Children’s e-book launched in indigenous Chilean language

WEDNESDAY, 20 MARCH 2013 17:32 | WRITTEN BY ELIZABETH TROVALL

Mapuche youth workshop aims to revitalize native culture.

A new e-book and accompanying documentary will be released Thursday in Chile’s indigenous Mapuche language. The e-book, called “Epew Pichikeche ñi Rakizuam” (The Thoughts of Children), is written in both Mapudungun and Spanish. 

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Mapuche people celebrate in the Peñalolén Municipality in Chile. Photo by Municipalidad de Peñalolén.

Youth from six schools in the southern cities of Puerto Saavedra and Carahue, where much of the population is Mapuche, wrote the books in special workshops where students were empowered to tell their own stories. 

“The most important thing is that it is focused on the children’s work,” Carolina Isla, project coordinator of the e-book, told The Santiago Times.

“The kids made the story without their families or teachers, they independently created the story,” she said.

Isla also said the book is something for kids to share with their families and community as a way to revitalize and strengthen the native Mapuche language and culture. According to U.N. statistics, just 20 percent of Mapuche people in Chile fluently speak their native language.

Efforts to revitalize the language through the workshops, book and documentary are funded by the FONDART campaign of the National Foundation of Art and Culture. 

After the e-book and documentary are presented Thursday in Puerto Saavedra, and later in Carahue, the e-book will be made available online.

Source: The Santiago Times

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