Regeneration of Native Medicinal Plants: Lessons from the Filuwalfe Wetland as a Living Classroom

This year, two teachers joined the Docente Activo program, both working in schools near the Toltén River and Lake Budi in the commune of Teodoro Schmidt, La Araucanía Region. Ruth Alonso Pichún is a teacher of natural sciences, art, and music; while Silvia Calfuqueo is a general basic education teacher with a specialization in English and physical education. Together, they embraced the challenge of strengthening the relationship between the educational communities they work in and the territory they inhabit, aligned with the goal of regenerating lawen—traditional Mapuche medicine—within the Filuwalfe wetland.

At the one-room Estación Toltén School and School No. 312 Kom Pu Lof Ñi Kimeltuwe, a variety of activities were developed, including nature mapping, educational exchange trips between both communities, and a reforestation day in Filuwalfe. This was supported by the Budi Anumka group, which manages a nursery in Kom Pu Lof and helps preserve the body of water that provides lawen to the families of Llaguepulli and the communities living nearby. The wetland is also close to the home of a machi (Mapuche healer) who creates medicines from native plants.

Reimagining a School in a Former Train Station

In the Punta de Riel area, right at the mouth of the Toltén River, Estación Toltén School welcomes a group of primary students of various ages every day. Until 1982, the site operated as a train station, now transformed into a space for learning where Mapuche culture and education are honored. On the school’s bulletin boards, the memory of the territory is preserved through stories narrating how this place, once not a school, was a site designated by the state for transportation. Numbers, animals, and plant names in both Spanish and Mapudungun also cover the walls, extending the learning environment.

For several days, students and their teacher ventured into nearby areas to collect seedlings for the Filuwalfe reforestation day. Teacher Ruth Alonso Pichún explains that part of their learning process integrates multiple areas of knowledge: “We worked with species identification in nature, informative and poetic texts; in science, we covered topics like erosion, and in art, we created an artistic map that captures thoughts, emotions, and the elements present where we study.”

Later, they applied what they learned by making ointments using medicinal herbs. On the day of reforestation, they traveled to the wetland and planted in circular clusters alongside children, parents, and guardians from Kom Pu Lof. Ruth reflects: “I feel like we are just getting started, and from here on,we have much more to learn. It seems like the restoration was the start for a new project.”

Regarding the project’s importance, Jaime Vidal Wentreñanco, school assistant and driver—who also studied at the school as a child—shared that one of the greatest lessons for the educational community has been understanding how plants are connected to the territory on different levels: “For example, a place with a lot of temu or temo is called Temuco. The children are learning to value the plants.”

A Community-Focused Educational Project Near Filuwalfe

The Kom Pu Lof Ñi Kimeltuwe School implements a community-based educational model that seeks to highlight and systematize Mapuche Lafkenche knowledge, offering education from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Educator Silvia Calfuqueo, who has taught at the school for ten years, states that the project they developed for Docente Activo aligns with the goal of “raising awareness and collaboratively supporting children in learning about reforestation and wetland care from a spiritual, environmental, and social perspective.”

Calfuqueo adds that the wetland represents “a space of biodiversity that acts as a filter for the water passing through it to reach other water bodies. It’s also a medicinal space where both we and the machi hold ceremonies related to healing. From a Mapuche cultural perspective, it’s a place where many forms of life—flora and fauna—are propagated.” Thus, the Filuwalfe wetland, whose name in Mapudungun refers to the figure of snakes, becomes a place where life is incubated and spread.

A Nursery That Feeds the Community

Mañío, canelo, pitao, temo, and zarzaparrilla were among the species planted in the wetland. Some were brought by the Estación Toltén educational community, while others were nurtured and transported by the Budi Anumka organization. This group works “for the ongoing defense of Itrofillmonguen, or the biocultural heritage of the territory, a foundational inheritance and pillar of Azmonguen, the Mapuche way of life,” a body of knowledge they aim to pass on to future generations. They also manage a plant nursery at Kom Pu Lof.

Fernando Quilaqueo, co-director of the organization, noted that Filuwalfe holds great cultural, spiritual, ritual, and environmental significance as a biological corridor, which made participating in the teachers’ project especially meaningful.

“Filuwalfe is like a kidney that filters the waters that eventually reach Lake Budi and the sea,” reflected Quilaqueo, who is also a parent at the school. He also spoke about the challenge of rehabilitating and restoring deforested spaces and biological corridors as a core aspect of the Mapuche way of life—something the teachers are promoting. “They play a key role in reinforcing the knowledge that children learn at home about caring for the environment and recovering ancestral knowledge, like the Mapudungun language.”

Óscar Carrillo Tureo, nursery technician at Kom Pu Lof Ñi Kimeltuwe and member of Budi Anumka, emphasized that the school nursery propagates native plants often used as lawenes. This is a crucial mission in an area dominated by pine and eucalyptus. “Around 100 families benefit from these medicines: laurel, murta, arrayán, maitén, among others. Our job is to ensure good soil, composting, irrigation, and protection from the cold,” so that the native plants grown in the land endure and remain in harmony with the energy of the waters.

Guardians of Nature from Childhood

Children growing up today have the opportunity to learn that growing up can go hand-in-hand with supporting nature, reflects Silvia Calfuqueo. Ruth Alonso Pichún emphasizes that the concept of interdependence—guideline to this year’s Docente Activo—is about understanding that we are not just bodies having an experience, but part of a larger web of life, especially children, who represent the future.

At Estación Toltén School, 8-year-old student Geovany Rupayan Lemul says his grandmother teaches him about medicinal plants every day, so he’s happy to be learning more about the topic at school. “I recommend canelo because it gives you newen (vital energy) and helps you recover or avoid getting sick.” His classmate, 10-year-old Loreto Marican Porma, values the chance to explore nature and express the feelings it evokes and the experiences it connects: “You’re walking and find a dry leaf, pick it up, put it in a little bag, take it to school and paste it on cardboard—that reminds me of watching little birds in a wetland.”

Everyone mentioned in this article participated in the reforestation day, including machi Soledad, who emphasized the importance of art in these learning processes, as it fosters self-awareness from a young age. “There was a time when many people and little land led to deforestation. Now, new generations have the chance to revitalize wetlands, and restoring energy is something that must be reclaimed.”

Finally, the teachers reflected on the importance of maintaining a connection with nature, because “we come from nature, we live and eat from nature, from the earth.” This way of relating to the world enables the development of creativity, made possible through opportunities to share methodologies where art, ecology, and interculturality formed the foundation of the 2025 edition of the Docente Activo program.

Report by Violeta Bustos, Head of Communications, Fundación Mar Adentro.