Cristina Zàrraga says:
I was always struck by this recurring phrase that has been given to each Yagan who leaves, the last one. This is how it was believed, for example, when Benito Sarmiento left, or grandfather Felipe, then Rosa Yagan and her testimony that made us think about the extinction of this culture.
One day I asked my grandmother (Cristina Calderón) if she was the last Yagan,
-of course not-, she answered me,
– I am neither the only one nor the last.
*quote from the book Cristina Calderón, memorias de mi abuela Yagan (Cristina Calderón, memoirs of my Yagan grandmother), 2017
In different sources of ethnographic literature from both European and American countries, it is stated that the indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego are extinct. On the other hand, from time to time different media both in Chile and Argentina report that the last Yagan speaker or the last Selk´nam descendant has died.
During research on the genocide that occurred in Tierra del Fuego, the artist meets several relatives of survivors, the new generations of Yagan, Selk´nam and Kawésqar.
They are constantly fighting for recognition of their existence and their cultural identity, beyond the colonial photographic portraits of the XIX Century.
Marcela Moraga invites Leticia Caro, Kawéskar, Cristina Zárraga, Yagan, her daughter Hani Kipa Yagan-German and José Luis and Héctor Vásquez Chogue Selk´nam to a video call so that they can get to know each other, have a conversation and manifest that they are not and will not be the last of their people.
Cristina Zárraga was born in Concepción, Chile and lives in Germany. At the age of 23 she traveled to Puerto Williams and settled with her grandmother Cristina Calderón for more than 10 years. Together with her partner Oliver they founded the publishing house Pix, bird in Yagan language. They publish books about the Yagan or Yámana culture and language, for example Cristina Calderón, memorias de mi abuela Yagan (Cristina Calderón, memoirs of my Yagan grandmother), 2017. She is currently working on the revitalization of her Yagan language and regularly visits
Tierra del Fuego, especially her community. Cristina also makes woodcuts, linographs and is dedicated to spiritual healing.
Hani Kipa Vogel, daughter of Cristina Zárraga and Oliver Vogel, lives in Germany. She was born in Ushuaia, Argentina. At the age of two and a half years, she settled with her parents in Germany. In her childhood she traveled to Puerto Williams several times to visit her Yagan family. She knows her culture, where she comes from and knows some Yagan vocabulary.
Brothers Héctor and José Luis Vásquez Chogue live in Santiago, Chile. Héctor is President and Jose Luis is Secretary of the Selk’nam Aska Chogue Indigenous Association. Their family consists of their mother, seven siblings and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They have presented their family story in the Senate of Chile and to various national and international media in order to demonstrate that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the Selk’nam families were violently separated and that their forced removal from the territory did not prevent family descendants and the transmission of memory. All this in tribute and recognition of their maternal grandfather Carmelo Chogue, who survived the Genocide of the Patagonian people. During September of 2021 José Luis and Héctor visited Tierra del Fuego for the first time, finally reuniting with the land of their people. In 2023, the Selk’nam Aska Chogue Indigenous Association achieved the legal recognition of the Selk’nam people by the Chilean State. The Association also works on the recovery of the language and customs of this hunter-gatherer people.
Leticia Caro Kogler lives in Punta Arenas, Chile. She is a fisherwoman and paramedic. She is also the leader of the Kawésqar Community Grupos Familiares Nómades del Mar, a group of children, youth and adults who are dedicated to reclaiming Kawésqar memories, recovering the stories of their ancestors and protecting the maritorio*, mainly from the salmon industry. Salmon is a fish that was introduced in Chile and its industry is the second largest producer in the world after Norway. The series of farms located in the waters of the Chilean Patagonia have caused serious environmental and social damage in the region.
*Maritorio: It is a word formed by Mar (sea) and Territorio (territory, land). It mainly refers to a local identification of the communities living on the coast of southern Chile. The Maritorio is the space where indigenous and non-indigenous communities develop their cultural and socioeconomic life; between the sea and the land.
I´m not the last. A Manifest is part of the project The man of stone and other treasures commissioned for the exhibition MAI Museo Antropologico Immaginario, curated by Valeria D ́Ambrosio at Villa Romana, Florence 2020.
Zoom Meeting, 1-channel video Loop: 4‘ 02‘‘