Intergenerational dialog with Margarita Vargas Lopez

Report on the Normandy Chair for Peace’s dialog of 28 November 2022 with Margarita Vargas Lopez, Kaweskar.

By Leslie Cloud and Margarita Vargas Lopez

Entretien avec Margarita Vargas Lopez

The Kawesqar are a People of southern Chile, formerly known as the nomadic People of the southern canals of Chile, who lived alongside the Yagan and Selknam Peoples. There are currently 18 indigenous Kawesqar communities recognized by the Chilean state under the 1993 indigenous law, and fewer than 10 speakers of the Kawesqar language. The current Chilean constitution, which was adopted at the height of the military dictatorship and supports Chile’s neo-liberal economic model, does not recognize indigenous Peoples or their rights. A draft new constitution, which would protect the rights of indigenous Peoples in particular, was also rejected by the Chilean plebiscite on the fourth of September 2022.

Margarita Vargas Lopez, from the Kawesqar People of southern Chile, was born in Puerto Eden, known as Jetarke in the Kawesqar language. Her grandmother, Margarita Molinari Eden, dedicated herself to preserving Kawesqar culture. She has been a university professor (Academica), social activist and indigenous leader for several decades, she wants to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps to preserve Kawesqar heritage and protect their rights. In 2021, Margarita Vargas Lopez was elected as a member of the Constituent Assembly responsible for drafting a new constitution for Chile (finally rejected in the plebiscite of September 4, 2022), as the indigenous representative for the seat reserved for the Kawesqar People.

The Kawesqar People, nomads of the southern canals

Margarita Vargas Lopez (M. V. L.): « We belong to a nomadic People of the southern canals. Our ancestors travelled the southern canals. Most of the Kawesaqar had to leave the territory of their ancestors. They left with their culture. My People lived in contact with nature. To develop our spirituality, we need to be in contact with our environment. Our main diet consisted of seafood, duck eggs, deer and red fruit, the Calafate. Thanks to our nomadic lifestyle, we were able to fish for shellfish until around 1969. All the families went out in the canals to harvest food. We practiced sustainable harvesting, collecting only what we needed to survive. We also hunted wolffish sustainably in January. The flesh of the wolffish was used as food, and the fat as medicine. We smeared wolffish fat on ourselves to keep out the cold and fish for shellfish. (…) Sea bass skins were used as fur for covering. Little by little, this practice became a cultural emblem and today symbolizes the nomadic People of the sea. »

I. The colonization of the Kawesqar People

The impact of colonialism on Kawesqar culture

M. V. L.: « All the Kawesqar families were displaced. We had to leave behind our territory, our culture, our way of seeing the world, and we had to adopt the Western way of life. This was the start of a cultural change for the Kawesqar People. We had to speak Spanish and in a way forget our identity. For the older People it was difficult to learn Spanish. We had to adapt to Chilean education and the process of evangelization began (…) This whole process of transculturalisation with the arrival of Catholicism has had a positive and negative impact. You learn new things, new cultures, but we weren’t able to carry on with our ancestral traditions, speak our language, because they made fun of us. The older People didn’t want to speak the language any more to stop the mockery. I grew up between two worlds, Kawesqar and Chilean. I had to adapt and adopt traditions that weren’t my own, like religion. I went to a school where I had to pray. I didn’t understand anything because our People don’t have superior beings as such. We understand the divinities differently, in direct interaction with nature. »

« The first contacts with white men brought us diseases. My ancestors had to wear Western clothes that stayed wet all the time. This introduced diseases like tuberculosis and created havoc between the People of that generation. We began to forget our knowledge of navigation. Today we can no longer sail. The government imposes a lot of bans on us. We’ve lost navigation areas and we’ve seen how the extractive industries have intruded into our territory. »

« Wherever there were indigenous Peoples, the armed forces moved in. (…) The elders have not been able to adapt to the military. In the case of our community, the installation of the armed forces has had a major impact and has led to human rights violations. Dawson Island is a very sad case. The military moved the natives there to teach them Catholicism. The elders had to leave their nomadic way of life. It was very difficult. We lost our language, our identity. When you lose your language and culture, you also lose your identity. »

The Kawesqar and human zoos

Like other indigenous Peoples, the Kawesqar have also been victims of human zoos. Entire families were taken by force to be « exhibited » in Europe, in Paris, like wild animals: « A Kawesqar girl died in her mother’s arms. She couldn’t adapt to the atmosphere in Paris (…) Under the presidency of Mr Bachelet, we began a process of returning human remains. We took these human remains to the Strait of Magellan ». However, Margarita Vargas Lopez explains that no other action has been taken by the Chilean government to acknowledge the pillaging and serious violations of the rights of the Kawesqar. In November 2022, she took part in a meeting of experts organised by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and held at the CEPAL in Santiago on transitional justice and indigenous Peoples, to testify to the violence suffered and the lack of reparation. She denounced the lack of dialogue to repair the damage caused, which she described as an insult to memory.

In her capacity as an indigenous constituent, Margarita Vargas Lopez had argued in favour of incorporating an article prohibiting the genocide of indigenous Peoples.

II. An unremedied colonial loss

The Kawesqar language at risk of extinction

The International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Languages 2022-2032 was launched in 2022. Margarita Vargas Lopez talked about the risk of extinction of her language and the various actions that have been or will be taken to preserve and transmit it.

V. L.: « Our language is very rich, we have a culture that goes back more than 6,000 years. Our language enables us to understand the cosmovision of our People. In my language, my name is Sarawi, the little white bird. My grandfather gave me that name. The language of our People tells our story. (…) UNESCO has declared our language vulnerable. » 

«The linguist Christos Clairis has done an enormous amount of work to save the Kawesqar language. He has made audio recordings and recovered our intangible heritage. I was a little girl when I met him in 1973. He was accompanied by Captain Cousteau. They visited the Kawesqar People. After talking to my family and other People from Puerto Eden, he realized that our elders identified themselves as Kawesqar and not Alakalufe. He preserved songs, photos and sound recordings of our language. Without him we would have no remnants of our existence, no images of our comrades from those generations. C. Clairis was very generous (…) Today we are trying to gather together our heritage so that we can pass it on to our descendants.»

To find out more, see the session of February 11, 2022 of the Knowledge Systems Commission of the Chilean Constituent Convention, from 2:04 onwards.

The inadequacy of the Chilean State’s efforts to preserve the Kawesqar language and heritage

M. V. L.: « There are no permanent academic opportunities to learn our language. Just apprenticeship programs through the National Indigenous Development Corporation (CONADI) (…) We’d like to take advantage of the presence of the elders who are still alive to make progress in learning our language with the Chilean government. (…) This must be done academically, in schools, using new technologies in particular. (…) It’s our duty to future generations. (…) Our grandparents have been recognized as human treasures of humanity because they remain the only human speakers of our language. However, they do not enjoy more dignified living conditions. »

Attacks on traditional spiritual and fishing activities

M. V. L. « (…) Most of the Kawesqar are fishermen and complain that they can no longer fish because their traditional fishing grounds are closed. The regional government is putting up a lot of administrative obstacles. We can no longer find People who specialize in navigating the ancestral canals as we used to. We became used to Western culture and we are not really cut out for nomadism any more. To fish, we have to go through a lot of administrative formalities. We can’t freely visit cemeteries and traditional spiritual sites because they’re in the hands of the Chilean armed forces. It’s very complicated. I hope that progress can be made. I’ve been working on all these issues since 1998 and I can say that we haven’t made much progress. Indigenous Law No. 19.253 of 1993 does not really talk about the rights of indigenous Peoples. Legislative instruments are not really useful for indigenous Peoples and we all have more or less the same demands. We are all coastal Peoples. We all want to preserve our intangible and tangible heritage. I’m working with a group of People to protect our heritage, to recover nomadism, even if it’s expressed in different ways. (…) We want to visit our cemeteries and traditional sites. »

Violations of the Kawesqar’s rights to their lands, territories and natural resources, in breach of ILO Convention 169 on the Rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (C. 169)

Mr V. L.: « (…) Sometimes roads are built, new resources are discovered. That’s not bad in itself. It generates an economic growth, but these projects are carried out without respect of our People. Under ILO Convention 169, the Chilean state is obliged to consult indigenous Peoples with a view to obtaining their consent for any administrative or legislative measure affecting their territories. Today, they (the administration) present a file, 2, 3 or 4 People from a community sign it and the State says that the project complies with the Convention. (…) There is a lot of work to be done to ensure that the Chilean government respects the agreements that have been signed and ratified (…) ».

« (…) In 2019 the Ministry of National Assets created the Kawesqar National Park. This is a more protective category than marine reserves, which allow concessions to industries that damage the marine ecosystem. This goes against our cosmovision. These industries do not respect human rights or those of the Kawesqar People. We are 18 organized communities recognized by the Chilean state and by ILO Convention 169 on the rights of indigenous and tribal Peoples. This convention is not respected. The extractive industry causes damage that is very difficult to repair (…) All this entails risks for the health of People and ecosystems ».

A very fragile transmission of knowledge to next generations

M. V. L.: « (…) My generation, People of my generation, are very interested in our history and culture, but the new generations are fairly isolated. I understand that because they are very much integrated into Western culture. Colonialism had a big impact on Chile. I can see that young People are trying to learn about their culture but, as I was saying, the system is so bureaucratic that when we want to carry out any kind of project, it’s complicated and young People get bored of this situation. They prefer to lead a Western life, forgetting their memory and their culture. We have had episodes that have affected our daily lives, such as the pandemic. Families have spent long days isolated, and this has hampered interaction between the generations. I can see that young People are isolated, they’re not very close to Kawesqar culture. However, there is still a percentage of young People who are interested in learning. They have organised themselves and are trying to obtain knowledge. That makes me very happy. It means that part of this generation wants to recover this Kawesqar culture (…) We’re here to pass on our knowledge and experience to young People. We don’t want them to encounter the same difficulties that we did. I’d like them to be able to say: I know my People, I can study my native language, I can sail, even if it’s a bit utopian all the same. »

« (…) The elders are so wise, they have so much knowledge, they know how to navigate so well in the western world that most of the time they keep quiet, they observe and when they see that the situation is out of control, they react. They say they want to pass on their history, their culture. I’m in contact with elderly People who are always very keen to share their ancestral culture. They remind us that we should be proud to be Kawesqar. I’m proud of that and I feel I have an obligation to be with them and spend time with them, to keep in touch and make them happy. »

III. Margarita Vargas Lopez, from her past with her grandparents to the Constituent Convention

Her models, grandparents José Lopez and Margarita Molinari Eden and her uncle Carlos Eden Maidel

M. V. L.: « My grandparents, José Lopez and Margarita Molinari Eden, were my teachers. They were very wise and passed on their knowledge orally. They were very kind. I never heard them argue. My grandmother was very cheerful, and a great leader too. At the time of the « sea nomads » project, People said that she was one of the most respected women in the Puerto Eden community. She used to barter with passing boats. She was always ready for the passing boats. With other elders, she would receive clothes in exchange for wolf hides. She was a great negotiator and very cheerful. If she had to talk to the governor, she would do so, because for her, everyone was on an equal footing. She was very friendly. Everyone liked her. When we left for Puerto Eden, some time passed. She joined us and continued to maintain the culture and sell her handicrafts in the streets. It was a way of continuing to be nomadic in a way. She taught me the Kawesqar songs. She had a very gentle voice and conveyed a lot of tenderness. Before I was born, my grandparents asked everyone to get together because I was going to be born. My grandmother sang childhood songs and asked that I be called Margarita. I have a lot of love for them and I thank the universe for allowing me to belong to their family. I learnt her tactics. She had a lot of love for evolving in the Western system. (…) I try to follow her example. »

« (…) Carlos Eden Maidel (who died in March 2023) is a much-admired Kawesqar. I admire his strength and wisdom. He was very committed to defending human rights and the rights of indigenous Peoples. He has done a lot of work for indigenous Peoples. He has a lot of indigenous and political wisdom. He asked me to run for the constituent assembly. What he asks me to do, I do, as if it were a law. He left Puerto Eden when he was barely five years old. He was adopted by Puerto Eden airmen. Although he left Puerto Eden, he never forgot his culture. Even though he was well off economically, he fought for human rights, went into exile in Argentina and then sought political asylum in the United States, in New York. I have great admiration and love for him. The advice he gave me was very useful when I was arguing my case at the Constituent Assembly. He is of great value to the Kawesqar People. It’s a great honour to have a man of his stature. He is sensational. He is wise and generous. Everything he knows, he shares. »

Memories of past nomadism

M. V. L.: « I’ve never been a nomad. I used to go out sailing with my grandparents in a rowboat. I also remember them going out sailing for long periods. I remember preparing the boats and I was sad because my grandparents were away for so long. But I was happy when they came back and brought eggs, and once a penguin for my sister. Of course, we set it free afterwards. When we were sailing, we used to build temporary camps out of sea wolf hides. When there was a habitat like that, it meant that there was an abundance of seafood. So we left the habitat behind when we had to go. These tents were left there to allow other Kawesqar to rest and sleep. It was a sign that there was seafood and that other People had passed through there to hunt and fish. (…) It must be incredible and magnificent to sail through the canals and come across these camps. The ancient Kawesqar knew the canals of the Strait of Magellan very well. (…) We had no interest in expanding our territory because travel was free. The Kawesqar were friendly with other Peoples. They traded and bartered. »

Watch the Cousteau team’s online report on Margarita Vargas Lopez’s family during her childhood in the 1970s (from 30 minutes).

Her journey from Punta Arenas to the Constituent Convention

M. V. L.: « (…) After Carlos Eden Maidel, my main source of inspiration has been my community. My community supports me in everything I do. They support and inspire me as a Kawesqar leader. I started in 1998. With a Kawesqar elder who is no longer with us, I did some territorial work. We wanted an indigenous office in Punta Arenas. I worked at CONADI in Punta Arenas for four years. We formed several communities. Today there are 17 Kawesqar communities. Then I stopped working for CONADI. (…) I was either working for the State or for the rights of indigenous Peoples. So I took the path of the indigenous Peoples. I started to organize different communities like mine, to develop our spirituality, our cosmovision. For example, we collect jonquillos (a variety of rush) and we weave baskets. Here’s a fire basket made by one of our community members. (…) it represents the heritage of our People. In the old days, when women went skinny dipping, they would bring back shellfish and seafood in these baskets. This is a Kawesqar heritage that we must safeguard, just like the canoes and canals. »

« (…) One day I was told that they were going to draw up a new constitution with reserved seats, just one for the Kawesqar. I stood for election with my brother to ensure parity. I stayed and carried the Kawesqar voice to the Constituent Assembly. Relations with the other Peoples were fantastic. Our demands were the same. We set up a committee and I joined the Knowledge, Culture, Science, Technology, Arts and Heritage Committee because I was interested in intangible heritage. »

« (…) I argued for languages to be protected as heritage. We won and throughout this period I was supported by friends, comrades and Christos Clairs. I was also coordinator of the first plurinational body created in Chile with other indigenous brothers. We were the coordinators for the indigenous consultation on the proposals for a new constitution. (…)

I am also president of my indigenous community in Punta Arenas and we form a Kawesqar association. (…) We want recognition of the rights we have been claiming for several decades. These are not privileges. We are asking for constitutional recognition as pre-Columbian Peoples. We also have a legislative framework to protect our tangible and intangible heritage. (…) We had hoped that this new constitution would recognize the usurpation of our territories, that Chile would recognize itself as a plurinational country, that we would have a place in Chilean politics, that the consent of pre-existing Peoples would be recognized and respected at political and administrative level, so that we could regain the rights that have been violated in the past. »

« (…) (during the Constituent Assembly), the media played a role. They are on the side of the big economic interests. They have tried to permanently invalidate our work from the outset. There was no support. »

Thank you Margarita Vargas Lopez!