| At the extreme south
of Chile, ethnic groups and languages are being
wiped out. The reporters found two indigenous
groups, the Aonikenk and the Selk'am had disappeared and
another two are close to extinction. One group, the Kawesqar, has
just twenty people left and the other, the Yagans, seventy.
One Yagan woman who travelled more than two thousand kilometres
north to Santiago for the formal ceremony told the BBC there are
only two people left who spoke their language fluently.
The report recommended an urgent census
and new programmes to try to save their culture and language.
The study also called for the three
thousand Rapa Nui people of Easter Island to be given greater
autonomy under the umbrella of Chilean sovereignty.
On the key issue of land rights,
it called for a mechanism to study ancestral
links to the land. It said public property should be handed
back to its original owners.
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wiped out: destroyed forever
indigenous groups: ethnic groups
whose ancestors were the first to arrive in the country
census: an government survey of the whole population
called for: demanded
greater autonomy: more independence
from central government
under the umbrella of: under
the protection of
sovereignty: the power to make
laws and control a country
land rights: the permission to
use or own land
ancestral links: traditional
family connections
handed back: here, formally given
again
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