29 Sep 2014 Reviving, Updating and Making Known the History of an Indigenous Community

Communication for Peace

Chile

In October 1973, in the Mapuche community of Maiquillahue, near San José de la Mariquina, Chile, government soldiers murdered José Matías Ñanco, aged 60, fisherman, Protestant pastor, and leftist-sympathizer. SEPADE decided that a video documentary would be an appropriate medium to tell this story and, once the project had been approved and funded, contact was made with Valdivia Films to carry it out. For the family, sharing their story in a documentary that would be screened publicly offered a new opportunity to come to terms with their grief and to continue with their lives in peace. In March 2008 a gathering of the now dispersed Matías family was organized in the paternal home – the occasion on which filming took place. In the midst of the testimonies and family dialogue, José Matías’s granddaughter emerged as the natural narrator of the film, interpreting the accounts of the elders and communicating them to a wider audience. The documentary has been screened in Chile and elsewhere.

Final Report