Wallmapu is the word in theMapuche language to say "Universe"[1] or "set of surrounding lands", currently used by some historians to describe thehistorical territory inhabited by theMapuche people of southernSouth America.[2] The term was coined in the early 1990s byIndigenist groups[3] but gained traction in the 2000s as theMapuche conflict inAraucanía intensified.[4] Some view the Wallmapu as being composed of two main partsNgulumapu in the west andPuelmapu in the east, with the southern part of Ngulumapu being known asFutahuillimapu.[5]
On May 19, 2022 a conference on the topic "The threat of Wallmapu" (Spanish:La amenaza de Wallmapu) was held in the city ofNeuquén, Argentina.[6]
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Wall means "around," "surrounding," or "encompassing" in Mapudungun, whileMapu means "land" or "territory." Therefore,Wallmapu translates to "land of around" or "surrounding territory." The concept ofwall as encompassing, spherical, or the edges ofmapu is reconfigured in relation to thewinka (non-Mapuche). This notion, expressed in discourse, involves measures that challenge and transform epistemic systems, altering territorial conceptions.[7][8]
The term began to gain widespread use outside Mapudungun-speaking communities after theCouncil of All Lands adopted its Mapudungun name,Aukiñ Wallmapu Ngulam, upon the organization’s founding in 1990.[9][10] It arose in response to what indigenist movements describe as "repression" and the perceived disregard of land deeds (Títulos de Merced).[11] This was accompanied by a wave of Mapuche migration from the south-central region to major Chilean cities during theChilean military dictatorship and before.[12] The Council was notable for engaging inhistorical 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 theWenufoye national Mapuche flag in 1992, along with five additional flags representing key Mapuche territories in southern Chile.[13] Since 2005, the term has also been promoted by the Mapuche nationalist partyWallmapuwen.
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".[3]
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 inLumaco[4] and other areas. In the 1990s, autonomist ideas also permeated some regional prisons.[14]
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.[14]
The construction of theRalco Hydroelectric Plant, which displaced indigenous burial sites, was a breaking point in state-Mapuche relations, contributing to the formation of theCoordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM) in 1997 following the burning of three trucks belonging to Forestal Arauco. This event marked the beginning of theAraucanía conflict and a turning point in the development of the Mapuche autonomist political movement.[14]
The CAM, which defines itself as anti-capitalist and "in resistance againstneoliberalism," uses violence to reclaim lands it considers usurped during theOccupation of Araucanía and now held by large landowners and extractive industries.[15] 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.[16] CAM leaders, such asHéctor Llaitul, represent a newer, more separatist generation compared to figures likeAucán Huilcamán, founder of the Council of All Lands.[16]
Currently, aconflict persists between the states ofChile andArgentina and various Indigenist groups. The central demands include territorial autonomy and restitution of lands claimed as ancestral under theTítulos de Merced,[11] granted to some communities after theOccupation of Araucanía andConquest of the Desert.
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.
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