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A new generation of indigenous Mapuche activists is calling for an ongoing atrocity in the south of the country: police brutality against young Mapuches.
The Mapuche, the largest indigenous community in Chile, is one of the most socially and economically disadvantaged in a country that already suffers from significant inequalities.
The struggle for recognition, justice and the return of ancestral lands has lasted for centuries, but the mass protests in Chile that erupted in 2019 were more of a political revival for the Mapuches.
More than a million people on the street, angry at the rise in transportation prices and claiming a more just society, has become one of the defining symbols of the resistance of all Mapuche flags in Chile.
This solidarity gave a new impetus to the Mapuche issue, and activists called louder for the return of the lands of ancestors confiscated and sold to private companies under the command of General Augusto Pinochet.
But it was the Mapuche Generation Z that drew people’s attention to an issue often hidden under the rug: police brutality.
MC Millaray or Millaray Jara Collio is one of the most important Z Gen Z activists of the Mapuche. The 15-year-old has been on the music scene for 10 years now and has spoken out for his people all along.
“I feel that most of us who live in the city are complicit in being silent about the reality that the Mapuches are suffering in southern Chile,” he says.
“I am recording a song with my father to raise awareness about the violence and repression that Mapuche children suffer.”
In Araucania, a seven-hour drive south of Santiago, the “heart of the Mapuches,” is dominated by violent clashes between militarized special forces police and Mapuche communities trying to reclaim their ancestral lands.
Activists and natives accuse police of human rights violations and abuses of power, including fabricating evidence against indigenous activists and killing unarmed civilian Mapuches.
The clashes escalated, with 24-year-old Camilo Catrillanca, the grandson of a prominent Mapuche leader, fleeing in a tractor in November 2018 after being shot dead.
The case angered the Mapuche community and Chilean society in general, and thousands took to the streets to denounce the violence and demand the dismantling of the “jungle commands” unit responsible for the incident.
Millaray also uses the growing influence of social media to highlight the injustices caused to the Mapuche communities in the country.
“We should all have a free childhood. One without repression. But as long as that is not the reality, I will continue to raise my voice, ”added Millaray.
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