Wallmapu is the word in the Mapuche language to say "Universe" or "set of surrounding lands", currently used by some historians to describe the historical territory inhabited by the Mapuche people of southern South America. The term was coined in the early 1990s by Indigenist groups but gained traction in the 2000s as the Mapuche conflict in Araucanía intensified. Some view the Wallmapu as being composed of two main parts Ngulumapu in the west and Puelmapu in the east, with the southern part of Ngulumapu being known as Futahuillimapu.
On May 19, 2022 a conference on the topic "The threat of Wallmapu" (Spanish: La amenaza de Wallmapu) was held in the city of Neuquén, Argentina.
Etymology and Origin of the Name
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Wall means "around," "surrounding," or "encompassing" in Mapudungun, while Mapu means "land" or "territory." Therefore, Wallmapu translates to "land of around" or "surrounding territory." The concept of wall as encompassing, spherical, or the edges of mapu is reconfigured in relation to the winka (non-Mapuche). This notion, expressed in discourse, involves measures that challenge and transform epistemic systems, altering territorial conceptions.
The term began to gain widespread use outside Mapudungun-speaking communities after the Council of All Lands adopted its Mapudungun name, Aukiñ Wallmapu Ngulam, upon the organization’s founding in 1990. It arose in response to what indigenist movements describe as "repression" and the perceived disregard of land deeds (Títulos de Merced). This was accompanied by a wave of Mapuche migration from the south-central region to major Chilean cities during the Chilean military dictatorship and before. The Council was notable for engaging in historical revisionism and adopting political stances opposing the Chilean state's interests in the region, particularly regarding demands for "ancestral land recovery" and "political territorial autonomy for the Mapuche people." This movement also included the creation of the Wenufoye national Mapuche flag in 1992, along with five additional flags representing key Mapuche territories in southern Chile. Since 2005, the term has also been promoted by the Mapuche nationalist party Wallmapuwen.
The Chilean historian Cristóbal García Huidobro states that: "the terminology ‘Wallmapu’ is not a relatively old one, but rather a newer one. It arises, as far as it has been understood, from a revisionist movement, at the beginning of the 1990s (...) they make a re-study and a revisionism of the identity, of the language, as well as of the symbols that would represent the Mapuche people (...) it is not a historical question as such, it does not come from the ancestral culture of the Mapuche people who never perceived their territory as a particularly defined place".
The Council reinforced the concept of self-determination through a long ideological process led by various intellectuals. In parallel, in late 1989, several groups began land occupations in Lumaco and other areas. In the 1990s, autonomist ideas also permeated some regional prisons.
As Chile transitioned to democracy in urban areas, a political project aimed at the "reconstruction of Wallmapu" emerged in indigenous southern territories. This initiative was ignored by Chilean political elites.
The construction of the Ralco Hydroelectric Plant, which displaced indigenous burial sites, was a breaking point in state-Mapuche relations, contributing to the formation of the Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM) in 1997 following the burning of three trucks belonging to Forestal Arauco. This event marked the beginning of the Araucanía conflict and a turning point in the development of the Mapuche autonomist political movement.
The CAM, which defines itself as anti-capitalist and "in resistance against neoliberalism," uses violence to reclaim lands it considers usurped during the Occupation of Araucanía and now held by large landowners and extractive industries. These areas serve as the foundation for territorial control, which the CAM views as essential for self-determination and the holistic development of Indigenist activists. CAM leaders, such as Héctor Llaitul, represent a newer, more separatist generation compared to figures like Aucán Huilcamán, founder of the Council of All Lands.
Currently, a conflict persists between the states of Chile and Argentina and various Indigenist groups. The central demands include territorial autonomy and restitution of lands claimed as ancestral under the Títulos de Merced, granted to some communities after the Occupation of Araucanía and Conquest of the Desert.
See also
References
- "NUESTRO PUEBLO HUILLICHE DE LA TIERRA QUIERE SEGUIR SIENDO DE LA TIERRA" (PDF) (in Spanish). Chile: Consejo General de Caciques de Chiloé. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 March 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
- Nahuelpán, Héctor; Martínez, Edgars; Hofflinger, Alvaro; Millalén, Pablo (2021-08-19). "In Wallmapu, Colonialism and Capitalism Realign". NACLA Report on the Americas. 53 (3). Routledge: 296–303. doi:10.1080/10714839.2021.1961469. S2CID 237217065.
- ^ ""Wallmapu": Historiador chileno afirma que término "no proviene de la cultura ancestral mapuche"". T13. March 31, 2022. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ "Lumaco: la cristalización del movimiento autodeterminista mapuche". Revistas Usach. 2013. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
Fue el inicio de un desarrollo ideológico de un sector del pueblo Mapuche que señaló su anti capitalismo como un eje articulador, y a la resistencia, se simbolizó en la irrupción de la violencia política como instrumento para la reconstrucción de lo que llamaron Wallmapu.
- The brighter side of the indigenous renaissance (Part 1), 2006.
- Sánchez, Francisco (2022-05-16). "Neuquén debate sobre el proyecto de crear una nación mapuche en territorios de Argentina y Chile". LM Neuquén (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- Rendón, Ana Matías (2020). "Wallmapu: Mapuche Space-Time". Cuadernos de Teoría Social. 6 (11). Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México: 66–94. doi:10.32995/0719-64232020v6n11-99. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
- Caniuqueo, Sergio; Mariman, Pablo; Levil, Rodrigo; Millalen, José (2006). Escucha Winka. LOM. p. 54. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
- "Autonomy in Debate: Indigenous Self-Government and the Plurinational State in Latin America" (PDF). FLACSO. 2010. p. 30. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
- Mariman, José (April 1995). "The Mapuche Organization Aukiñ Wallmapu Ngulam". Denver, United States: Mapuche Info. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
- ^ Cano Christiny, Daniel (June 2011). "Martín Correa and Eduardo Mella, The Reasons for "illkun"/Anger: Memory, Dispossession, and Criminalization in the Mapuche Territory of Malleco". Historia (Santiago). 44 (1): 203–205. doi:10.4067/S0717-71942011000100009. ISSN 0717-7194. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
- Espinoza Araya, Claudio; Mella Abalos, Magaly (2013). "Military Dictatorship and the Mapuche Movement". Pacarina del Sur, Revista de Pensamiento Crítico Latinoamericano (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 January 2023.
- J.A. Moens (August 1999). "Mapuche Poetry: Expressions of Identity" (PDF). University of Utrecht. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
- ^ Caniuqueo, Sergio; Mariman, Pablo; Levil, Rodrigo; Millalen, José (2013). Rebellion in Wallmapu: Resistance of the Mapuche Nation-People. Santiago, Chile: We Still Believe in Dreams.
- Canales Tapia, Antileo E., Nahuelquir, F. (2016). Zuamgenolu: Mapuche People in the Context of the Chilean Nation-State, 19th–21st Centuries. USACH. p. 78.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Rebellion in Wallmapu: Resistance of the Mapuche Nation-People. Santiago, Chile: We Still Believe in Dreams. 2013. p. 24.
