Alpacka Raft’s blog featured Kayakimün, an Indigenous youth program on Chile’s Biobío River. It’s run by Rios to Rivers, an NGO founded in 2012 that supports Indigenous students in threatened river watersheds. The program now includes 234 students from 21 Indigenous nations across 20 watersheds in 7 countries.
This is an example of a packraft functioning as both recreational gear and a tool for cultural continuity. It’s a piece that opens up how wide the range of ways a packraft gets used really is, well beyond a gear conversation.
The Biobío and the Mapuche-Pewenche People
The Biobío River is regarded as a spiritual and material lifeline for the Mapuche-Pewenche people, sitting at the center of their cosmology as a source of newen, or spiritual energy. Dam construction in 1994 and 2004 brought severe environmental change to the region.
Passing Down Kayaking Knowledge
Kayakimün means “kayak knowledge.” The program grew out of Malen Leubü, a Mapuche women-led rafting club, and now runs an annual two-week camp for youth ages 11 to 18. Alongside technical instruction in packrafting, kayaking, and rafting, it includes workshops on health, self-awareness, and substance abuse prevention, aimed at building local self-sufficiency and river conservation awareness.
Related Link
→ Alpacka Raft blog: Kayakimün — A Union of Strength and Identities on the Biobío River
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