New Exhibit at Mission Museum Focuses on Indigenous Communities

New Exhibit at Misiones Salesianas Museum Focuses on Indigenous Communities

(ANS – Madrid – January 22, 2026) – The Misiones Salesianas Museum presents the second phase of the commemorative exhibition entitled La aventura valdrá la pena: 150 años de las misiones salesianas (“The adventure will be worth it: 150 years of Salesian missions”). This new stage of the exhibition offers a critical look at the relationship between Salesian missionaries and the indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego, particularly the Selk’nam people, with an emphasis on historical memory and current processes of reparation and recognition.

The exhibit runs across 2 rooms. The 1st traces the changing mindset of the Salesian missionaries who arrived in Patagonia at the end of the 19th century, influenced by a colonial vision. Contact with the reality of the indigenous populations gradually transformed this view, dismantling prejudices and revealing the cultural, social, and spiritual richness of the Selk’nam people.

Some Salesian missionaries actively denounced the injustices suffered by these communities during the colonization process. Among them were figures such as Dominic Milanesio, an inter-ethnic and cultural mediator, and Albert Maria de Agostini, whose photographic, scientific, and pastoral work marked a profound change in the missionary sensibility of the time.

The 2d room brings together more than 30 photographs taken by De Agostini at the beginning of the 20th century, documenting the traditions, beliefs, clothing, and social organization of the Selk’nam people. The exhibition is completed by an excerpt from the documentary Terre Magellaniche (1933), one of the first film recordings of the indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego and southern Patagonia, as well as a selection of Selk’nam arrowheads belonging to the museum’s founding collection, unique vestiges of a millennial culture that was on the verge of disappearing.

The inauguration of this 2d phase took place on January 15, with a conference entitled “Reparación y revitalización de la memoria Selk’nam de Tierra del Fuego” (“Repair and revitalization of the Selk’nam memory of Tierra del Fuego”). The conference was attended by Margarita Angelica Maldonado, a descendant of the Selk’nam and cultural transmitter from Rio Grande, Argentina; Manuel Peris, a Chilean visual artist, graphic designer, and art professor; and Alejandra Muñoz-Tapia, a Mapuche social psychologist and doctor of psychology.

This meeting offered insights into the cultural, social, and legislative processes that today allow for the recovery of the collective memory of a people who for decades were considered “extinct” and who today are reclaiming their identity and rights in both Argentina and Chile.

With this 2d phase of the exhibit on the 150th anniversary of the 1st missionary expedition sent by Don Bosco, the Misiones Salesianas Museum reaffirms its vocation as a cultural and educational space at the service of memory, intercultural respect, and the construction of a more just present by listening to the past.

The exhibit can be visited free of charge until April 11 at the Misiones Salesianas Museum (Calle Lisboa, 4, Madrid), from Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Fridays also from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.