The exhibition runs across two rooms. The first traces the changing mindset of the Salesian missionaries who arrived in Patagonia at the end of the 19th century, influenced by a colonial vision. Contact with the reality of the indigenous populations gradually transformed this view, dismantling prejudices and revealing the cultural, social and spiritual richness of the Selk’nam people.
Some Salesian missionaries actively denounced the injustices suffered by these communities during the colonisation process. Among them were figures such as Domenico Milanesio, an inter-ethnic and cultural mediator, and Alberto Maria de Agostini, whose photographic, scientific and pastoral work marked a profound change in the missionary sensibility of the time.
The second room brings together more than 30 photographs taken by De Agostini at the beginning of the 20th century, documenting the traditions, beliefs, clothing and social organisation of the Selk’nam people. The exhibition is completed by an excerpt from the documentary “Terre Magellaniche” (1933), one of the first film recordings of the indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego and southern Patagonia, as well as a selection of Selk’nam arrowheads belonging to the museum’s founding collection, unique vestiges of a millennial culture that was on the verge of disappearing.
The inauguration of this second phase took place on 15 January, with a conference entitled “Reparación y revitalización de la memoria Selk’nam de Tierra del Fuego” (Repair and revitalisation of the Selk’nam memory of Tierra del Fuego). The conference was attended by Margarita Angélica Maldonado, a descendant of the Selk’nam and cultural transmitter from Rio Grande (Argentina); Manuel Peris, a Chilean visual artist, graphic designer and art professor; and Alejandra Muñoz-Tapia, a Mapuche social psychologist and doctor of psychology.
This meeting offered insights into the cultural, social and legislative processes that today allow for the recovery of the collective memory of a people who for decades were considered ‘extinct’ and who today are reclaiming their identity and rights in both Argentina and Chile.
With this second phase of the exhibition on the 150th anniversary of the first missionary expedition sent by Don Bosco, the Misiones Salesianas Museum reaffirms its vocation as a cultural and educational space at the service of memory, intercultural respect and the construction of a more just present by listening to the past.
The exhibition can be visited free of charge until 11 April at the Misiones Salesianas Museum (Calle Lisboa, 4, Madrid), from Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Fridays also from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
