The Selk’nam, also known as the Onawo or Ona people, are an indigenous people in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina and Chile, including the Tierra del Fuego islands. They were one of the last native groups in South America to be encountered by migrant ethnic Europeans, mainly British in the late 19th century. In the mid-19th century, there were about 4000 Selk’nam; by 1919 there were 297, and by 1930 just over 100.
The Selk’nam genocide was the genocide of the Selk’nam people, one of three indigenous tribes populating the Tierra del Fuego in South America, from the second half of the 19th to the early 20th century. The genocide spanned a period of between ten and fifteen years. The Selk’nam, which had an estimated population of 4,000 people, saw their numbers reduced to 500.
This photograph was taken in the Tierra del Fuego during 1919 by Martin Gusinde (1886-1969), a Silesian missionary and anthropologist. It shows the shaman Akukiol Halimink with his wife and their children. They belonged to the Selk’nam (Ona) tribe. That was one of the ethnic groups more used to the cold weather. They went barefoot, often also in the snow. They wore only animal furs that they took off for hunting and other activities. They did not have weaving technology.
Large farming companies paid £1 for each dead Selk’nam. The £1 was redeemed against a pair of hands, a pair of ears or, later, a head.
With the permission of the Chilean government, in 1889, the businessman Maurice Maitre took eleven Selk’nam to Paris by force to exhibit them in the “human zoos” of the World’s Fair. They were measured, weighed, photographed and were expected to perform every day. A lot of them died because they did not receive the best of care; some did not even make it to Europe.
In 1889, Belgian Maurice Maitre kidnapped a family of Selk’nam people, whom he took in chains to be exhibited in Europe like animals. Of the 11, two died on the trip. In Paris, they were presented behind bars as alleged cannibals; every afternoon the public threw raw horse meat at them. They were kept dirty, so that they had the appearance of savages. Given the inhumane conditions of the exhibition, the Missionary Society began demanding the family’s release. So Maitre took them to Brussels, where they were imprisoned and then deported to England. From there the family embarked for Tierra del Fuego. Of the 11, six made it home according to Chilean authorities.”
