Roots and Resistance: How Patagonian Women Preserve Culture Through Walking Rituals

In Patagonia, resistance doesn’t always roar. Sometimes, it walks.

It walks through forests and across valleys, in the slow steps of grandmothers retracing ancestral paths. It walks with silence, in the company of herbs, stories, and firelight.

It walks with purpose—in the footsteps of women who carry the past not in museums or textbooks, but in rituals performed on foot.

This article explores how walking rituals, led and preserved by women, have become a powerful act of cultural resilience across Patagonia.

These are not fitness hikes or sightseeing strolls—they are acts of memory, land connection, and identity affirmation. Here, women walk to remember, to resist erasure, and to invite others into the rhythm of cultural survival.

What Is a Walking Ritual?

At first glance, a walking ritual may resemble a hike. But the intention—and impact—go much deeper. Walking rituals are:

• Intentional, ceremonial walks that connect body, land, and memory.
• Performed regularly or during specific times of the year (e.g., solstices, harvest, mourning periods).
• Rooted in indigenous and rural traditions, especially among Mapuche, Tehuelche, and mixed-heritage women in Patagonia.
• Often non-linear—they may involve pauses, backtracking, or circling sacred places.

These walks are sometimes solitary. Other times, they are done in small, trusted circles—women walking as one, guided by the rhythm of breath and footsteps.

Why Women Lead These Rituals

In many Patagonian communities, it is the women who:

• Retain the oral histories of displacement and colonization.
• Know the sacred spots—where herbs grow, where ceremonies were held, where the stars meet the land.
• Hold space for grief, transition, and intergenerational healing.

For them, walking becomes a political and spiritual act:

• A way to resist forgetting.
• A protest against land theft and cultural appropriation.
• A declaration of presence: We are still here. Walking. Remembering. Teaching.

Examples of Cultural Walking Rituals in Patagonia

1. The Path of the Grandmothers – Esquel to Cerro La Cruz

In Esquel, Argentina, a group of women known as Abuelas del Sendero (“Grandmothers of the Trail”) walk a 4 km route each full moon. They stop at four sacred trees—one for each direction—and recite poems and prayers in both Spanish and Mapudungun.

Their ritual includes:

• Pausing to share memories at each stop—often stories of forced migrations or childhoods interrupted by dictatorship.
• Planting seeds or herbs to leave behind a trace of healing.
• Inviting younger women to walk with them, ensuring transmission of story and presence.

The walk ends at Cerro La Cruz, where they sit in a circle, sharing tea, bread, and dreams. It’s a trail of grief, yes—but also of survival and soft rebellion.

2. The Memory Walk – Near Villa Futalaufquen

In the heart of Los Alerces National Park, a once-displaced Mapuche family has revived a ritual of walking in silence to a sacred rock formation, known as “La Piedra que Canta” (The Singing Stone).

The walk is done annually to:

• Reconnect with a stolen homeland.
• Sing the ancestral songs known as ül, guided by female elders.
• Teach children about their land rights, cosmology, and the pain of exile.

Travelers are invited to observe, not participate, unless invited. The emphasis is on witnessing rather than consuming—a vital distinction when approaching rituals of trauma and land defense.

3. Rituals of Resistance – Tolhuin Women’s Circle

In the southern reaches of Tierra del Fuego, a group of mestiza and indigenous women has developed a walking ritual that blends:

• Catholic processional elements (like rosaries and candles),
• Mapuche earth offerings, and
• Feminist protest chants.

This walk occurs every International Women’s Day and culminates in a ceremony by the water, where women throw into the lake:

• Objects representing burdens (written fears, burned herbs).
• Symbols of resistance (red ribbons, handmade dolls, poetry).

It’s a defiant yet sacred act—spirituality as protest, and protest as communion.

What You Might See or Experience as a Visitor

As a traveler invited into one of these walking rituals, you might witness or be invited to:

• Carry an object of personal significance, to release or bless along the trail.
• Participate in a shared silence, where no phones or cameras are allowed.
• Sing or hum, learning the chants used to call in ancestral energy.
• Watch women tie ribbons to trees, each one a prayer or message.

Sometimes you’ll be asked to walk barefoot. Other times, to close your eyes for part of the journey, trusting the guidance of another woman. Always, the point is not the destination—but the state of being the walk creates.

The Emotional Impact of These Rituals

Travelers often describe unexpected emotional responses:

• Tears during silence.
• A deep sense of belonging—even as outsiders.
• Sudden memories of their own ancestors, even in an unfamiliar land.

Because these rituals involve reverence, movement, and collective presence, they open emotional and spiritual channels that many modern experiences suppress.

As one visitor wrote:

“I thought I came here to hike Patagonia. But I ended up walking through my own family history—guided by women who had never met me, yet somehow knew everything I needed.”

Cultural Preservation Through Embodied Practice

Walking rituals are not just symbolic—they are tangible cultural preservation tools:

• They pass down routes no longer marked on maps.
• They teach body-based memory, allowing women to remember through rhythm, breath, and step.
• They are resistant to colonization, because they are not held in books, but in bodies.

This is why they endure—they cannot be erased unless the walkers stop walking.

Ethics of Participating in or Observing Walking Rituals

These are not tourist activities, and must be approached with:

• Humility and invitation—don’t assume access, ask permission.
• Respect for silence—many rituals are held in quiet; don’t interrupt with questions or photos.
• Cultural literacy—learn about the people, the land, and their history beforehand.
• Exchange over extraction—bring a gift, offer something in return, support the women economically or through your own storytelling after.

What You’ll Take With You

If you are fortunate enough to join or witness one of these walks, you won’t leave with souvenirs or selfies.

You will leave with:

• A new way of walking slowly and intentionally.
• A story told by someone whose mother once told her the same thing.
• A memory of standing in silence while the wind whispered something only you could understand.

Most importantly, you’ll leave knowing that resistance does not always look like war or protest. Sometimes, it looks like a group of women walking slowly along an old path, refusing to forget.