Kuifi ül-Sonido Antiguo: A conversation about contemporary Mapuche creation and their position on indigenous patrimony

Francisco Huichaqueo Pérez is a filmmaker, image and object curator, professor, and artist from the indigenous Mapuche community who lives and works in Concepción, CL

Chile, where Huichaqueo was born, embraces a racialized concept of citizenry, waging a covert and overt war on the Mapuche people. In retaliation for the defense of their territories against deforestation and other forms of extractivism, the Chilean state continues to prosecute Mapuche activists under a counter-terrorism legislation introduced by the military dictatorship.

Every Mapuche knows another—a relative, a friend or acquaintance—who is or has been a political prisoner. Besieged physically, the Mapuche are nonetheless able to travel spiritually, a process the Mapudungun language calls perimontun (vision or apparition). Cinema grafts itself easily onto the Mapuche ability to inhabit the tangible and the intangible, the reel operating as a portal to the political and spiritual dimensions of the Mapuche world.