Juan Antonio Painecura Antinao

Juan Antonio holds a degree in design from the Universidad Católica-Temuco. He has coordinated SIT excursions in the Mapuche region since 1995. He is a guest lecturer at Chilean universities on Mapuche history and philosophy and is the author of several articles on Mapuche history including “La Historia del Pueblo Mapuche en el Contexto del Modelo Neoliberal” (ARCIS, 2004). A longtime activist on Mapuche community development and culture survival issues, he has conducted indigenous leadership training in other Andean countries and is a founding member of Centro de Investigación y Promoción de los Derrechos Humanos de Temuco, a Chilean human rights organization. Juan Antonio is a Mapuche retrafe (silverwork artist) and consultant to the Smithsonian and the Royal London Museum on their Mapuche silverwork art collections. He is the owner of Ruka Kimun, a Mapuche cultural training and indigenous tourism business.