A new Mapuche Arts and Crafts School is inaugurated in Cañete, south of Chile

Last April 8, 2019, the new Mapuche Arts and Crafts School of Cañete, in the Biobio region in the south of Chile, was inaugurated with the presence of the highest authorities of the province.

It is a cozy space that will provide training, cultural dissemination and that will allow the commercialization of products that will strengthen the identity of the territory.

The governor of Arauco, María Bélgica Tripailaf, valued this initiative that will allow women to recover their traditions, cultivate Mapuche art and culture, and also have support to commercialize the products to “contribute to the development of local enterprises, sell their products, learn and be accompanied”.

This new infrastructure is possible thanks to a public-private collaboration between CMPC, Conadi and the Municipality of Cañete, and will benefit neighbors and artisans who work the Sea Holly, wool, wood, and other materials.

The mayor of Cañete, Jorge Radonich, said he was happy to see how this initiative came true and  to see how it will strengthen the artisans of the commune and preserve the traditions so they can sell and teach. “I hope the talent and wisdom they have can be handed down from generation to generation”, he said.

Highlighting the Mapuche culture

This project had an investment close to $35 million (Chilean pesos). It is expected to benefit more than 40 artisans from the commune who will have access to training, consultancies, marketing support and commercialization; in addition to sociocultural development, access to markets and value chains, and subsidies that encourage production.

Ana Paola Hormazábal, regional director of Conadi, said: “The best exponents are in this commune, where we thought it was necessary that a space like this had to exist. For Conadi, it is very important to support this initiative, especially when it comes to rescue and to value our culture, which is what we are doing today by inaugurating this Mapuche Arts and Crafts School”.

A similar feeling have the beneficiaries, who manifested being proud of this school, that will allow them to learn and transfer their knowledge to new generations in an infrastructure that has space for workshops and training, the materials to learn the craft techniques and a product marketing room.

Juanita Maribur, Sea Holly artisan –who will work as a rapporteur in the new school- says she feels happy for playing a role that will allow her to transmit the tradition they have as artisans to those people who want to learn and to preserve it, and being able to have a monetary income for their homes.

On the other hand, Francisco Reveco, CMPC’s deputy manager of Heritage, said that “this is a project that was born two years ago, and we wanted to create a place to train the entrepreneurs and artisans of the commune, perfect their skills and thus add the Sea Holly, the wool, silverware, other crafts and to generate a greater production volume”.

The doors of the school were opened at April 10 with the workshops of Sea Holly, loom level 1 and loom level advanced.