As I wrote earlier, Chile or rather Santiago specifically has no personality of it’s own but this piece of history of Chile fascinates us. Ona people were the indigenous people of the Patagonia region in the south of Chile and Tierra del Fuego islands. (A little side note, Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago at South America’s southernmost tip, shared by Chile and Argentina. It’s known for its dramatic landscape. Isla Grande is the main island and Ushuaia is the resort town of Isla Grande. Also called “the End of the World,” Ushuaia is a gateway to the region and to Antarctica to the south. I wish we had done a side trip there)
Ona people were nomadic and relied on hunting as means of survival. They dressed sparingly even in cold climatic conditions. They didn’t have much contact with the outside world until Europeans arrived in the late 19th century. Europeans, apart from other developments set up sheep ranches on the very land that Ona people used to hunt. With little contact between Ona people and new settlers, Ona people didn’t understand private property and hunted the sheep from the ranches. This caused a huge rift between settlers and Ona people leading to one of the heinous acts called as Selk’nam Genocide. The ranch owners paid armed groups to kill each and every Ona people in revenge for poaching.
It’s absolutely sad that this tribe is extinct now. Pikka likes culture and was fascinated by a specific practise of the Ona people called the Hain ceremony which is the male initiation or passage to adulthood ceremony. In this ceremony, young men were called to a hut where they were attacked by the “spirits”, who were infact men covered in body paint and masks. It was creative in the most basic way. Geometric patterns drawn all over body with conical or geometric shaped masks, these “spirits” look more cute than scary to us. Pikka is weird like that, and is intrigued by painted, spirit inspired dress-up. One would almost think that the patterns used are contemporary because of their graphic nature and bold colours. Back to the hut, young men were to fight these spirits and unmask them. Once they found out the spirits are in fact humans, they were told the story of world related to sun and the moon. There was a lot more to the Hain ceremony than that and they lasted for days or months at a stretch.
Their story is fascinating and we wish to include something inspired from them in the future Pikkabox from Chile.
___
Join us on our journey through the products we curate at Pikkabox.com
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter
