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| Lola Kiepja 12.5 x 7 inches, oil on board, 2018 |
Shaman Chant is one of 47 songs (all named Shaman Chant or Lament) by Lola Kiepja recorded in Argentina by Anne Chapman in 1964 and released on Folkways as Selk'nam (Ona) Chants of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina: 47 Shaman chants and Laments in 1966. The liner notes were also written by ethnologist Anne Chapman. The following is her introductory paragraph: "These records comprise 47 chants sung by the last true Indian of the Selk'nam (Ona) group, Lola Kiepja. The Selk'nam had no musical instruments. These chants are sung without any sort of accompaniment." In 1966 Kiepja was one of only ten survivors of the Argentinian genocide against the Selk'nam. She was the oldest of the ten and the only shaman, the only one versed in the traditions of the Selk'nam. The Selk'nam, or Ona, did not come in contact with (ethnic) Europeans until the 19th century not long before the genocide started. Lola Kiepja was about 90 years old when she died in 1966. The last ethnic Selk'nam, Angela Loij, died in 1974. Currently there are about 500 people (according to the Argentinian census) who claim (partial) Selk'nam ancestry, only one speaker of the Ona language is known today. The decline of the Selk'nam people was accelerated by the discovery of gold in their lands. Early in the 20th century, Martin Gusinde, among other anthropologists, studied the customs of the Selk'nam in depth. Even a photograph of Lola Kiepja taken in 1905 exists. The most important ceremonies of the Selk'nam are initiation rites in which their cosmology is reenacted. The masks and body paint used in these ceremonies belong (in my mind) to the highlights of art history. Beyond these spectacular impersonations of their ancestor spirits the Selk'nam are not known to have created (material) art.
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