THE SEASONAL HIGHLAND – LOWLANDS CYCLE

Our culture is characterized by the social and economic seasonal cycle between the summer highlands, to winter lowlands.

Every year, when the snow starts to melt in our mountains, we guide our cattle there so they can eat the new sprouts of the Gnütang (tussock grass), Rungi (quila or a kind of bamboo), and grass, that after spending a long time under the snow start to grow with renewed newen or strength when the pewü (spring) arrives to our lands.

This transhumance, this movement, connects us with our ñuke mapu (Mother Earth). In our trip to the heights of our mountains, we cross mallines (grasslands), highland steppes, mawida or native forests and pewenentu, ancient araucaria forests, where it is possible to spot manque (condor) flying above our heads. This cycle of seasonal transhumance, allows us to carry out activities related to agriculture, cattle rising and piñones gathering.

In the winter lowlands or B´lom, we see the days go by between May and December. Here is where we develop our traditional agricultural activities, producing potatoes, wheat, and to a lesser extent corn and barley. In our family orchards we also produce chillies, cabbages, tomatoes, silverbeet and onions, among other thing we grow for our own consumption. Here is also where our ñañas dye the wool, using natural products like the bark of the trees, seeds, branches and even mud, to create wonderful colours.

When the winter chills are gone, we start the trip to the summer highlands or Huechum, located between the 900 and 1200 meters above sea level, where we have our temporal homes or ruka.

GATHERING THE ARAUCARIA SEED: THE PIÑON

The gathering of the piñón or nguilliu, which is the Araucaria seed, is our primary traditional activity in our territories. In fact, the origin of our name as peoples, Pewenche, comes from joining together the words pehuén (araucaria) and che (people), that is: “the people of the Araucaria tree”.

We have very well defined times to gather the piñón. First in Autum or walung-nguilliu, when the trees give naturally their seeds from their crown, and then in Spring or pewün-nguilliu, when we gather the piñones that spent the winter under the snow. Since immemorial times, our ancestors have used what our ñuque mapu (Mother Earth) has provided for them, and that’s why the gathering of this seed remains intact in our culture. Nowadays the piñones are gathered mainly by children and women. They are consumed at home or sold in the city. It is also used in exchange for other products.

The piñón is consumed in many different ways: raw (karéngilliu), toasted (kulen), boiled (bólto) or fermented (chavid). The ones that are not consumed straight away are conserved in different ways too. They can be buried and covered (ringalngillíu); buried and hydrated (dollinko); buried and dehydrated (kunarkén); or hanged as necklaces above the fire place (menkén).

Beside the piñón, we also gather rosehip, wild hazelnut and fungus, which are also consumed, sold or exchanged.

THE COMMUNITY

Our communities, since immemorial times, have been organized under the authority of the Lonko, who is in charge of solving the internal conflicts of the community, representing its people and distribute lands for new families. Each community chooses its Lonko according to his wisdom, which is an essential element to keep the harmony in our lands.

There are also other traditional authorities like the Lonko de Nguillatún, who is in charge of our most important ceremony, the Nguillatún; the Kimche or very wise persons, to whom we ask for advice and guidance, and the Lawentuchefe, usually women who hold the knowledge of the Pewenche traditional medicine.

We are very proud of preserving in our communities our ancient language, Chedungún. From their early years, our kids learn to be bilingual, to be able to speak Spanish when we go to the city or we talk to outsiders.

In general our homes are very dispersed in the communities, according to the needs of each family and the availability of land. In the lowlands there are community areas that are places for encounter and participation, because there are the community meeting house, the school, the medical post where every fortnight doctors come, the churches, and some small grocery shops.

Our houses are usually quiet far from each other, and we have fences made out of sticks and wire. The house is more like a compound, where there kitchen is a separated building. There are also other separated buildings, usually without internal divisions, which can be used as bedrooms or to store things. The traditional houses are made of canoga, in which the wood is carved with the shape of canoes. To cover the roof big pieces of wood are carved with concave shapes, and are usually made of oak, coigüe, pellín or lenga. The walls are made of rough trunks, carved very coarsely. The floor of our houses is usually of pressed soil.

The most important place in our family life is the kitchen, which we also call fogón or fireplace because it has a space in the ground to make fire. This is the primary place where families meet, and where relatives, neighbours and friends are received. Our wise persons or Kimche have usually transmitted their wisdom orally in this place. It is very common for us to seat around the fireplace, drinking mate and listening the epew or Pewenche traditional tales, while our ñuke (women or mothers) stretch out the wool.

Our spiritual beliefs are centred on the search of a harmonious relationship between the sacred (divinities and ancestors) and the human. We exercise this connection between the Supreme Being, Ngünechen, and the community through our sacred ceremony: the Nguillatún.

During the Nguillatún we pray to our ancestors, to the creator of the lineage, to the God that gives us sustenance and to the earth and water, and ask them for the health and wellbeing of all their descents.

Also, every 24th of June, we celebrate the Wexipantu that in our language literally means: We (new), Xipan (rise) and Antú (sun), that is “the sunrise of a new sun”. This is the beginning of a new cycle of nature, because from that day the sun starts its return to the earth.

For us ngen are very important, as they are spirits of nature, the guardians of the elements. There are, for example: ngen- ko, guardian spirit of the water, ngen-mawida guardian spirit of the mountains, and ngen-kürëf the guardian sprit of the wind. It is very important to ask permission to the ngen of each element of nature if we are going to use or gather it.