Mapuche: Students Get Organised
Newen Weche Mapu, an organisation of Mapuche students, has been set up at the
Below is an article written by Monica Evans and published by The
“Oh, I thought you’d be taller. Normally gringos are so tall,” is the first thing Ivan Melilla Raimil, 27, says to me when we meet in Valparaíso’s Plaza Aníbal Pinto. “But you’re like us,” he says, sounding somewhat relieved.
We’ve met to discuss a project that he and other members of Newen Weche Mapu (Fuerza Joven Tierra) – a group of young Mapuche activists from the Universidad de Valparaíso (UV) – are just about to kick off. The project is directed towards Mapuche recipients of indigenous scholarships in the UV, and aims to increase cultural participation and understanding of identity in this group of urban young people.
As
So Melillan and a group of Mapuche friends from the UV-formed Newen Weche Mapu, and began dreaming up ways of trying to get young Mapuche interested in and proud of their indigenous origins. They’ve already held Mapuche New Year celebrations and various workshops on aspects of Mapuche culture.
The current project is their biggest yet. By no means is it a simple task. “Amongst urban Mapuche, and the majority of Mapuche are now urban, there is very little participation in the culture,” says Melillan. “I know a lot of Mapuche punks and Mapuche goths . . . but they never identify themselves as Mapuche.”
He says there is still a lot of shame around admitting one’s indigenous origins. “If you have the surname Rodríguez, you look for the Rodríguez shield, the part of
Under the agrarian reforms of Salvador Allende’s 1970-73 government, thousands of hectares of land was to be returned to the Mapuche people. However, in the ensuing dictatorship period, Augusto Pinochet quickly shut down that possibility. Nevertheless, hope remains among Mapuche that their lands will one day be returned. “Mapuche means People of the Land,” says
He hopes that his and other similar projects will cultivate the sense of obligation among young, urban, educated Mapuche to return to rural Mapuche communities to help out. “We are very lucky to be able to study. The majority of our people don’t have that opportunity. Unfortunately, the Mapuche are among the worst-off in educational statistics in this country.”
Of the government,
“But really I have little hope for the government,” he says. “We have to start off with culture.”
Spreading the Word
Later in the week Melillan invites me to the official launch of the project, in the UV law school. When I arrive he’s handing out T-shirts with the Mapuche symbol for the cosmos on the back. “I always wear T-shirts with Mapuche causes on them,” he tells me. “And whatever class I take at the university, I always push the indigenous position. My classmates get bored: ‘Oh, I wonder what Ivan’s going to say this time...’ But you have to kill the ignorance somehow.”
During the launch, Melillan and fellow Newen Weche Mapu member Sergio Millaman explain the structure of the project to the gathered 19- to 22-year-old Mapuche students. They will hold a series of weekly workshops for the next three months, addressing topics such as the Mapudungun language, Mapuche history, cosmology, food, and indigenous law. By the end of the project they hope the young people involved will be sufficiently prepared to run the course for incoming Mapuche students the following year.
Fewer students have showed up than Melillan hoped. He tells those there to talk to their Mapuche classmates and try to get them to come along. “I tried already,” one girl says. ”I asked a guy in my class what his (Mapuche) surname meant. And he just gave me the dirtiest look and wouldn't answer.”
A man in the audience wants to know why the project is only open for Mapuche – and only Mapuche who can prove their origin, thus being eligible for the scholarships, at that. There are lots of non-Mapuche and “uncertified” Mapuche, he says, who might also be interested in the issue.
Melillan explains: “We’ve always said that discrimination is a product of ignorance. But we can’t reach everyone at the same time, so we have to start with and focus on Mapuche descendants first. From there they can share the information with everyone else.”
He doesn’t see this as a negative form of discrimination. “I say, well, maybe it’s OK for Chileans to feel discriminated against for once. The Chilean constitution says we are all Chileans. But there are a lot of indigenous people who don’t feel Chilean,” he says.
Despite
Globalized, but Grounded
On Saturday, the group meets in the
While
“Hey, we don’t have a trompe (Jew's harp),” says someone.
“We’re more globalised now. . . . We can never go back to living exactly the way our great grandparents lived. But we can keep the culture alive and moving,” he tells me, laughing.
Millaman agrees. “Culture is not static. It’s always changing, evolving. We want people to come out of this course with some new habits, some everyday things that take their indigeneity into account. Not something for tourists to take photos of.”
As the bus pulls out of the cultural center,