Belonging to an Indigenous Community or First Nation is a fact that gives us a deeper vision of our environment: being part of it and not considering ourselves as its owners is what makes us have a deeper connection with Nature than other inhabitants of our cosmopolite City [TN: the referred City is Ushuaia, capital of Tierra del Fuego]. Yagan crafts are involved in our everyday life, our children grow amongst bark canoes and reed baskets. Baskets have been made with the same Ancestral process for thousands of years, which lasted with its maximum purity. Today we make miniatures so that people from all the planet can take with them our message of balance, union and preservation of natural resources, since, in the end, we are all human and we must understand that our future depends on mother nature before it is too late. It only takes us to look at the current situation that we are facing now in august 2020, to reflect about our life in this earth. It is urgent that we look back [TN: towards our past] to replicate much of the way of life of our First Nations -Pueblos Originarios- who lived in perfect balance with the environment: for this reason, they could carry on living for thousands of years. From the South of Tierra del Fuego, I send you a greeting in my mother tongue: Ala Yala mamakús, hasta pronto hermanos, see you soon brothers.
Víctor Vargas Filgueira
Primer Consejero Comunidad Indigena Yagan Paiakoala de Ushuaia TDF
(First Chancellor of the Comunidad Yagan Paiakoala of Tierra del Fuego)
Translated from the original Spanish by D. Fiore