Indigenous communities in the rioplatense region have endured a harsh history of territorial conquest, military aggression, geographical displacement, and genocidal annihilation. Yet, despite centuries of hardship, surviving groups have proved remarkably resilient in finding ways to preserve traces of their traditional beliefs and practices. In recent years, the knowledge of Indigenous repertoires has increased due to the activity of rioplatense scholars such as Irma Ruiz who have conducted extensive fieldwork among local populations. The Argentine National Institute of Musicology owns a vast collection of sound recordings, photographs, and instruments that document and preserve this heritage. The three Argentine regions with the largest contemporary Indigenous populations are the Chaco, the littoral, and Patagonia.

The remote Chaco region, with its inaccessible geographical terrain, has a high density of Indigenous communities, among them the Mataco and Toba. The cultural and musical practices of these groups converged during the late nineteenth century, when they were forced to work together under harsh labor conditions in sugar plantations and lumber mills. Another strong influence was the Protestant evangelical movement, particularly Pentecostal missionaries, who prohibited nonreligious music and forced Indigenous groups to relinquish traditional instruments. Interestingly, the Toba responded by founding the United Evangelical Church (based on Pentecostal principles), and this religious movement later came to influence the Mataco. Although the new Toba religious music eliminated controversial elements that the missionaries strove to erase (such as the shaman or Indigenous healer), it nevertheless contains allusions to older communal practices which have ceased to exist in their original form today.

Guaraní-speaking people live in the north-eastern Argentine province of Misiones, located in the littoral. The main Indigenous community of this region, the Mbyá, originated in Paraguay, where some members of the group still reside. Like the Mataco and Toba, the Mbyá came under pressure from Protestant missionaries to accept evangelical Christianity. Yet, unlike other groups, they ferociously guarded their religious and cultural identity. They have maintained an intensely private religious life, practicing ritual ceremonies inside the homes of spiritual leaders to avoid attracting attention. Yet, the Mbyá have adopted string instruments of European origin—a five-string guitar and a three-string rebec (folk violin)—that they consider their own. Even though they know how to play the six-string guitar, which is standard throughout the region, they reserve the five-string instrument for their own ritual music. The Mapuche (“people of the land”) inhabit the Patagonian area, as well as occupying large portions of central and southern Chile. This group maintained a strong and independent presence until the late nineteenth century, when Argentine and Chilean armies defeated them.

The Mapuche are known for their complex religious beliefs and musical practices. Women play a leading role in performing sacred music. A central Mapuche ritual is tayil, which connects community members with the souls of their living and deceased ancestors. Today, as younger generations begin to lose their traditions and assimilate within surrounding communities, tayil endures as a reminder of the group’s collective belief system and relation to a shared ancestral past.