The Mapuche people are an indigenous nation native to the south-central regions of Chile and southwestern Argentina, with a history that stretches back several millennia. Their society was deeply rooted in a profound spiritual connection to their land, which formed the bedrock of their cultural identity and social organisation.
The arrival of Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century marked a significant turning point. During the protracted Arauco War (1546–1818), the Mapuche fiercely resisted Spanish colonization, displaying remarkable resilience and military opposition. Unlike many other indigenous groups, they successfully thwarted colonial domination for centuries, sustaining a persistent struggle to maintain their sovereignty and land rights.
Following Chile’s independence in the early 19th century, the Chilean government sought to subjugate and assimilate the Mapuche through military campaigns, land confiscations, and colonisation policies. These measures resulted in widespread displacement, loss of ancestral lands, and the erosion of their cultural practices. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, state-led land reforms and settlement initiatives further marginalized the Mapuche, undermining their socio-economic opportunities and traditional lifestyles.
In this context of intersectional discrimination and socioeconomic marginalisation, Mapuche women have shown resilience by preserving their language, traditions, and community cohesion. However, their historical, social, and cultural contributions are scarcely documented and contemporary research is scattered across various sources of information. For these reasons, it is relevant to preserve and improve the access to Mapuche women's knowledge and .
Fundacion Nütram’s Solution
To work towards the preservation of indigenous cultural heritage in Chile, the team at Fundacion Nütram designed a project which would focus on working with communities of Mapuche women, who live mainly in rural areas of high multidimensional poverty and marginalization from opportunities, to document their uniquely important indigenous culture digitally, make visible the historical, social and cultural role of Mapuche women, and to co-create knowledge for Mapuche women and researchers specializing in the subject.
“This initiative has allowed the creation of a website and a repository to compile oral knowledge and written materials to make aware of the diversity of Mapuche women's voices. This implementation is intended to have a significant impact on accessibility of Mapuche women’s contributions in literature, climate change, food sovereignty, and many other current topics”, mentions Jocelyn Patterson, Project Lead.
Fundacion Nütram is an organization that has 10 years of experience in various cultural and social projects, focused on the indigenous world and migration. Through this project, the Fundacion Nütram team aimed to rescue and make the voices of the nowadays marginalized Mapuche heard, by creating and implementing a digital repository and archive, collecting relevant journal articles and research literature, and gathering additional data and information from Mapuche women, historians, and academics through a number of interviews and meetings.
The project was financially supported by IOI’s Open Infrastructure Fund, which aims to provide catalytic funding for open infrastructure projects with a specific focus on three areas — capacity building, strengthening community governance, and critical shared infrastructure. 60% of the total funding available was reserved for individuals and organizations in Low and Middle-Income Economies (LMIEs) and/or services that are widely adopted by communities in LMIEs.
Implementation and Impact
One of the mechanisms that the Fundacion Nütram team used to engage with members of the Mapuche community was through holding several nütrams (in Mapuche, nütram means meeting). A total of 29 nütrams were held between January and August 2024. Out of these, 15 were with Mapuche women, two with Mapuche community members, and 12 with academic researchers. To conduct the nütrams, the project team visited 15 cities and townships in Chile to engage with and learn from the Mapuche women and historians. The women shared knowledge on topics such as indigenous agriculture practices, culinary arts, education, and medicine. Through the nütrams, the Fundacion Nütram team learnt of interesting cases of indigenous knowledge being utilized and integrated into contemporary society: there are women who are building seed banks of indigenous crops like quinoa, restaurants making delicacies using Mapuche recipes, and traditional clothing knitted using Mapuche techniques.
From the engagements with the Mapuche women, a lot of valuable information and documentation on Mapuche history and culture was collected. This information is stored in an open, free repository called CoRAMM. The repository is built on Omeka-S, an open-source platform. This repository was one of the main deliverables of the project and it is critical as it serves as a one-stop shop for resources related to the Mapuche community. The aim of developing the repository was to preserve and share information on the cultural heritage and scientific documentation on Mapuche women publicly. Having an open repository also enhances access to information for Mapuche communities and researchers who address the different problems that Mapuche women must face in their various territories.
To date, the repository has over 400 documents on different topics derived from the interviews with the Mapuche Women. Some of the topics covered in the repository are Mapuche literature, food and coastal sovereignty, ancestral medicine, history, and linguistics. The Fundacion Nütram team also developed a brand identity to increase the visibility of their work, which has been implemented on the repository as well as its social media channels.
At the culmination of the project, the team held one final nütram in the town of Osorno in southern Chile. This nütram featured Mapuche women, historians, academic researchers, and government officials. The aim of the nütram was to reflect on the contributions and roles of Mapuche women in Chilean society as well as the importance of preserving the Mapuche culture. This event went on to receive mainstream media coverage ([1], [2], and [3]) which also is very critical in spreading awareness about the importance of indigenous culture preservation. “At these times, the contributions of Mapuche women are profoundly important because we are claiming our knowledge. We are bringing to the forefront the fact that our ancestral wisdom and the way we have developed as a people —despite centuries of colonialism— are valuable. Today, Mapuche women are choosing a path to make visible our culture, upbringing, development initiatives, and especially education, which is a fundamental pillar. Education enables our knowledge, epistemology, and traditional wisdom to be recognized and present in these spaces”, remarked Prosperina Queupuan, a Mapuche artisan.
Key Lessons Learnt
- Build with, not for. Through the interviews that the Fundacion Nütram team conducted, it was apparent that there was apprehension from Mapuche women to share their culture and history initially. This was because there have been many instances of extractive research being conducted and the Mapuche feeling shortchanged. Fundacion Nutram prioritized trust building with the Mapuche through repeated, face-to-face nütrams, to listen and understand what the Mapuche would like to see from the project, and to ultimately build a repository of open knowledge that encompasses the Mapuche community’s vision. “We consider it highly important to emphasise the role of Mapuche women in the various struggles within the public discourse. Additionally, I believe it is crucial to discuss women's participation in light of the historical process of the Mapuche people. Indigenous women continue to face diverse struggles, representing a wide range of interests,” said Alen Colipán, a Mapuche researcher.
- There is a renaissance of interest in indigenous history and culture. Through the numerous nütrams, the team observed that young people are curious about Mapuche culture and histories. There were instances of relatively young people working on creative projects using knowledge that had been handed down to them from their parents.
- The importance of cultural preservation. Through the process of doing the interviews, analyzing the data and publishing the data on the repository, it is apparent that indigenous knowledge is still very important. Through the use of indigenous knowledge by women in contemporary settings, we can see that indigenous knowledge is still very critical.
Way Forward
Going forward, this work on the repository will continue. The Fundacion Nütram team plans to add more materials to CoRAMM, and expand the types of data hosted on the repository to include regulations, laws, and records kept by government entities. In order to do this, the team is looking at forging partnerships with other indigenous communities, the government, and universities to democratize information sharing but also to further heighten interest in cultural preservation in Chile.