In the Altiplano, language is not learned only in a classroom. It is acquired by naming the hills, recognizing the colours of a llama, listening to a farewell song, preparing a watia—a traditional dish cooked underground—asking permission before beginning a ceremony, or remembering the words spoken by grandparents. With that conviction, the UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago, in coordination with the Intercultural Bilingual Education Programme (PEIB) of Chile’s Ministry of Education, carried out two linguistic, cultural and pedagogical immersion experiences in the Aymara language in Putre, in the Arica and Parinacota Region, and in Camiña, in the Tarapacá Region, in northern Chile.
The initiative is part of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022–2032, proclaimed by the United Nations, and responds to an urgent concern: strengthening the transmission of Indigenous languages in contexts where their everyday use has diminished, especially among younger generations. Esther Kuisch Laroche, Director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago, underlined that “for UNESCO, this initiative is important because each indigenous language is a unique expression of a people’s social and cultural experience, but also a form of knowledge, a way of organizing collective life, and a tool for building the future”.
The project, implemented by the Aymara consultancy Amtawi, brought together traditional educators in territorial spaces. During the sessions, participants shared with Amawt’as—wise people or traditional teachers—jilir irpirinaka—senior guides or trainers—Aymara speakers and culture bearers around cultural practices linked to spirituality, food, music, traditional medicine, herding, community life and pedagogy.
Putre: ceremony, landscape and memory
The first experience took place in Putre from 25 to 27 February 2026, with traditional educators from the Arica and Parinacota Region. There, the immersion began with a phawa and ch’alla ceremony—an offering, act of gratitude and ritual opening—a practice that made it possible to approach the language through its cultural, spiritual and community uses. It was not simply a matter of observing a ceremony: participants took part in it, putting into practice forms of communication linked to respect for Pachamama—Mother Earth—the territory and the ancestors.
This situated learning was one of the features most valued by those who attended. The experience allowed the language to appear in connection with concrete moments: greeting, giving thanks, describing, asking questions, singing, explaining, saying farewell and remembering. As one participant expressed at the close of the experience, the immersion allowed them to reconnect with “the little I knew” of the language, drawing on a family memory that was reactivated when their child asked for help with an Aymara assignment. “My grandmother always spoke it,” the participant recalled, explaining how the experience reconnected the language with family life and with the responsibility of transmitting it.
The residential programme also brought educators into direct contact with the land, where learning took place in relation to camelid herding, wetlands, hills and the names of the landscape. In a pen with llamas and alpacas, participants learned vocabulary associated with the animals, their colours, their care, fodder, offspring and herding practices.
Emotion was also part of the learning. In the qualitative evaluations, several participants highlighted that being in the corral, listening to the wise people, taking part in the phawa—ceremonial offering—or sharing knowledge about traditional medicine helped them understand that the language cannot be separated from culture. “It moved me deeply to be in the corral,” said one traditional educator. Another participant stated that the experience helped them learn content that would be useful for their classes, while also recognizing how much more practice is needed: “Here I learned a great deal for my classes, but afterwards there is nowhere to keep practising Aymara.”
That observation reveals one of the main challenges of language revitalization: it is not enough to offer isolated training opportunities. Languages need spaces of use, continuity, networks of speakers and real opportunities to be practized in everyday life and at school. For that reason, one of the lessons of the project was the need to strengthen collaboration mechanisms among traditional educators, especially between those with greater command of the language and those at beginner or intermediate levels.
With regard to the pedagogical dimension, at different moments educators worked in groups to transform what they had experienced into possible classroom activities. Drawing on herding, music, the colours of animals, food or ceremonies, they designed ways of bringing this knowledge to children and young people. There, the value of the immersions became especially clear: they not only strengthen those who teach, but also multiply their impact in school communities.
The closing of the experience in Putre also had a strong cultural meaning. The preparation of the watia—a traditional dish cooked underground—made it possible to work on vocabulary related to food, family, cooking and community practices. Afterwards, the kacharpaya—a festive farewell and ritual closing—marked the end of the experience with music, singing and dancing. Participants shared emotion, identity and a sense of belonging, in a farewell that was itself the expression of a community gathered around its language.
read more: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/when-language-returns-its-territory-chile-unesco-supports-experiences-strengthen-aymara-through?hub=701
