Recommended listening: Carina Carriqueo (Aónikenk and Mapuche)
Story
Among the Aónikenk people of Patagonia, the greatest artists were women. Their designs found their way onto cave walls and carved objects, but their masterpieces were painted on guanaco skin cloaks. In their language, the cloaks were called kai guaj'enk. According to legend, the great culture hero Elal had taught the women how to cut, sew and paint the cloaks. Men hunted the guanaco with bows and arrows, and then the women prepared the skins for painting. They sang while they worked, surrounded by children, little girls tracing their mothers' designs in the dirt as they watched. Each artist had her own unique style recognised by her peers, and each cloak in turn had a unique design that identified its wearer. A kai guaj'enk would tell you what family someone was from, what role they played in their community, and whether they were old or young, married or single, a chief or a widow. A newborn baby received their name and song at the same time as their first painted cloak. Once a year, a grandmother led other women in a sacred search for pigments in the colours of the earth. They mixed the pigments into thin pencils and kept them in armadillo shells which sat beside them as they drew intricate designs. When she was done, a proud artist would hang a finished cloak in the sun and call everyone in the community to see that no sunlight passed through its tightly sewn seams.
The Aónikenk were hunter-gatherers whose traditional territory covered a large part of what is now known as Argentina. They and other related groups such as the Gününa Küna are sometimes described as being part of the "Tehuelche complex", a group of cultures that lived in eastern Patagonia and the Pampas (from the Mapuche name for the Aónikenk, chewel che). Archaeologically, the Tehuelche complex started to coalesce into something recognisably Aónikenk around a thousand years ago. At that time, the peoples of Patagonia were becoming increasingly connected to distant neighbours through trade and exploration. People's nutrition improved, a sign of a more diverse diet due to foods and food technologies traded with neighbours, and this made the people grow tall. Metallic ornaments and pottery from the mountains of Chile and bronze axes from the northwest of Argentina begin to appear in Aónikenk campsites, far away from their places of origin. In exchange, the Aónikenk offered them the women's expertly prepared guanaco skins.
Perhaps the most welcome newcomer from distant lands was the dog. Domestic dogs came to the Aónikenk from the north and west starting around AD 950. Medium-sized spitz-type dogs similar in build to chow chows, they were eagerly welcomed into Aónikenk hunting parties and homes. One of the oldest dogs in Patagonia was found at an Aónikenk campsite on the banks of the Negro River at an archaeological site called Angostura 1. The dog's body was found laid to rest near a hearth surrounded by four toldos, or tent houses constructed by Aónikenk women to house their families. According to later writers, while humans had different parts of the toldo designated for them based on age, gender, and marital status, dogs happily went anywhere to sleep. Dogs became so important to the Aónikenk that they were sometimes adopted as heirs when a couple had no children of their own. These smaller dogs were called wöshnek and were given gifts and property as if they were human.
Some of the couples who had no children were gay. Among the Aónikenk, gay people, both men and women, were more likely to serve their communities as shamans (known perhaps as shoin wén, glossed as bruja or "witch" by the Spanish). The same was true of disabled people. In order to become a shaman, a person had to go through an isolated initiation ritual. Then, they acquired the power to heal, identify and counteract evil spells, and divine the future. The Andes to the west were seen as the homeplace of evil spirits called gualichu who travelled across the land and infiltrated Aónikenk villages, causing sickness and death and blowing out the fires. While the women of a family were generally in charge of caring for ill loved ones, someone who was seriously ill was given over to the care of the shaman. They carried around a special bag of magic stones and rattles to help them get evil spirits to leave.
As they moved through life's trials and joys, the Aónikenk were always guided by the stars. They began the year in September based on the position of the constellation Orion. The Milky Way and the Magellan Clouds were a path for guanacos to follow through the sky. The auroras that danced through the southern skies were the bloody trail left behind when Elal was cut from his mother's womb. The Sun and the Moon chased each other through the sky until they married on the horizon behind the mountains, and their child was the morning star. The southern cross or Crux was known as the footprint of the rhea, an ostrich-like bird the people hunted. (Their neighbours the Gününa Küna called this constellation gaiyatsk.) The planet Mars was a crested caraca soaring through the sky. After Elal instructed the people about how to live, he turned into a little bird and flew to the eastern horizon, where he waited for the people to join him in karrontken, the corral of the stars. There, the rheas and guanacos are fat and abundant, and hunters live a happy and painless life. When an Aónikenk person was born, a star was born with them. They grew together until the person died, after which their soul took the long journey to karrontken in the east and their star fell from the sky as a shooting star.
At night, the people gathered close around their small fires and talked long into the night while gazing up at the stars. Here we find two women doing just that. Their names are Kookáchum and Amakáik. The meaning of Kookáchum's name is lost to time, but Amakáik means "she who has the fire of life." Amakáik, the community's shaman, watches lovingly as her partner loses herself in stargazing. Their dogs, adopted as puppies and beloved as if they were children, curl up to sleep around the fire. Amakáik's arms and chest are covered in indigo tattoos, while both she and Kookáchum have red markings painted on their faces. Amakáik's is in the shape of a heart encircling her face. Both women wear the guanaco skin cloaks that tell the world who they are, their identities painted in reds, yellows, greens and browns. Above them, the rhea leaves its footprint in the brighest stars in the sky while the path of the guanacos unravels behind it. When their time comes, they will follow the guanacos to karrontken and watch over their descendants as they navigate the difficult centuries ahead in 'yero, the Aónikenk name for their native lands. But for now, the fire is warm, the stars are bright, and thanks to their people's expanding trade contacts, they have new canine companions to walk the journey of life with them.
The Aónikenk were hunter-gatherers whose traditional territory covered a large part of what is now known as Argentina. They and other related groups such as the Gününa Küna are sometimes described as being part of the "Tehuelche complex", a group of cultures that lived in eastern Patagonia and the Pampas (from the Mapuche name for the Aónikenk, chewel che). Archaeologically, the Tehuelche complex started to coalesce into something recognisably Aónikenk around a thousand years ago. At that time, the peoples of Patagonia were becoming increasingly connected to distant neighbours through trade and exploration. People's nutrition improved, a sign of a more diverse diet due to foods and food technologies traded with neighbours, and this made the people grow tall. Metallic ornaments and pottery from the mountains of Chile and bronze axes from the northwest of Argentina begin to appear in Aónikenk campsites, far away from their places of origin. In exchange, the Aónikenk offered them the women's expertly prepared guanaco skins.
Perhaps the most welcome newcomer from distant lands was the dog. Domestic dogs came to the Aónikenk from the north and west starting around AD 950. Medium-sized spitz-type dogs similar in build to chow chows, they were eagerly welcomed into Aónikenk hunting parties and homes. One of the oldest dogs in Patagonia was found at an Aónikenk campsite on the banks of the Negro River at an archaeological site called Angostura 1. The dog's body was found laid to rest near a hearth surrounded by four toldos, or tent houses constructed by Aónikenk women to house their families. According to later writers, while humans had different parts of the toldo designated for them based on age, gender, and marital status, dogs happily went anywhere to sleep. Dogs became so important to the Aónikenk that they were sometimes adopted as heirs when a couple had no children of their own. These smaller dogs were called wöshnek and were given gifts and property as if they were human.
Some of the couples who had no children were gay. Among the Aónikenk, gay people, both men and women, were more likely to serve their communities as shamans (known perhaps as shoin wén, glossed as bruja or "witch" by the Spanish). The same was true of disabled people. In order to become a shaman, a person had to go through an isolated initiation ritual. Then, they acquired the power to heal, identify and counteract evil spells, and divine the future. The Andes to the west were seen as the homeplace of evil spirits called gualichu who travelled across the land and infiltrated Aónikenk villages, causing sickness and death and blowing out the fires. While the women of a family were generally in charge of caring for ill loved ones, someone who was seriously ill was given over to the care of the shaman. They carried around a special bag of magic stones and rattles to help them get evil spirits to leave.
As they moved through life's trials and joys, the Aónikenk were always guided by the stars. They began the year in September based on the position of the constellation Orion. The Milky Way and the Magellan Clouds were a path for guanacos to follow through the sky. The auroras that danced through the southern skies were the bloody trail left behind when Elal was cut from his mother's womb. The Sun and the Moon chased each other through the sky until they married on the horizon behind the mountains, and their child was the morning star. The southern cross or Crux was known as the footprint of the rhea, an ostrich-like bird the people hunted. (Their neighbours the Gününa Küna called this constellation gaiyatsk.) The planet Mars was a crested caraca soaring through the sky. After Elal instructed the people about how to live, he turned into a little bird and flew to the eastern horizon, where he waited for the people to join him in karrontken, the corral of the stars. There, the rheas and guanacos are fat and abundant, and hunters live a happy and painless life. When an Aónikenk person was born, a star was born with them. They grew together until the person died, after which their soul took the long journey to karrontken in the east and their star fell from the sky as a shooting star.
At night, the people gathered close around their small fires and talked long into the night while gazing up at the stars. Here we find two women doing just that. Their names are Kookáchum and Amakáik. The meaning of Kookáchum's name is lost to time, but Amakáik means "she who has the fire of life." Amakáik, the community's shaman, watches lovingly as her partner loses herself in stargazing. Their dogs, adopted as puppies and beloved as if they were children, curl up to sleep around the fire. Amakáik's arms and chest are covered in indigo tattoos, while both she and Kookáchum have red markings painted on their faces. Amakáik's is in the shape of a heart encircling her face. Both women wear the guanaco skin cloaks that tell the world who they are, their identities painted in reds, yellows, greens and browns. Above them, the rhea leaves its footprint in the brighest stars in the sky while the path of the guanacos unravels behind it. When their time comes, they will follow the guanacos to karrontken and watch over their descendants as they navigate the difficult centuries ahead in 'yero, the Aónikenk name for their native lands. But for now, the fire is warm, the stars are bright, and thanks to their people's expanding trade contacts, they have new canine companions to walk the journey of life with them.
Artist's Comments
This picture has been a long time in the making. The research process for this illustration has been much more collaborative than my Women of 1000 pictures usually are. That's because I researched this alongside one of my best friends, Morgan Lewin. Morgan is a descendant of both the Aónikenk and Gününa Küna peoples. They have been one of my biggest supporters during this project, cheering me on as I explore the histories of women from all around the world. We agreed years ago that it would be a great idea to depict Morgan's own ancestors in the project. I am so pleased that the time has finally come for all of you to meet Morgan's incredible ancestors. Morgan chose the names Kookáchum and Amakáik, and since Morgan and I first bonded over our shared loved for the fictional sapphic relationship between Korra and Asami in Avatar: The Legend of Korra, it seemed only appropriate to depict Morgan's ancestors here as a loving lesbian couple. Morgan is also a devoted stargazer who constantly finds inspiration in the stars, just like their ancestors did. Over the years, Morgan has lost some dogs who were very important to them, while welcoming new ones into their family. This picture is dedicated to Morgan and to the memory of their beloved dogs. Gracias por todo, corazón. I'm sure your boys are waiting for you up in the stars along with Kookáchum, Amakáik, and all your other ancestors.
I would also like to thank Marisa Malvestitti of the National University of Río Negro for providing us with the word shoin wén as a possible Aónikenk name for female shamans. She has been working with a research team to prepare more open-access materials about the Aónikenk language which should be available soon. In the Resources section below, I've linked some of the existing resources. The Gününa Küna word for a curandera or female shaman was külmüláshtsüm. Morgan, of course, was my source for that information. I am so grateful to Morgan for sharing information with me about their culture and for jointly researching this illustration with me. Please be sure to check out the linked music under the picture by Carina Carriquero, an Aónikenk and Mapuche artist whose music Morgan recommended. Thank you also to my friends, especially my sister Ellie, who provided art advice during the long process of illustrating this scene; and to my dog Hazel, for sitting with me while I finished it!
This is the 70th illustration in the Women of 1000 AD series. WOW! It's also the southernmost picture I've drawn so far. It has a lot in common with the previous holder of that title, Guni, which was all unintentional - stargazing, painted cloaks, and even a little dog! It is cool to look back at that drawing from five years ago and see how much I've improved. Thank you to everyone who has supported me during the project. I can't believe there are seventy drawings in the series now! Thank you for joining me today to learn about the histories of Patagonian women. ~ September 1, 2023
I would also like to thank Marisa Malvestitti of the National University of Río Negro for providing us with the word shoin wén as a possible Aónikenk name for female shamans. She has been working with a research team to prepare more open-access materials about the Aónikenk language which should be available soon. In the Resources section below, I've linked some of the existing resources. The Gününa Küna word for a curandera or female shaman was külmüláshtsüm. Morgan, of course, was my source for that information. I am so grateful to Morgan for sharing information with me about their culture and for jointly researching this illustration with me. Please be sure to check out the linked music under the picture by Carina Carriquero, an Aónikenk and Mapuche artist whose music Morgan recommended. Thank you also to my friends, especially my sister Ellie, who provided art advice during the long process of illustrating this scene; and to my dog Hazel, for sitting with me while I finished it!
This is the 70th illustration in the Women of 1000 AD series. WOW! It's also the southernmost picture I've drawn so far. It has a lot in common with the previous holder of that title, Guni, which was all unintentional - stargazing, painted cloaks, and even a little dog! It is cool to look back at that drawing from five years ago and see how much I've improved. Thank you to everyone who has supported me during the project. I can't believe there are seventy drawings in the series now! Thank you for joining me today to learn about the histories of Patagonian women. ~ September 1, 2023
Resources
Want to learn more about Aónikenk women, their artwork, and their dogs? Here are some recommended resources.
"El Arte de las Mujeres Aónik'enk y Gününa Küna - Kay Guaj'enk o Kay Gütrruj (Las Capas Pintadas)" by Sergio E. Caviglia
This article takes a deep dive into the painted cloaks that Aónikenk and Gününa Küna women traditionally made. There are many beautiful photographs and diagrams as well as in-depth discussions of how the cloaks were made and what their symbols might have meant. For a shorter treatment in English, check out "Patagonian Painted Cloaks: An Ancient Puzzle" by Alfredo Prieto. It's also got some good illustrations, diagrams and photographs, though they are all in black and white.
"First Records of Prehispanic Dogs in Southern South America (Pampa-Patagonia, Argentina)" by Luciano Prates, Francisco J. Prevosti, and Mónica Berón
I set my picture at the archaeological site Angostura 1 based on this article. The article looks at the remains of two dogs found in Argentina dated to roughly a thousand years ago. My information about when dogs came to Patagonia, as well as the shape and size of the dogs featured in the illustration, comes from here. You can learn more about Angostura 1 in this article.
Los Aónikenk: Historia y Cultura by Mateo Martinić
This was the most detailed work I could find about the Aónikenk. While its framing is at times quite dated, it has a huge amount of detail about the lives of the Aónikenk. I particularly appreciated how the author was sensitive to the changes the Aónikenk experienced across the centuries instead of treating their culture as static. A lot of the information about Aónikenk culture that I reference in this illustration comes from this book, including brief statements about homosexuality and shamanism.
"Tendencia secular de la estatura en poblaciones humanas del Valle Inferior del Río Chubut y de la costa centro-septentrional (Patagonia Argentina) durante el Holoceno Tardío" by Ana Gabriela Millán, Julieta Gómez Otero, and Silvia Dahinten
A study of the skeletons of prehistoric Aónikenk people reveals that they experienced a period of greater nutritional prosperity starting a little over a thousand years ago. This led to male and female skeletons diverging in height, with male skeletons becoming significantly taller. Apparently it is normal for sexual dimorphism in humans to correspond to nutrition. Who knew! The authors hypothesize that the improvement in diet was a result of increased long-distance relationships between the Aónikenk and their various neighbours, the same process that brought dogs to the Aónikenk as described in the article linked above.
"Visualización de los roles de género en las fotografías etnográficas de mapuches y tehuelches (siglos XIX-XX)" by Ana Butto
Ethnographic photographs are important to reconstructions of the past like mine when visual depictions from an earlier period don't exist. However, it's always important to remember that photographs of this nature are not neutral documents. Butto's article is interesting in that it seeks to find ways in which the agendas of the photographers, but also the people being photographed, can be uncovered by analysing ethnographic photographs of Mapuche and Tehuelche women. I was particularly interested in her argument that old women are so well represented in these images because the communities put forward the people they thought were most significant and worthy of being photographed.
Kketo sh m 'ekot - Lengua Tehuelche
This website is the homepage for a group who are trying to keep the Aónikenk language alive. Their work is inspired by the memory and example of Dora Manchado, the last fluent native speaker of Tehuelche, who died in 2019. You can find partial Tehuelche dictionaries on The Intercontinental Dictionary Series and Living Dictionaries. There is some Open Access material available at the Endangered Languages Archive too. The Wayback Machine has archived materials from anthropologist Javier Domingo on an older website called Qadeshiakk.
"El Arte de las Mujeres Aónik'enk y Gününa Küna - Kay Guaj'enk o Kay Gütrruj (Las Capas Pintadas)" by Sergio E. Caviglia
This article takes a deep dive into the painted cloaks that Aónikenk and Gününa Küna women traditionally made. There are many beautiful photographs and diagrams as well as in-depth discussions of how the cloaks were made and what their symbols might have meant. For a shorter treatment in English, check out "Patagonian Painted Cloaks: An Ancient Puzzle" by Alfredo Prieto. It's also got some good illustrations, diagrams and photographs, though they are all in black and white.
"First Records of Prehispanic Dogs in Southern South America (Pampa-Patagonia, Argentina)" by Luciano Prates, Francisco J. Prevosti, and Mónica Berón
I set my picture at the archaeological site Angostura 1 based on this article. The article looks at the remains of two dogs found in Argentina dated to roughly a thousand years ago. My information about when dogs came to Patagonia, as well as the shape and size of the dogs featured in the illustration, comes from here. You can learn more about Angostura 1 in this article.
Los Aónikenk: Historia y Cultura by Mateo Martinić
This was the most detailed work I could find about the Aónikenk. While its framing is at times quite dated, it has a huge amount of detail about the lives of the Aónikenk. I particularly appreciated how the author was sensitive to the changes the Aónikenk experienced across the centuries instead of treating their culture as static. A lot of the information about Aónikenk culture that I reference in this illustration comes from this book, including brief statements about homosexuality and shamanism.
"Tendencia secular de la estatura en poblaciones humanas del Valle Inferior del Río Chubut y de la costa centro-septentrional (Patagonia Argentina) durante el Holoceno Tardío" by Ana Gabriela Millán, Julieta Gómez Otero, and Silvia Dahinten
A study of the skeletons of prehistoric Aónikenk people reveals that they experienced a period of greater nutritional prosperity starting a little over a thousand years ago. This led to male and female skeletons diverging in height, with male skeletons becoming significantly taller. Apparently it is normal for sexual dimorphism in humans to correspond to nutrition. Who knew! The authors hypothesize that the improvement in diet was a result of increased long-distance relationships between the Aónikenk and their various neighbours, the same process that brought dogs to the Aónikenk as described in the article linked above.
"Visualización de los roles de género en las fotografías etnográficas de mapuches y tehuelches (siglos XIX-XX)" by Ana Butto
Ethnographic photographs are important to reconstructions of the past like mine when visual depictions from an earlier period don't exist. However, it's always important to remember that photographs of this nature are not neutral documents. Butto's article is interesting in that it seeks to find ways in which the agendas of the photographers, but also the people being photographed, can be uncovered by analysing ethnographic photographs of Mapuche and Tehuelche women. I was particularly interested in her argument that old women are so well represented in these images because the communities put forward the people they thought were most significant and worthy of being photographed.
Kketo sh m 'ekot - Lengua Tehuelche
This website is the homepage for a group who are trying to keep the Aónikenk language alive. Their work is inspired by the memory and example of Dora Manchado, the last fluent native speaker of Tehuelche, who died in 2019. You can find partial Tehuelche dictionaries on The Intercontinental Dictionary Series and Living Dictionaries. There is some Open Access material available at the Endangered Languages Archive too. The Wayback Machine has archived materials from anthropologist Javier Domingo on an older website called Qadeshiakk.