I attended a virtual cultural presentation that the Mapuche community was hosting to celebrate We tripantu, also known as "Mapuche New Year".
During my first week of my virtual internship, my supervisor invited me to a virtual cultural presentation of the Mapuche tradition. As soon as I entered the Zoom meeting, I was greeted in Spanish, but also in Araucanian, a language spoken by a group of Indigenous people also known as "Mapuche". The audience consisted of teachers, students and family members that were excited to see their children’s work. The first instruction that they gave the audience was that, even though the pandemic was going on, they wanted to create something for the Mapuche community to celebrate. There was manifestations of Mapuche art, culture and language, through dances, music and discussion in the virtual meeting.
Before they started showing the videos they created, the moderator gave a bit of context of what they were celebrating. We tripantu is a sacred day for the Mapuche, since it is the shortest day of the year and corresponds to the beginning of the coldest time of the year.
