Mapuche Community Peacefully Occupies Traditional Lands and Plans to Stay Indefinitely
October 21, 2011 at 4:20 pm (Indigenous, Land Occupations) (Chile, Mapuche)
Mapuche Community Peacefully Occupies Traditional Lands and Plans to Stay Indefinitely
October 21, 2011 at 4:20 pm (Indigenous, Land Occupations) (Chile, Mapuche)
On the morning of Thursday, October 20th, approximately 30 families from the Mapuche-Huilliche community of Huichan Mapu walked onto a 250 hectare (approximately 615 acre) parcel of land in Frutillar, Chile and began a peaceful occupation of the land. The community was removed from the land in 1991 and has been trying, unsuccessfully, to use the processes of the state to gain its return. According to their spokesperson, the families are prepared to stay on the land indefinitely until the land is returned to the community.
Prior to 1991, the Hulliche community members lived on and farmed the land that they now peacefully occupy. But in 1991, according to the lonko (leader) Florinda Martínez Gáez, the land was taken from the community when other individuals “misrepresented” the land’s status. At that point in time, men, women and children were removed from the land. Since then, the community has sought the return of their lands by going to authorities at the regional, provincial and national levels. With those efforts leading nowhere, the decision was made to take peaceful action to recover their traditional lands.
Read more HERE (with thanks) IndigenousNews.org:
The Free 