Description

The Wachiperi are an indigenous group of about 100 people in the Madre de Dios rainforest foothills in the Amazon of Peru. Today only about forty Wachiperi speak their indigenous language. In 2010, Holly Wissler repatriated (returned to the original community) the archives of 206 recorded songs of the Wachiperi by UC Berkeley anthropologist Patricia J. Lyon in 1967/68. Upon listening, some of the Wachiperi were galvanized to revive some of these songs that are no longer sung due to displacement and loss of original context. This talk discusses the joys, heartaches and issues of song revival and preservation, and the Wachiperi’s invitation to perform their waning traditions at the international platform of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, 2015.

Holly Wissler is a Tour Leader in the Andes and Himalayas, Lecturer for U.S. Study Abroad and a National Geographic Local Expert. Holly’s research has primarily focused on the indigenous Quechua community of Q’eros. She is the producer of three documentaries on Andean themes and has published multiple articles in Spanish and English. Here’s a link to Holly’s second documentary, From Grief and Joy We Sing: https://youtu.be/cAqrBC6ERX0.