REVISTA DAP AVENTURA 2015-2016

Aventura al fin del mundo 2015 - 2016
Fotos: Rafael González
HUNTERS IN
TIERRA DEL FUEGO
Nicolás Harambour
Sociologist
Corporate Communications DAP –
nicolas.harambour@dap.cl
Right now I’m in the country. Alone. It’s a
solitary valley where thousands of square
miles distance me from any other human
being. There’s a tv, and it has cable, but
I’m not lost enough to turn it on. Better than
that, I’ve spent the day outside, just looking
at birds whose names I have no idea about;
some are white, some are black, and all of
them carry on with their duties with total
dedication, without giving attention to this
ignorant observer.
Suddenly, I need to pick up my computer
to write something down, and I reach for a
book I left here long ago, having read it a
couple times over under the shadow of a long
tree: “SELKNAM, Cazadoes en la Tierra del
Fuego” (SELKNAM, Hunters in the Land of
Fire” by Mr. Carlos Vega. Being so far from
home, one starts to read references, at least.
In this book, one of the ideas that caught
my attention the most, was the legacy left
by these ancient inhabitants of what we
use to call Tierra del Fuego: a total lack
of impression on their surroundings; their
“Onaisin” is the legacy: nature itself. Not
leaving any writing to brag about it, the
Selknam people lived in one of the harshest
contexts human beings have ever decided
to inhabit, they learned to understand It and
develop an extremely rich vocabulary and
cosmovision to grasp it; they survived with
skill and talent, but never in disfavor of their
neighbors or vegetal species in the area.
Their greatest legacy is, in modern-western
terms, to leave everything as if they had
never existed.
The Selknam knew no private property,
nor consuming or saving anything other
than their strict needs for each day. But
one day, the discoverers and constructors
of the illustrated nations arrived, and under
the unjust weapons of these modern men,
respectful of other people’s belongings to
the point of losing their minds for crimes
such as sheep thievery –in a land whose
fruits used to belonged to anyone willing
to take them- the Selknam fell, and were
forever erased from the face of the Earth.
The wise were killed by ignorance. Healthy
strong men of scarce clothing, killed by the
diseases of those who dressed decently.
I am especially fond of some of their old
customs, having for example my favorite
social institution: according to Mr. Vega, if
a Selknam were to start the day with the
wrong foot, he just had to paint vertical lines
in yellow, one at each side of his mouth, and
so everybody would immediately know not
to bother him that day. Of course, some
other customs I don’t fancy as much. But
indeed I miss the Selknam, and from my
distant ignorance I want to complain about
their absence, while I imagine yellow vertical
lines at each side of my mouth.
30
Adventure at the End of the World