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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Cosmographies is a word that refers to the writing, drawing, and storytelling of the cosmos.

The film includes many images of southern night skies in Atacama. We acknowledge the deep connections and stories that First Nations around the world have with the stars and Sky Country. We acknowledge that the images of galaxies and stars included in the film have different stories and meanings in diverse Traditional Knowledges held and nurtured by First Nations Peoples across the Southern Hemisphere.

Cosmographies was filmed over a period of two years. Between May 2022 and October 2023, we filmed in consultation and collaboration with community leaders in several sites within the Lickana, the Ancestral Atacameño-Lickanantay Territory in the Salar de Atacama, where Director Juan Francisco Salazar has worked since 1992. Filming also took place in Sydney, Australia, specifically in Hawkesbury (Dharug Country) in May 2023 and in Maroubra (Gadigal and Bidjigal Country) in April 2024 as well as in Rotorua, Aotearoa New Zealand in December 2023, around Whakarewarewa Village, home of the Tūhourangi Ngāti Wāhiaopeople, and where co-writer Victoria Hunt’s paternal family is related to.

The Atacameño-Lickanantay people who have lived in these lands for 13,000 years. In this territory, thesystem of veneration of the high peaks and tutelary volcanoes is related to the memory of the ancestors, the ‘abuelos’, ‘gentiles’ or ‘antiguos’ who are deeply revered and to whom offerings are made in the places where they dwelled. There are several significant tutelary mountains and volcanoes that appear in the film, including Likancabur, Lascar, Kimal, Toco, Corona, Pili, Incahuasi, Vilama, La Pacana, Miscanti, Chajnantor, Chiliques, Putana, Poquis, Tumisa, and others Following cultural protocols, permission to film was always requested from them.

In consultation with the authorities of the Comunidad Lickan Antay de Toconao, we filmed in severallocations in Toconao and in special places with the Unidad de Identidad, Territorio y Medioambiente (Identity, Territory and Environment Unit), within the territorial claim of the Toconao Community, including the salt lakes of Tara, Pujsa, Quisquiro, Quepiaco, as well as the Pakana, Chajnantor, and Parque Laguna Chaxa.

Some scenes were filmed in other communities, including in the Ayllu of Sequitor and Valle de la Luna, in San Pedro de Atacama, as well as at Miscanti y Miñiques lagoons and Salar de Aguas Calientes Sur (Comunidad Atacameña de Socaire), Yerbas Buenas (Comunidad Atacameña de Rio Grande), Cerro Toco (Parque Astronómico Atacama) and El Tatio geysers (Comunidades Atacameñas de Caspana y de Toconce).

Filming also took place on the coast, in the town of Mejillones, in consultation with the Sindicato de Pescadores y Buzos Mariscadores de Mejillones (Fishermen and Shellfish Divers Union of Mejillones). Some scenes were filmed in and around Chuquicamata mine and Calama, as well as in Sierra Gorda and surroundings. The speculative fiction scenes were filmed south of Antofagasta, in sites near OficinaPalestina and the derelict town of Yungay, close to where NASA tests their Mars rovers, and near OficinaSan Gregorio, where a massacre of 60 saltpeter workers took place in 1921.

Editing and post-production took place between January and September 2024 in Bellambi (Dharawal Country) in Wollongong, and in Canterbury and Marrickville (Wangal Country) in Sydney.

We offer our gratitude to all participants for trusting us to share part of their stories. We pay our respects to all land and water defenders on the frontline of ongoing struggles for social and environmental justice in the Salar de Atacama.

To cosmographers past, present and future.

PRESS