Kultrun Kettledrum Connects Two Legendary Women from Chilean History April 27, 2021 New acquisition played by artist Margot Loyola Palacios Recent enhancements to MIM’s Chile display share musical traditions of the Mapuche, one of Chile’s largest indigenous people groups. An especially rare acquisition, an early kultrun kettledrum, bears a connection with two historically important women, a Mapuche shamanic leader and the renowned Chilean singer and folklorist Margot Loyola Palacios. Around 1910, a Mapuche woman from the Araucanía region made the kultrun as she began the journey of becoming a shamanic leader, known as a machi. The drum, made from Patagonian oak and horsehide, also included sacred elements placed inside to forge a spiritual connection between the machi and her instrument. While the machi’s identity is unknown today, her powerful legacy remains. The kultrun was an essential instrument in healing rituals she performed for her community. Kultrun (kettledrum) Mapuche people, Chile, c. 1910 The drum began its second life when it was passed on to Margot Loyola (1918–2015), a well-known artist and advocate for the Mapuche. Inspired by her extensive studies in Latin American folklore, Loyola pioneered a major body of research on Chilean music and dance traditions. Her research, activism, and musical talents helped propel the country’s folklore revival and inspire Chile’s early leadership in nueva canción, a history-defining Latin American song movement. Loyola was only 22 years old when the machi ceremonially gifted her the kultrun in 1940. For over 50 years, Loyola traveled widely, performing and teaching with this special drum. Loyola’s widower, Osvaldo Cádiz Valenzuela, gifted the drum to MIM in honor of both of its former owners. With the blessing of the contemporary Mapuche people, MIM now keeps the resonance of the drum alive in a new way, reaching international audiences with the compelling story of this powerful Chilean symbol.
