If They do not Come Back, We Will Go

Abstract

This letter and drawings are a visual testimony recounting the journey of a Mapuche family to the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. The purpose of the trip was to practice, as an act of reparation, the right to accompany the memory that was stolen during the colonization of Wallmapu. What the West calls “cultural objects” is, for us, living memory torn from its territory. This accompaniment is a gesture of reparation, but accompanying our ancestors is also a duty and responsibility as Mapuche people.

Key words: restitution, reparation, Mapuche, spirituality, accompaniment