Liliana Ancalao was born in Comodoro Rivadavia in 1961. Her origins in Puel Mapu Wall Mapu go back to the time her great-great-grandparents crossed the mountain range like it was a bridge, without the limitations imposed by the states of Argentina and Chile. She belongs to the Ñamkulawen Mapuche community and is a learner of her maternal language, Mapudungun.
She is the general advisor of the animated series Poemas de la Tierra, broadcast in 2022 by the Paka Paka channel. As a poet, she has been honored at the VII Encuentro de Literaturas en Languas Originarias de América and the 2022 Guadalajara International Book Fair, and she received the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Heritage category from the Fondo Nacional de las Artes.
She has published the poetry collections Tejido con lana cruda (2001) and Mujeres a la intemperie-pu zomo wekuntu mew (2009) with El Suri Porfiado in Argentina and the poetry and essay collection Resuello-neyen (2018) with Marisma in Spain. Her third poetry collection, Rokiñ, provisiones para el viaje (2020), was published with Espacio Hudson in Argentina. Her writing has been included in various anthologies of work in indigenous languages, work by writers in the Patagonia region, and work by Argentine writers. Her writing has been translated into English, French, Italian, and Portuguese.
