Hema’ny Molina
Corporación del Pueblo Selk’nam
Chile · Writing
Nancy Molina is better known as Hema’ny Molina, which is her indigenous name.
She belongs to one of the families of the Selk’nam indigenous community “Covadonga Ona”. She presides over the Corporation of Selk’nam people in Chile, the community’s legal arm.
The Corporation of Selk’nam people in Chile, in collaboration with Catholic University Silva Henríquez, has been working for years to achieve the right of being considered as a living group (not extinct) by the government, to stand against prejudices about first nations communities and to strengthen their culture, spirituality and language.
Every year, they commemorate the “day of the dignity of selk’nam people” and some members travel to Tierra del Fuego, their homeland in Chile y Argentina. In 2019, as a great achievement they planned to go for the first time to Karukinka Natural Park (chilean side of the island) to meet the local people of their ancestor’s land, as a proof of the important progress of this corporation’s work.