My people were declared extinct, but we’re still here

As a child, Hermany Molina Vargas was fascinated by her grandfather. He hugged trees, spoke in sounds no one understood and told stories of magical forests, snow and great journeys. After his death, she began investigating his past and discovered that he belonged to the Selk’nam people of Tierra del Fuego, the ‘Land of Fire’, an archipelago at the southernmost tip of South America. The Selk’nam, who had lived there for thousands of years, suffered violent persecution at the hands of 19th-century settlers and were believed to have died out. What followed was a decades-long search for the truth. Together with her daughter Fernanda and other Selk’nam descendants, Hermany challenged Chile’s official history and helped secure recognition for a people once thought extinct.

Presenter: Grace Livingstone
Producer: Maryam Maruf
Voiceovers: Regina Brandolino as Hermany, and Maite Jáuregui as Fernanda

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(Photo: Hermany Molina Vargas and her daughter Fernanda stand together on a residential street in Tierra del Fuego. Hermany, on the left, has a long braid and wears a black-and-white knitted jumper. Fernanda, on the right, wears a grey t-shirt with an owl design and has her arm around her mother's shoulders. They stand beside a red wooden house, while a wet street slopes downhill past houses, parked cars and utility poles. The sky is overcast, with snow-capped hills visible in the distance. Credit: Grace Livingstone)