About two years ago, I saw the film "Calafate, Zoológicos Humanos" in a class. In fact it's a documentary about the history of kawésqar and selk'nam people, two extinct ethnic group of the extrem south of Chile, that in the nineteen century some of them were taken to Europe for been exhibited to the public just like a circus or a zoo. Besides they had been humiliated, they got sick of a different deseases: syphilis and viruela, for example, many of them died in the road to Europe and others died in a short time after.
With the time, their bodies and rests were saved there in different museums and departments of anthropology; especifically the department of Zurich in Switzerland colaborated in 2008 with the last descendents of them and the producers of the documentary, with the process to bring them back to their land, Tierra del Fuego. Finally, only in 2010, after of 125 years since they had been taken by the force and showed as animals in public theatres; their rests came back to the place where they never had to leave.
It's awful not only the humans zoo in this situation, in that moment the goverment of Chile didn't do anything to avoid the kawésqar and selk'nam people were taken, in fact, they allowed that. And also, in 2008-2010 the goverment didn't colaborate in real terms to bring them back either; that were merit of the anthropologist of Zurich, the production of the documentary and the last family members of their people. The situation didn't have so much visibility and the goverment didn't gave a public importance or a minimun apologizes, besides their people are a very important cultural heritage not only in Chile, for their own kawésqar and selk'nam people too. That it's a debt from the State of Chile with all their people.
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