The mythologies of the Tierra del Fuego peoples, Selk’nam, Yamana, Kawesqar, and Haush, tell a story of a time when supernatural immortal beings inhabited the earth and transformed into celestial bodies: stars, the moon, and the sun, as well as mountains, lakes, birds, and animals. After 1880, the ancestral lands of the Indigenous people of Tierra del Fuego were politically divided between Argentina and Chile and colonized by mostly European settlers – adventurers, gold seekers, and farmers.
The film examines the role of Romanian explorer Iuliu Popper (also known as Julius Popper, Julio Popper) in the aggression against Indigenous peoples, particularly his involvement in the genocide of the Selk’nam. Popper’s actions in Tierra del Fuego can be understood as part of a broader phenomenon of self-colonization and assimilation of Western European colonial imaginaries in Romania, reflecting local colonial aspirations disguised as geographical explorations.
|
