Created 2019

The Lican Antai people of the Atacama Desert have persisted for 12,000 years in the oases, valleys and gorges of the Andes. Dominated by the Inca in the 15th Century, their language, Kunza was believed extinct after the arrival of the Spanish. Today they are reviving the language in places where the Lican Antai or Atacameños hold on to their ways of life, using the scarce water and sparse terrain by keeping their livestock - llama and alpaca - both as pack animals and for their meat, hide and wool. Stewards of water in one of the driest and harshest environments on earth, they are a model for all as global climate change and mining practices bring heartbreaking tragedy and perplexing challenges to the Atacama Desert.