UCT students participate in intercultural athletic events that also hold Mapuche traditional games

The students came to Santiago to participate in a set of activities that includes methodological coaching, basketball and trekking clinics, and playing traditional games such as palín and linao.

Ten students from the Catholic University came to the Catholic University of Temuco on Monday along with cultural advisors Luis Curamil and Patricio Coliqueo to engage in a series of activities throughout the week. This intercultural gathering was organized by CMPC to promote and disseminate the traditional games of Mapuche culture such as palín, linao and longkotún.

The students’ first activity was guided by the club’s methodology department wherein they performed physical endurance tests at the facilities. After that they participated in a basketball clinic and finally, on the soccer field, they practiced the traditional game called palín with the Catholic University’s first hockey team.

Palín is a group sport with two teams divided into rows using a palín (stick) to hit a ball to move it toward the opposing team’s side. Both the hockey players and the students took off their shoes and played the game with the palin. The Chilean women’s field hockey team members and recent winners of the gold medal of the Odesur field hockey games Fernanda Flores and Natalia Salvador as well as the Chilean men’s team member Agustín Amoroso all participated in the activity.

CMPC Chairman Luis Felipe Gazitúa attended the event and said to the students, “I want to thank you for being here, for your generous act of coming to Santiago. I don’t think that Chileans are familiar with Mapuche culture. I frequently interact with people from the Mapuche world because of my work, and I have learned to value their culture, traditions and way of life. I think that Chileans have a lot to learn from that world and this occasion naturally contributes toward that end. This helps us get to know each other and is a small contribution toward improving some of Chile’s problems. In my opinion one of the most pressing ones is the situation in the Araucanía Region and in the Arauco Province.”

On behalf of the Sports Club of the Catholic University, President Francisco Urrejola also participated and said, “The gulf that has existed between Chileans and the Mapuche is unacceptable. We must somehow create stronger ties in order to become a great unified nation. In that regards, sports remain as one of the main values that human beings can use to improve coexistence and build friendship, thus creating more solidarity and trust with one another.”

During the week the students will also go hiking, train in the pool and practice linao alongside the Catholic University’s rugby team. This traditional Mapuche game consists of a match between two teams trying to move a ball to one end of the court using their hands. Another game they will have get to play is called “Longkotún”. It consists of two competitors wrestling the other to the ground in a Greco-Roman fight style.

Luis Curamil, cultural advisor for the event said, “The research began in 1998, but the joint work as a club began in 2014. Our goal has always been to promote the practice of palín and transport young players from palín to hockey. This is key because the transmission of our culture has always been oral. This is practical for us, this is life.”

Alliance

An event was also held in 2021 under the “Fibra de Campeones” [the Stuff of Champions] alliance framework between CMPC and the Catholic University Sports Club in order to encourage sports and healthy lifestyles, nature preservation and the pursuit of activities that will provide an opportunity for training, forging strong values, and learning and competing with top-level specialists.

On that occasion a delegation of the men’s and women’s professional field hockey teams of the Catholic University Sports Club went to Temuco to participate in a sports clinic with the city’s area clubs.