed genres. The music of the group Weichafe contained rapped Mapudungun for example. Music was Jano's way to fight for the preservation of traditional Mapuche culture, and inspire younger generations to take pride in their Mapuche heritage.