Around five hours after leaving Bariloche our bus suddenly stops in the middle of nowhere. “Leleque. La comunidad,” the driver announces. “We’ve arrived muchacha”. Outside, fields stretch towards mountains and the eye struggles to fix on the horizon. There is nothing resembling a town or even village outside the bus, only a tiny improvised wooden gate and a sign on a huge white canvas that says: “Comunidad Santa Rosa. Territorio Mapuche recuperado” (Santa Rosa community. Recovered Mapuche territory.).

A sign on the fence reads: ‘Santa Rosa community. Recovered Mapuche territory.’ (Photo: Fabio D’Errico)

Here, in a forgotten place, lost in the very heart of Patagonia, we have arrived at the point of a now globally-famous conflict: Santa Rosa de Leleque, where the indigenous Mapuche community is engaged in a long struggle to reclaim land they say is rightfully theirs from one of the world’s most recognisable clothing brands.

The Benetton Case

When we arrive, Santa Rosa de Leleque is bustling with people, as it has been for the last six years. Not only is this is the week of Kamaruko, the main religious festival of the Mapuches, but it is also the anniversary of the recovery of this stretch of land by the Curiñanco – Rúa Nahuelquir family and 30 other community members on 14th February, 2007.

“They’ve been evicting us from our land for many years, using physical power and law of those who had invaded our territories,” Rosa Rúa Nahuelquir leaves her kitchen utilities for a while as she talks. “But we know we are stronger, because the truth is on our side and we will stand for it, no matter what it costs us.”

Dancing and celebrating around the fire. (Photo: Fabio D’Errico)

Atilio Curiñanco y Rosa Rúa Nahuelquir first entered the territory now called Santa Rosa de Leleque in August 2002. They planned to return to their ancestral land and start a new life after long years of working in the factories of Texcom and Frigorífico in nearby Esquel. And so began a long legal struggle with the global corporation Benetton Group over 535 hectares of remote land in the province of Chubut, Argentina.

The Curiñanco – Rúa Nahuelquir family claims the territory as part of that which originally belonged to their ancestors before the colonisation of Patagonia in the 19th century. Benetton Group, meanwhile, insists on the land certificate issued in 1991, when the corporation purchased over 900,000 hectares from the British company The Argentine Southern Land Company Limited (CTSA).

Atilio Curiñanco recalls: “We presented a written statement at the police station of Esquel after consulting with the Autarkic Institute for Colonisation and Rural Development (IAC), which verbally confirmed that the space was public and abandoned for many years.” According to Curiñanco, many other campesinos from nearby territories used the space to gather wood it was all dusty and windy and required a lot of work to make the piece of land productive. However, only a few days after they had entered the territory, local police made inquiries about the “land usurpation” and soon returned with a legal claim by CTSA.

In October of that year, the Curiñanco – Rúa Nahuelquir family was forcefully evicted from Leleque, having all their belongings either confiscated or destroyed. In 2004, the family travelled to Italy to meet Luciano Benetton, who offered around 2,500 hectares of the land to all indigenous communities in the region as a donation. “We obviously refused the offer, as Benetton wasn’t eligible to donate something he didn’t own,” Rosa Nahuelquir says, indignantly.

Benetton later proposed a donation of the same amount of land to the Argentine government who could distribute it among indigenous communities. In 2005, the government of the province of Chubut also refused the offer, announcing that the 2,500 hectares were unproductive and saying it would not enter into any conflict with the inhabitants of the territory.

In February 2007, the couple came back to Leleque with 30 other community members and began to build a house. CTSA immediately accused them of damaging the territory, though the penal court found the claim illegitimate. In the five years since, the family has faced many more legal claims from CTSA with charges for property destruction and eviction orders, the latest coming in February this year. The family has repeatedly rejected these claims, based on their need to cultivate plants, raise domestic animals, and build basic living conditions to survive. “How could I let my family die from hunger because of someone else’s cruel decision?” Curiñanco asks rhetorically.

Mapuche vs Benetton. (Photo: Fabio D’Errico)

Mapuche in Argentine

The ‘Mapuche vs Benetton’ case has attracted a lot of attention from global and local human rights organisations, the media, political parties, fixing an unflattering spotlight on a range of problems – from land conflicts to racism and equality.

The Argentine state included indigenous rights in the Constitution only in 1994, when it recognised “the legal capacity of these communities to the possession and property of land that they have traditionally occupied.” Yet those who have tried to exercise this right face long legal battles against powerful foes. Benetton is just one in a long list of corporations and celebrities engaged in land conflicts with the Mapuches – others include Levi Strauss & Co, Grupo Loma Negra, Jane Fonda, Ted Turner, Emanuel Ginóbili, Marcelo Tinelli, Lopez Rey and many others.

In the 2013 annual report issued by The Observatory of Human Rights of Indigenous peoples (ODHPI), investigators say about 347 Mapuches are currently involved in lawsuits related to the land conflicts just in the province of Neuquen. “They [the government] make us feel as foreigners in this country, but at the same time they give out all lands to the foreigners!” claims Ruben Curricoy, a Mapuche activist from Bariloche. The ODHPI report, which focuses on Neuquen, Rio Negro and Chubut this year, adds: “Territorial dispossession continues to be the main obstacle for indigenous people to survive and develop in Patagonia as autonomous population.”

To understand the power and complexity of today’s land struggles in Patagonia, it is important to remember the history of Argentina and the treatment of indigenous people. You need go no further than Argentina’s $100-bill for a reminder of the infamous ‘desert campaign’ run by president Julio Argentino Roca in 1878 – 1885, which empowered Argentina as a leading agricultural country via the genocide of indigenous people who were evicted from their lands and killed. Back then, those families that invested in the campaign were handsomely rewarded, as one family descendant, who preferred not be named, recalls: “A beneficiary would be asked to look forward and take all the land that his eye was able to capture. And believe me, some people used to have a very good vision.”

Curricoy is quick to give other historic examples: “The government talks about 30,000 disappeared people during the dictatorship period. It’s not true. They only count disappeared huincas (a ‘white person’ in the Mapusungun language), while our people were dying in much higher numbers. I admire the fight of Madres de Plaza de Mayo, however, I can’t imagine an indigenous mother being heard by society. Only because she is not as white as a huinca.”

Indigenous people from all over Argentina marched to and in Buenos Aires to proclaim their heritage and be heard by the government during the Bicentennial celebrations (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

Even with recent advances, many in the Mapuche community still feel as though they are misunderstood. Curricoy remembers a visit to the Casa Rosada during the country’s bicentenary celebrations in 2010, when President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner made a joke about the use of modern facilities after one of the delegate’s cell phone rang. “That was a turning point and made it clear that indigenous people were still excluded from this country really,” says Curricoy.

In another recent example, when three Mapuche communities in Neuquen were attacked by ten unidentified people, mainstream media barely covered the event.

The ODHPI report concludes: “the government bodies that are supposed to respond to the legal claims of indigenous people don’t perform their work” and in some cases even contradict the law. The report emphasises on the overall support that the government shows to private companies, speculating in such industries as exploitation of natural resources, tourism, and construction at the cost of indigenous people. In addition, the recent reforms to the Civil Code, proposed by the government, “will provoke more evictions and prosecutions for land usurpation” according to the ODHPI report.

Communitarian vs Private Property

With the provinces in desperate need of foreign investments and incomes, it is hard to imagine local governments supporting those who have no intention to exploit the land for commercial interests, like the Mapuche community, whose whole philosophy is built on protection of mapu, the land.

Atilio Curiñanco digs his land in Patagonia. (Photo: Fabio D’Errico)

Sharing is one of the fundamental values among the Mapuche – in the Mapusungun language there are no such words as ‘no’ and ‘property’ – and this further complicates the land conflicts involving Mapuch communities. “We don’t have land certificates, because the ones we need don’t exist,” explains Ruben Curricoy. “We were offered individual deeds, which imply higher taxes and a lot of restrictions. Moreover, individual forms of property go against our philosophy of a communitarian form of life.”

According to the Mapuches, a ‘communitarian property certificate’ would include all members of the community and prevent selling of the land. Every member in this type of property has the same rights and opportunities to use the land. As the leadership style among Mapuches is horizontal, no one would have special privileges in decision-making and distribution.

“However, it is sad to see so many villages that can’t grow territorially with the population growth, so our future generations basically don’t have land to live and work on. And how would they, when on the left you have one owner and on the right another one?” Curricoy shakes his head.

The Struggle for Identity

For Gustavo Macayo, former lawyer of the Curiñanco – Rúa Nahuelquir family, the Benetton case is especially important in creating awareness of the Mapuche struggle. “This case has placed the whole situation with the foreign land ownership into a very important point and opened so many profound questions of Argentine society, questions that had never been asked.” Moreover, according to Macayo, those historical, ethical and juridical questions had always been hidden and silenced before the legal studies around the case of Leleque came into light.

“The problem goes outside of the small territory of Leleque. It includes at least three provinces in the south, where the Mapuche population counts on big numbers and is becoming aware of their land rights,” adds Macayo.

Curiñanco hopes the notoriety of his family’s case has also helped some younger generations rediscover their ethnicity. While many in Buenos Aires would probably be surprised that the ‘People of the Earth’ use cell phones, drive cars, watch TV, speak Spanish among themselves, and do most activities considered ‘normal’ for Westerners, some differences between the cultures remain very obvious.

Emmanuel Maripi from Comodoro Rivadavia is 21 and has diverse roots that include European and indigenous ancestors. He discovered he was Mapuche when he turned 18, and since then has started learning deeper about the culture of his grandparents and practicing traditional customs. This year’s Kamaruko was his first one and, a musician, he learnt a few Mapuche’ songs to perform them at the festival. “I live my life in the city in the same way as any other person of my age,” Emmanuel shares during a break between performances. “I study, work, hang out with my friends, take part and organise events related to music. At the same time, I see that a big part of my identity belongs to Mapuche society, and now I always try to find some time to spend close to the nature and understand better who I am as a Mapuche.”

“However, we also see other examples, when our people give up or even criticise us,” Curiñanco says sadly. “Some of them even don’t consider themselves Mapuches and feel ashamed of their roots.

Atilio Curiñanco holds the mate as he discusses the plight of the Mapuche in Patagonia. (Photo: Fabio D’Errico)

“Many of them live in the cities where they are marginalised pretty quickly, and bring the fame to the whole ethnicity as criminalised and dangerous,” Curricoy joines the conversation and brings examples of big cities like Buenos Aires, Bariloche that count with a large number of Mapuche’ descendants.

Conversely, those that visit the Mapuche community in Leleque are always welcomed. “We’ve got visitors from all the parts of the world,” señora Rosa Rúa Nahuelquir recalls, “journalists, human rights defenders, artists, and a lot of policemen.” At this last word, she smiles ironically. “Our doors are open to everyone, regardless if the person is Mapuche or huinca and we never know if we can trust all these visitors. But we do anyway. We never learn from our mistakes…”

She is right. In eight days we spent in Santa Rosa de Leleque, each day was highlighted with an external visit. Every person was received warmly and invited to share meals, mate and conversations with the inhabitants.

Some visitors become lifelong friends, like Florencia Santucho, director of Argentina’s Independent Film Festival for Human Rights. Santucho has supported Curiñanco – Rúa Nahuelquir family since 2003. Nine years ago she produced a documentary called MariciWeu that narrates the story of the Curiñanco – Rúa Nahuelquir family and raises questions regarding their human rights’ violations. Not only she is perceived as a friend in this community, but also as one more Mapuche who continuously learns and incorporates parts of their culture in her own life.

“When you understand the Mapuche vision of the world you won’t have any more questions,” Santucho assures. “Recovering the land is a part of the ‘cosmovision’, which allows Mapuches to gain power in other aspects of their identity. Talking about Atilio Curiñanco, she shares: “He used to be a very timid person who never spoke a lot and didn´t seem confident at all. Now, I observe him as the person with a decent and firm position, and I am sure it comes thanks to his struggle for the land, for identity and connection with the Earth. Ñoque Mapu (Mother Earth) sees that and rewards with even more power.”

Where Civilisations Collide

“The powerful always have more rights, but we have different values that don’t fit into the western way of life,” Curiñanco looks at the Ruta 40 in only few metres from his house. “Some people consider us backward for our views and principles, but having another was of thinking doesn’t mean you shall destroy it with rules that go against our vision.”

The newest house under the stars. (Photo: Fabio D’Errico)

Leleque now symbolises a spot, where two civilizations clash with their fundamental differences. On the one side is the owner of a big corporation with a network of over 6,500 stores, a total income of 2 billion euro a year, and over 900,000 hectares of Patagonian lands. On the other side is the Mapuche community, which believes in a communitarian type of lifestyle and simple, self-sustaining living.

“In the last ten years we’ve observed how Benetton was trying to avoid this case and show it as something small and less important. And I believe they will keep with that strategy,” Macayo speaks about the future of the case. “The Mapuches will do all they can to bring more problems to the surface, starting with the essential one – colonisation.”

Meanwhile, the Curiñanco – Rúa Nahuelquir family deals with another criminal suit filed by CTSA, who have now targeted INAI, an institution that works with indigenous people, and provides the legal support to the Mapuche family. At the moment Supreme Court is in charge of it, which might take two or three more years due to the complexity of the issue.

“We will obviously continue the fight, as there is no way back,” Curiñanco firms his position. His eyes sparkle and his voice gets stronger. “This is our land and we are responsible for it. It has given so much to us that it would be a crime not to take care of it…”

As we talk, on the other side of the room little Rosita, a granddaughter in the Curiñanco – Rúa Nahuelquir family, is learning some basic Italian words from Fabio, an Italian photographer who arrived in Leleque with his personal project. She absorbs the new language rapidly, and soon they are speaking basic Italian and then switch to Spanish and even teaches some Mapusungun in terutnr. It’s a small scene that depicts a wider hope that dialogue is always possible between our civilisations, even though it requires a lot of will from both sides.

Mapuche flag (photo courtesy Wikipedia).

The annual study focused this year on the provinces of Neuquén, Chubut and Río Negro. The report is directly related to territorial disputes, and it denounces the complicity of political and judicial authorities. The study cites advances on indigenous territories by oil companies, mining companies, and ranchers for the high number of cases. It found that there are 347 Mapuche people in the Patagonia province of Neuquén in Argentina processing or involved in court cases for defending their territories.

The Observatory of Human Rights of the Indigenous challenges exploitative developmental industries and businesses that strip ancestral territories of their resources in the south of the country. “In Patagonia, territorial dispossession continues to be cited as the principal obstacle to the subsistence of indigenous populations and their development into autonomous populations,” the study said.

The report also warns that changes to the national civil code will provoke more evictions and prosecution. It says “state and private actions continue to take action typical to the colonisation of democracy.”

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, the AMARC-ALC news agency.

Today saw the launching of the the first Mapuche Tehuelche radio in Argentina. FM Trauwleiñ To Kom 89.7 started operating at 10am in the town of Esquel, province of Chubut.

Invite to the launch of the first Mapuche radio in Esquel

The FM radio has been opened in the framework of the Audiovisual Communication Services Law (22.522), usually referred to as the “Media Law” -enacted in October 2009- which establishes the possibility for indigenous people to open radio and TV services (article 151). It is the first indigenous radio to open in the country as a consequence of the new Media Law. In December last year, a Mapuche TV station opened in the nearby town of Bariloche.

Article 151 of the law establishes one of its objectives which is to preserve and promote the identity and cultural values of the indigenous community.

“The Mapuche Tehuelche people of Chubut exercise their right to communicate with identity”, says the radio’s presentation poster. It is the first time that these actors are included in the media system.

“Having earned the right to participate in the communication system, we exercise it from our territories, working with the national state, the communities, and as indigenous people” says Aldo Cayulef, leader of the community. “It is a great way for us to defend our culture and start to use the new technologies” he added.

‘Trauwleiñ To Kom’, means ‘We are all getting together’ in Mapuzungún (the Mapuche language).

The opening ceremony counted with the presence and support of various national institutions as the Federal Authority of the Audiovisual and Communication services (AFSCA), the National Institute of Indigenous affairs (INAI), and the National Commission of Communications (CNC).

Yesterday, Chilean president Sebastián Piñera proposed constitutional recognition of Chile’s indigenous peoples and the establishment of an advisory board composed of representatives from various indigenous groups. His remarks highlighted the importance of giving “special recognition” to these populations as well as social and economic disparities they experience.

“I have decided that constitutional recognition of indigenous peoples is of greatest priority and deserves the greatest urgency. And the creation of an advisory board of our indigenous peoples that would be truly representative of the tradition and culture,” declared Piñera.

According to the president, constitutional recognition is one pillar of his administration’s defence of indigenous rights, the second of which is “recognizing that there was an inexcusable underdevelopment in terms of economic and social development,” he stated. “It’s no coincidence that our country’s two most underdeveloped regions in this regard, Araucanía and Biobío, are precisely the regions where an important portion of our indigenous peoples are concentrated.” He went on to highlight his ‘Araucanía Plan’, announced last August, which addresses issues such as job creation and cultural preservation in the southern region home to a large Mapuche population.

Whilst the head of state made his announcement from Santiago, his Ministers of the Interior and Social Development Andrés Chadwick and Joaquín Lavín held a second round of talks regarding the recent territorial and political conflicts with the Mapuche people in the city of Temuco. Among Mapuche demands are self-determination and the right to thousands of hectares of fertile land in Araucanía taken from them during the colonial era. Participating Mapuche representatives, agricultural producers, logging executives, and regional politicians have yet to reach an agreement.

Debates on the fate of the Mapuche people have reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, especially after fire incidents that destroyed a Mapuche school and killed a landowning couple, both widely suspected of being connected to the conflict.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar.

Indigenous Mapuche community leaders convened Wednesday in Temuco, in the Araucanía region of southern Chile, to discuss the on-going conflict with the government and local agricultural and forestry interests in the area. They also announced that they will demand the right to self-determination.

Community leader Aucán Huilcamán welcomed participants to the summit, which took place on the national monument Cerro Ñielol. “Those of us here […] have arrived in a spirit of dialogue to search for solutions that affect both the Mapuche and Chilean peoples”, he said.

Huilcamán announced that indigenous groups will continue their dialogue with the government, and expressed hope that Chilean society would ask forgiveness from the Mapuche people for the invasion of their territories and historic injustices dating back nearly 500 years. He highlighted this as a fundamental starting point to establishing a “just and enduring” relationship between both parties.

In addition to the right to self-determination (essentially, self-governance) extending from the Biobío region southward to Chilean Patagonia, Mapuche leaders announced that they would seek monetary compensation from the government as well as the return of ancestral lands. They also called for the creation of a government commission to review treaties signed by the government and indigenous communities.

Furthermore, Huilcamán and others took the opportunity to reject language used by the government that equates Mapuche organisations with terrorist groups, and denounced both the militarisation of the area and the implementation of the Pinochet-era Anti-Terrorist Law.

Tensions have risen drastically in the Araucanía region, ancestral home of the Mapuche people, in recent weeks. Both Chilean landowners and indigenous sites such as schools have been the targets of incendiary attacks.

Last week, Minister of the Presidency Cristian Larroulet stated that certain Mapuche groups had ties to the Colombian guerrilla organisation FARC, a claim which was later retracted by Interior Minister Andrés Chadwick.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, an AMARC-ALC news agency.

A school that served the indigenous Mapuche community of Collipulli, in the southern province of La Araucanía, was set ablaze in the early hours of this morning by two armed and hooded suspects, according to local media.

The two men forcibly entered the building and proceeded to tie the caretaker to a tree on the property. The subsequent fire destroyed the school in which 25 indigenous children attended class. It also damaged the home of the caretaker. Both buildings were unoccupied at the time.

Malleco governor Erich Baumann lamented the act, stating that it “leaves the children with no possibility of educating themselves, furthermore the poorest children will no longer be able to receive food from the school cafeteria”.

The fire is the fifth to take place in La Araucanía since a similar blaze killed an elderly landowning couple in the town of Vilcún last Friday. Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM), one of Chile’s largest Mapuche activist groups, denied having any ties to the fire which killed Bernard Luchsinger, 75, and his wife Vivianne Mackay, 69.

In a statement released after Friday’s fire, CAM denounced “the infiltration by certain rightist groups of Mapuche communities, by actors instigating and committing actions that serve as an excuse to repress and detain the advance towards the reconstruction of the Mapuche People and their national liberation.”

The conflict in southern Chile, which has pitted corporations and landowners against Mapuche activists, has escalated considerably in recent weeks, causing the national government to use a controversial anti-terrorist law in an effort to “stabilise” the area.

The Mapuche community, largely concentrated in La Araucanía and the southern provinces of Argentine Patagonia, will convene on 16 January in the Chilean city of Temuco to discuss development initiatives in the area, one of Chile’s poorest.

The government of Sebastián Piñera has stepped up its fight against the spread of what it calls “terrorist violence” in various parts of the country.

After meeting with senior ministers on Sunday, Piñera assigned a general of the Carabineros police force, Carlos Carrasco, to coordinate a response to recent arson attacks in Biobío, Los Ríos, and La Araucanía.

“We have here terrorist organisations who are behind specific and precise attacks in various locations,” declared Interior Minister Andrés Chadwick in a press conference. In response, the government is using a controversial anti-terrorist law, dating back to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, to expand police powers in the investigation to find and charge the perpetrators of the attacks.

Chadwick did not rule out further measures, including calling a state of emergency in the affected regions. President Piñera will hold a special meeting today with the National Intelligence Agency (ANI) to decide on the next steps.

Arson

La Araucanía saw the worst of the violence, after an elderly couple were killed in a fire started by protesters at their home on Friday. The area has been at the centre of a long-standing struggle between local landowners and the indigenous Mapuche community over land and human rights.

Leaflets related to Mapuche protests last week marking the fifth anniversary of the death of Matías Catrileo at the hands of police, were reportedly found at the scene, though no Mapuche group has claimed responsibility for, or been formally accused of, starting the fire.

Indigenous communities and human rights groups have criticised the government’s use of the anti-terrorist law, which they say leaves them vulnerable to police abuse. The Temucuicui community today accused the Carabineros of “torturing and beating” one of its members in La Araucanía, after forcibly conducting a search “without a judicial order.”

In an interview published today in Diario Financiero, Chilean Minister of the Interior Andrés Chadwick affirmed that he believes that various indigenous Mapuche groups – some of them militant – receive funding from abroad, particularly from Argentina.

When asked if these groups, which struggle in various capacities for recognition of rights, recovery of land, and greater autonomy, received foreign support financially, Chadwick said “one has that impression, although I have no evidence, but I believe that given their capacity for action and organisation, they have foreign funding”, adding “there are resources here and you have to ask yourself, where are these resources coming from?”

Chadwick went on to say that the matter is being investigated, and that “it is absolutely clear that there is participation and support from foreign groups, and from what we have been able to detect they are Argentine”.

According to the Complementary Survey of Indigenous Peoples (ECPI), there were approximately 114,000 Mapuche living in Argentina in 2005 and nearly 605,000 in Chile, although taking into account the number of Argentines and Chileans with mixed heritage would raise those numbers substantially. Most Mapuche live in the southern provinces of Patagonia, particularly Chubut, Neuquén, and Río Negro in Argentina and Araucanía in Chile.

Since the 1990s and the reintroduction of democracy to Chile, Mapuche groups have sought greater autonomy and the return and protection of ancestral lands. This has caused conflict with businesses and landowners primarily in the Araucanía region, with some radical indigenous groups causing property damage and directing death threats at perceived enemies.

Tensions have risen in the last few weeks after landowners accused the government of inaction and threatened to “go out hunting” Mapuches.

Chadwick outlined the government’s development plan for Araucanía, a multifaceted approach that would involve local union leadership as well as religious and educational organisations in aiding the various communities of the region, one of the poorest in Chile.

However, he also stated that the government would not hesitate in applying the Antiterrorist Law against militant Mapuche groups, a dictatorship-era law which allows prosecutors to withhold evidence from the defence for up to six months and to conceal the identities of witnesses.

“We will not give up, whether we go by the common laws or if we have to implement special laws”, he said.

While Buenos Aires focused on ‘7D’ and the battle between Grupo Clarín and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, more than 1,600km south of the capital, an entire community was waiting for an event, although related, very different in nature.

Filming (Photo courtesy of Wall Kintun)

For the Mapuche people, the largest indigenous community in the south of Argentina, 7th December 2012 will be remembered as the date that the first Mapuche television channel hit the air. Wall Kintun TV, which translates roughly as “Circular Voice” TV, is the first indigenous channel in Argentina.

The station represents a beacon of hope for many indigenous populations in the region who will hope its slogan “we are the first; but we won’t be the only ones” will become true.

The Mapuche Cooperative of Audiovisual Services, run by 15 young Mapuches, officially owns the channel. The first content broadcast by the channel were indigenous social activities and a debate programme.

In its trailer, Wall Kintun TV also announces it will broadcast entertainment and cultural programmes. The channel is part of the one third quota of frequencies that the Media Law, introduced/championed by President Fernández’ government, assigns to state entities, including indigenous groups. As a result, several media outlets opposed to the government have denounced the channel as a political manoeuvre, questioning its authenticity.

Nonetheless, the general producer of the channel explained to Pagina 12: “The Wall Kintun TV project is a collective construction. The possibility that a right to communication with identity would exist is not an isolated concept, it’s not an invention. It is part of a process of struggle and articulation, even one that does not have to do with indigenous people. In our channel we want to show the political and intercultural economic realities.”

The recently-launched channel is still looking for additional funds to support its activities and cover new programmes. If you are interested in in helping Wall Kintun TV you can donate via the crowdfunding site Idea.me:

You can donate from $48.50 to $14,550 and donors will receive several prizes as recognition of their help ranging from their name being credited on the channel to Mapuce styled clothing, DVDs, to a space on the channel to broadcast their own content (after said content is approved).

(Photo courtesy of Wall Kintun)

Wall Kintun TV is a new indigenous TV channel starts its work in Bariloche at 12pm this night. The channel will be run in mapuche language and aims to educate and facilitate the dialogue between various cultures in Argentina.

Diego Pereyra, Wall Kintun TV director, translates the name of the channel as ‘look around’. The name is directly connected with the feature of Bariloche, where local people look outside, because they work in tourism. The new channel contains current affairs, educative programmes for children, cinema on human rights’ issues, information about other indigenous communities across the country, interviews and debates.  Pereyra assures, the channel will also broadcast general news and updates of Bariloche.

Most journalists at Wall Kintun TV are young Mapuche, who have got practical video editing and production experience on the radio.

Wall Kintun is a public non-governmental TV channel, funded through advertising and crowd-funding.