Despite the various difficulties and the constant illnesses that both they and their children -six minors and a baby born in captivity- go through because they have to live locked up and overcrowded for eight months in a house that is in terrible conditions buildings, lhe Mapuche women received Las12 and Betiana Colhuan, the first machi on this side of the Cordillera, spiritual guide and ancestral authority of the communityHe talked with us.
“They have us imprisoned here with our children for a crime that, in addition to being unfair, is releaseable. Nowhere in the country are people detained for usurpation, only us”, assures the machi to make it clear that the dire conditions of house arrest are only the surface of a much greater suffering: “The State continues to keep us detained for our ideals, for our being Mapuche, we are Mapuche political prisoners. And we define ourselves that way also by our lagmien, our brothers and sisters who today are being persecuted and forced to remain in hiding for the same reason. Because within this racist society, even today our identity continues to mean a crime”.
How do you relate this arrest to the struggle and resistance of your people?
–In the past, when the borders that are imposed on us today did not yet divide us, our ancestors walked in all these lands. We are a people with a language, a culture, an autonomy of thought, a way of life of our own, but they took us out of our territories, impoverished us and forced us to live in desert, infertile and abandoned lands. History has always linked us to the wild, the Indian, the dirty, the ignorant. And right now, today, we are the poor, the slaves on the outskirts of the city, because our people continue to be crowded into the neighborhoods and are the cheap labor of society. But despite everything we always resist, for the defense of the territories, for the connection we have with nature, and we preserve our language and our worldview, in knowledge, in memory. That is the true story, that is why today in our community the need to return to the territory, to recover the lands, is emerging, and that is why we are assuming this political prison, because we see that we are facing almost the same thing that our ancestors facedonly now it is more disguised.
What response do you receive from the State when you raise this?
–Today we are weighing a usurpation case, we are waiting for a trial for that, and yet we are detained as if we were already convicted, for a crime that is free from prison. No citizen of Argentina goes to prison for usurpation for more than one day, because even if the sentence were for the maximum sentence, that sentence is three years suspended, while the minimum is six months. Even if they were to sentence us for usurpation, which in any case would be an injustice, with the almost eight months that we have been detained, we would have already served that sentence. These are issues that are applied differently because they are us, and that speaks of a very great racism on the part of society, the State and the judiciary.
What reading do you make of what was happening in the case in these eight months of detention?
–We feel very disappointed, because despite all the torture and humiliation we went through, we agreed to talk. A Mapuche entourage traveled to meet with the president and a dialogue table was held. And both by the State and the community the unanimous conclusion was reached that the rewe, our sacred space, should be returned to our people. But that never came to fruition, and now once again we are waiting for the politicians on duty. They are playing with what is most sacred to us, which is why today as the Mapuche people we are desperate, and our health is deteriorating. Our rewe is falling with us, because it is a mutual, spiritual and physical connection that we have, and we cannot and do not want to allow that to happen. If they do not take the dialogue table seriously and want to break it, we are going to have to continue fighting as we have done up to now, putting our bodies up, because unfortunately the dead are always on our side.
Could you tell a little more about the sacred space that the rewe means to you?
–The rewe is planted to the earth, and the earth is us and us. We are part of that space that also connects us with our ancestors. It is a place that belongs to all the Mapuche and non-Mapuche people as well, because we use it to spiritually and physically heal various diseases. Many people have come to seek a remedy for problems that Western medicine does not find, and there they have managed to get ahead. People with schizophrenia, for example, which in Western medicine can be treated but not cured and totally harmful medications that generate dependency are prescribed, have been healed with our medicine, because within our worldview we understand that this disease is actually a spiritual imbalance, and therefore can be cured. And this is not something that we Mapuche just say, but Western medicine also recognizes that these people were healed.
What does it mean to be a machi and what role does that role play within your community?
—A machi is a doctor, a healer, but not only for physical ailments, but also a spiritual guide for all the Mapuche people. Anyone cannot be a machi, because it is not something that is learned or chosen. With the newen, with this spirit, one is born, and that is defined by our ancestors. It is a role that arrives and that can only be discovered by another machi. Each person has a function, we all come to this life for something. In my case, I am a machi and I am also the protector of a natural space, because today I not only have to dedicate myself to medicine, but also to protect and defend the remedies that still remain in my territory and that have been looted by other plantations that do not let them grow. Being the first machi on this side of the Cordillera after the Desert Campaign is assuming a great responsibility, because the guides of a community are also the first to be imprisoned or killed in a conflict. And that today that role reappears means the strengthening of the entire Mapuche people and the guidance and upliftment of many other native communities.
How do you see the role of Mapuche women today? Do you think there’s something waking up?
Q: Mapuche women have always been a fundamental part of the resistance. Our story comes from grandmothers who had at least five or six children, and it was not something casual, they did it so that our town does not end. And now the awakening of the Mapuche women is also very strong again. In each trawn, in our ceremonies and meetings, we are many more women. We believe that just as we had times of struggle, of peace, of resistance, today is the time for regrowth: the earth has left sprouts and those sprouts are us. Women give sprouts again because we are the ones who give life, and resistance is part of our life: we resist to live, so that our people live, and also so that life on earth does not end, so that we close them, water, nature, do not die. Life is linked to the energy of women, and it is a balance because everything has its masculine and feminine part, even nature. Today the spiritual roles, the machis, are reborn, and women are reborn in that role. It is what touches us, because nature is wise and so provides it, so that it arises and that it is not lost, so that this role resists.
The Mapuche resistance also defends nature from extractive practices…
–Of course, because people are part of nature and the earth, not their owners. Today nature is in danger because the projects of multinational companies kill the territories, as well as all the projects that pollute the environment., such as dams, tourism with its ski centers, all that that only benefits the powerful generates an irreversible change within nature. And our people are part of the land, because without it we cannot call ourselves Mapuche. Mapuche means people of the land, that is why we talk about the return to our territories, to care for and protect them, because our health is also there.
Why do you think that society needs to become more aware of everything that is happening with the Mapuche people and with nature?
–I think we are going through a process in which it is necessary not to be idiotic. It is necessary to seek to learn, to be informed, to listen more to the voice of the native peoples of these lands, and less to that of the rich, that of the foreign landowner. People have to put themselves in our place, understand the history that is going through us and realize that despite everything we have experienced, we always appeal to the most peaceful path, we always seek to talk and dialogue.. But any animal, any plant or living being, when they want to kill it, defends itself. And that is what our people are doing, because we cannot sit idly by watching how they kill us and how they murder our land. That is why in these times, as Rafa Nahuel also said at the time, we say again that we are going to continue resisting until the end. Because we prefer to die fighting, than have to live our whole lives on our knees in this society.
