Images from Documentary Film "Künü" by Francisco Huichaqueo

On April 22, 2024, NAIS was honored to host Mapuche visual artist, filmmaker, curator, and art history scholar Francisco Huichaqueo for a special presentation of his documentary film Künü (2023), which was produced in collaboration with Imaginaria Audiovisual, a film production group based in Concepción, Chile. This documentary film portrays the land-back struggle of 80 Mapuche communities from the area of Loncoche, which is located between the cities of Temuco and Valdivia in what is today known as “southern Chile.” Throughout Künü, Huichaqueo documents how Mapuche lands have been occupied by the Chilean capital-based transnational forestry company Arauco; and, above all, it follows the process through which the native communities organize themselves to reclaim back their ancestral lands.  This one-hour documentary powerfully illustrates the collective land-back struggle of hundreds of Mapuche communities in Chile for self-determination and autonomy, challenging the extractive, colonial-capitalist model of “development” that has been endorsed and promoted by the Chilean state at the cost of an Indigenous people’s lifeways and the natural environment in the region.

Below is a selection of still images from Künü with corresponding descriptions in the captions. All images and descriptions provided courtesy of director Francisco Huichaqueo, translated by Pilar Villanueva-Martínez.