Mapuche political, educational and linguistic demands and public policy in Chile

Abstract

This article examines from a historical and contemporary perspective the political, educational and linguistic demands of Mapuche intellectuals and organisations and how they have been addressed by public policy in Chile. In particular, the article focuses on the Araucanía Region, part of the ancestral territory of the Mapuche people. We adopt a documentary and ethnographic approach to analyse the context, the development and the transformation of Mapuche demands in a political environment influenced and exacerbated by certain actions by both the state and indigenous organisations. The analysis focuses on education and the tensions generated under Chile’s neoliberal economic model, affecting the decisions and everyday lives of families and children, especially indigenous families, in the Araucanía Region.

Keywords:

• public policy
• education
• indigenous rights
• neoliberalism
• Mapuche people
• Araucanía
• Chile

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Francisca de la Maza http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2586-0600

Carlos Bolomey http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8571-236X

Notes

1. A law introduced by the dictatorship and reformed on several subsequent occasions; its object is to define and punish terrorist crimes and its application has been biased against the Mapuche, infringing their right to be tried by an impartial court (Aylwin 2004).

2. These organisations are representative of today’s Mapuche political world.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research – CIIR [Grant CONICYT/FONDAP/15110006].