HUMAN ZOOS IN EUROPE

Groups of Selk’nam and Kawésqar from Tierra del Fuego were kidnapped by a group of European businessmen.

Unaware of what their fate would soon be, the group was shipped off to Europe destined to be shown as “curiosities” at various circuses and fairs across Europe.

The group was dragged before many European audiences who eagerly paid to see the caged savages. The sordid exhibitions were carried out in several prominent areas across Europe including the Eiffel Tower and Léopold Park near the current site of the European Parliament.

Among them was Calafate, a 9-year-old Selk’nam boy who managed to return home many years later, where he would help a Salesian priest write a Selk’nam dictionary. In 1905, Calafate passed away from tuberculosis in the Mission of Dawson Island. Others faced a much more shocking fate.

According to Chile’s 2002 census, 2.622 people identify as Kawésqar. Just four years later, only 15 full-blooded Kawésqar remained. There are even fewer Kawésqar speakers.