Nostalgic Desert
Transhumance refers to herding in continuous movement, a particular technique used by the Colla indigenous people since the beginning of time. But nowadays, few people practice it in the Atacama desert, north of Chile. The extinction of this practice in the driest place in the world, is looming. This story is about the resistence of the Pai-Ote transhumance community against the stillness of existence.
Pascual Araya Luna herds sheep in the Atacama desert, February 2015.
A man takes a goat to the truck in Vega Redonda, Copiapó, Chile, March 2014.
Pascual Araya Luna, a member of the Pai Ote colla community, prepares a goat for slaughter in the area of El Patón, 400 kilometres away from Copiapó, Chile, February 2015.
Pascual Araya Luna, a member of the Pai-Ote community, walks the final stretch with the cattle to El Leoncillo, sector at 3,800 meters above sea level, in the outskirts of Copiapó, Chile, November 2013.
Pascual Araya Luna milks goats in a corral in Vega Redonda, Copiapo, Chile, March 2014.
Berto Pasten (right) and Pascual Araya Luna (left), members of the Pai Ote colla community, herd the cattle for five hours to Vega Redonda, the community base camp, outside Copiapó, Chile, March 2014.
Jilberto Pasten Quispe, next to his wife Ercilia Araya Altamirano, changes the tire of his 4x4 truck in their way to the base camp Vega Redonda to start the trashumance in Copiapo, Chile, February 2015.
An aerial view of the Atacama desert, November 2013.
Lilian Andrea Astudillo helps to move the cattle to the high peaks of the Andes for the summer in the outskirts of Copiapó, Chile, November 2013.
Jilberto Pasten Quispe, next to his son Nicolás, holds a lamp to see the way to the winter base camp during the transhumance in Copiapó, Chile, March 2014.
An old picture of Ercilia Araya and her brother in Vega Redonda, Copiapó, Chile, March 2014.
A stuffed bull near the international border with Argentina, in the Atacama desert, February 2015.
Pascual Araya walks in circles to get the goats inside the corral, Copiapó, Chile, March 2014.
Ercilia Araya Altamirano, President of the Pai-Ote community, rests after the trashumance in El Patón in the outskirts of Copiapó, Chile, February 2015.
Ercilia Araya (right) and her husband Jilberto Pasten Quispe make an offering to Pachamama in Vega Redonda, Copiapó, Chile, March 2014.
Francisco Pasten Araya (left), Ercilia Araya Altamirano (center) and Jilberto Pasten Quispe (right), sleep outdoors in the area known as El Patón, near the international border with Argentina and 400 km from Copiapó, in Chile, February 2015.
A river cross the Atacama desert in Copiapó, Chile, March 2014.
Nostalgic Desert is a project recognized by the Chile´s National Fund for Arts and Culture, Atacama Region.
All rights reserved by Mario De Fina.