Mapuche - Waj Mapu (Chile and Argentina)

The Mapuche are the largest Indigenous people in Chile and Argentina, with a population of approximately 1.7 million – though demographic data is unreliable due to historical pressures that have forced people to distance themselves from their Indigenous identity.

Their name means “people of the territory” in their language, Mapuzugun. They maintained their independence until the late nineteenth century, when the Chilean and Argentine states violently annexed their territories (which they refer to as Waj Mapu) and forced them to assimilate into the dominant national culture. 

Today, many Mapuche live in urban areas while others remain in rural communities in their ancestral territories in the central-southern regions of Chile and parts of Argentine Patagonia. They continue to face ongoing struggles for land rights, cultural recognition and protection of their territories from extractive industries and development projects. Mapuche land rights activism have also been frequently criminalised by the Chilean and Argentine state.