Mateo the memory keeper

Available for over a year

Mateo Sobode Chiqueno is from Paraguay's indigenous Ayoreo people. Hunter-gatherers who have roamed the forests of Paraguay for many centuries, the Ayoreo were first targeted by Catholic, and then Evangelical missionaries who forced them to move into settlements. Mateo himself was orphaned at just 13, shortly after his family were taken out of the forest. Life in the missionary settlements was hard, but Mateo never gave up on his Ayoreo connections, for which he was eventually cast out by the priests. But he'd already seen how the missionaries used tape recorders to document their work, and realised he could do the same: for 40 years he's been recording Ayoreo songs, language, stories and rituals on cassettes. “In the forest there was everything,” he remembers sadly: the Ayoreo now face an onslaught of deforestation, but Mateo's cassettes are seen as a vital link to a threatened culture. Presenter: Laurence Blair Producer: Santi Carneri, Laura Thomas & Gaia Caramazza Get in touch: [email protected] (Photo: Mateo Sobode Chiqueno. Credit: Santi Carneri)