Photo ©
Corporation Newen
The Wiñol Wetri pantü announced the news that the Corporación Newen (Newen Corporation) were recipients of the binocular mini-grant of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and Optics for the Tropics. The community was very excited! Ingrid Meripil, representative of the Corporación Newen (Newen Corporation) as well as a representative of the community of Mawidache, received the binoculars and worked hard to incorporate birding with the approach of Mapuche ancestral science and knowledge in many rural schools in the New area Imperial, Temuco, and Freire in Chile.
With an alliance between the La Nada Museum and the Corporación Newen (Newen Corporation), the first environmental activity was created in the Mawidache Community! Professor and artist Andrea Avendaño, director of the La Nada Museum, used the binoculars to check with the children of the community some patterns that could be seen in the flight of birds. With the concept of pattern in nature, the children had a chance to talk about the bird habitat in Mawidache and the possible flight patterns birds have in place.
Participants also had the chance to work on art projects! Through the walk in their territory, the children had the chance to teach their local knowledge to their teacher. For this activity, the participants really observed the concept of “flight pattern” of certain birds, the shapes that birds create when they fly, and the individual dance of each bird dance. The students realized that birds were themselves art and followed repetition patterns that are made in the artistic technique of engraving. The participants talked about the relationship between art and nature in groups. Then, they drew what they saw, and without written words, they saw that art could be used to communicate. This is the main objective of the La Nada Museum!
Corporación Newen (Newen Corporation) wanted to once again thank the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Optics for the Tropics for the opportunity to enhance the knowledge from and in the territory of our children. Thank you for always supporting the community work Corporación Newen (Newen Corporation) does.
Andrea Avendaño, director of the La Nada Museum, works on the Pentagrams of Silence project. The project helps children from marginalized populations communicate through art. To read more about the project as well as Andrea Avendaño’s career path, click here!