Cultural Resistance ...
Being a Mapuche Woman in Chile 2000

Millaray Painemal and Sara MacFall

Hilda Huenteo is a woman with leadership in her blood. She is the leader of a Mapuche-Williche community on the island of Chiloe in the south of central Chile and for the past three years has worked nights in a fish factory so that she has the time to take part in the chiefs' council, an idigenous organisation in which she is the only woman in a group of 19 chiefs. When the council was formed in 1983, she was only 13 years old and spent two days making bread with the other women for the men taking part in the council. When one of the women proposed having a women's space within the council, Hilda stayed and has since then played a very active role.

The women requested their own representative because they believed - and still believe - that it is they who maintain and pass on the Mapuche culture and it is thus that they perceive their role in the council: a space in which they can help strengthen the religion and language. Hilda says that although initially the community looked upon her in a poor light because she left her husband behind to look after the children, she is now valued for her work. Presently there are more capable women in the 18 participating communities and they are asking for their own organisation within the council to look at issues that specifically affect women, such as domestic violence. However, trying to organise the women of the communities is difficult as they are tied up with their homes or worried about what their husbands are going to say.

"The women do not dare - they'll say 'I have to look after my house or after this or that'," explains Hilda Huenteo. "I've said to them so often: 'Sisters, you think I don't have anything to do, or anyone to look after? It's not a question of time, but of doing what one must. It is like having a job to do.'"

Hilda feels called to be a leader. Her grandfather was the chief but since none of his sons or nephews took up the leadership it fell to her: "The need to participate is in my blood. I despair when there's a meeting to which I can't go."

Women have played a part throughout the history of the Mapuche political movement, in the urban organisations and institutions, in their own structures, and - in this new stage of fighting for the return of the land - in marches and demonstrations, in the demands for autonomy (1), and amongst Mapuche intellectuals. The fight to stop the construction of a dam on the Bio-Bio river has been kept up over the past 10 years by women like the sisters Nicolasa and Berta Quintreman from the Ralko-Lepoy community.

The cultural resistance, the raising of political issues, the reclamation of the land and the people's strength currently seen in Mapuche territory in Chile are all part of a bigger history, a history made famous in Neruda's poetry and the songs of Victor Jara and Violeta Parra. The Mapuche were never conquered by the Spanish and the Chilean and Argentinian States only managed to do so at the end of the 19th century. In Chile, even after the Mapuche had lost their land and livestock in the 18th and 19th century and had been reduced to living in only 5% of their own land, they strongly maintained their culture, religion and - in many areas of the country - their language. In demographics terms, there have been dramatic changes since the time of the Spanish conquest. The Mapuche form about 10% of the Chilean population but about 50% of them live in the capital, Santiago, and a high proportion of these are already third or fourth generation urban dwellers.

Despite a long trajectory across the 20th century, the roots of the current political movement lie in the opposition in 1978 to the law laid down by the military government to divide up the communal land. Just before the presidential elections in 1989 and the reinstatement of democracy after 16 years of dictatorship, many of the Mapuche organisations signed a deal with the new government to work on a law on indigenous people. The law was passed in 1993 and until 1997, there was a whole process of negotiation, co-operation and much co-opting of important Mapuche figures, who collaborated on the implementation. This movement was based in the city, within political organisations that were almost all linked to political parties.

However, the growing disenchantment and frustration with the law became evident towards the end of 1997 when the Lumako communities - in the north of the traditional Mapuche territories - mobilised against encroaching forestry operations. This marked a new phase in the movement, with a different political agenda: from land to particular territory, from recognition to autonomy. Instead of forming political entities people organised themselves in the traditional territorial structures of ayllarewe and butalmapu, which represent territorial similarities over large socio-geographic areas.

There were huge sacrifices involved for the women who took part in this movement. The constant journeys from the rural areas to present their demands entailed the abandoning of homes, families, chores, crops and animals. In addition, the level of political repression was growing, as evidenced in TV footage documenting how elderly Mapuche women in cities and in the countryside were being attacked by Carabineros (uniformed police). To give one example, a torture case where prisoners from Xuf Xuf (2) denounced they were given electric shocks and beaten up by the Carabineros is being investigated abroad. The press has created a picture of terrorism and chaos in the Mapuche communities and the government contradicts itself with its dialogue forums, its short term solutions and its repression via the use of the Internal Security Law which permits brutal measures to be taken.

Mapuche women's interest in organising themselves arises from the need to tackle issues specific to women, beyond the political issues general to the people like territory and autonomy. Women have been involved ever since the appearance in the early 20th century of the first urban organisations, but they were usually relegated to some irrelevant task. This is partly explained by the traditional power structure: the political authority is the lonko (chief) which is a masculine role (though not always played by a man) while the Mapuche woman has a religious and healing role, embodied in the machi (shaman) role.

At the moment, a lot of Mapuche women live in urban areas as a result of the rural-urban migration that has happened since the 40s, due to the shortage of land which arose from the government policy of creating indigenous reserves. In general the women who have migrated have been young adults, between 20 and 29 years old - their most fertile period, a fact which has helped the birth rate to plummet in the rural areas. The kind of work that the Mapuche women can find is generally in the domestic service area or in commerce - though in low-paying jobs with poor working conditions, for they do not have specific skills or any specialisation.

Many Mapuche women face triple discrimination in the urban areas: as women, as poor people and as indigenous people, a situation which often makes them try to hide who they are - though sometimes it reaffirms their identity. This is shown in their participation in both mixed and women-only organisations, the latter of which attempt to help develop Mapuche culture, improve the condition of women within Mapuche society and fight against discrimination and violence.

Within the communities, Mapuche women carry out a variety of activities, which add considerable value to the family economy, whether it is selling vegetables or crafts, even though this contribution is often not really recognised. Even though men are responsible for the oral and public dissemination of the culture, the women teach the culture at home and in addition are the healers, herbalists and mediators (componedoras) of the community. Unfortunately, the woman's role as healer is under threat from the growth of forestry and the ongoing megaprojects in Mapuche territory, projects with negative consequences for the community like the extinction of medicinal plants.

Mapuche women's demands reflect their current situation and the fact that they live in two worlds: they demand better training so they can get better jobs and access for their children to education which incorporates an intercultural perspective. Another fundamental demand is to do with recognition of their role in Mapuche society, that it be recognised and accorded value, for example, the machi role and the use of traditional medicine within the health system. Their gaze also goes outward, to the world in which they live, and to their own Mapuche society; the women may defend their culture but they are aware of the need to improve their position within it.

For articles, questions, photos and more information, contact:

(1) see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rehue
(2) see: http://www.anta.ch/~cds/solidaridad/chi_xuf-xuf.html

Other websites related to the issue:
http://www.mapuche.cl
http://www.lanzadera.com/xegxeg
http://www.galeon.com/mapuexpress
http://linux.soc.uu.se/mapuche

Millaray Painemal: Vice President of the National Association of Rural and Indigenous Women of Chile. She holds a degree in Universal History from Patrice Lumumba University, Moscow and a MA in applied social sciences with majors in regional and local development.
e-mail: america@quidel.inele.ufro.cl

Sara McFall: PhD in Social Anthropology from Oxford University and researcher at the Institute of Indigenous Studies and of the Association for Intercultural Health Makewe-Palele, Temuko, Chile.
e-mail: pillanllaima@yahoo.com

Translated from Spanish into English by Liz Lange and Rachel Stewart.

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