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On Easter Island they prepare to celebrate the Tapati festival. An ancient Polynesian ritual of dance, song and competition. But for the first time in decades, this event will have no tourists. The island, closed by the pandemic, will celebrate in an intimate way. And the camera will be the only one that will record. The Nua Ika Pakarati will descend to the Rano Kau volcano to collect the “Matu’a pua’a” (Polypodium scolopendria), a fern that only grows there and is in danger of extinction. She will prepare it in a healing rite for the inhabitants of the island.
In parallel, the Pewenche community defies time and modernity to preserve their sacred tree: the Araucaria. Teresa Cheuquepil is Lawentuchefe –guardian of ancestral medicines– and she has worked all her life spreading her knowledge, until she passes away. After her death, and celebrating the “Anum Lawenche” ceremony, her daughters will take her place and inherit a legacy that she has subsisted for centuries.
