Fundraising by Ilaria Peroni

The Mapuche, one of the few indigenous peoples to have survived European colonialism in America that began in 1492, continue to live and resist in the Wallmapu ("Mapuche land" in the indigenous idiom) region that covers south-central Chile and Argentina.

After fighting for centuries the Spaniards who eventually confined them to the Araucania region and being persecuted in Chile by Pinochet's fascist regime, the Mapuche continue to pursue their environmental and cultural battles while clashing with a world now increasingly oriented in the opposite direction to their values, based on respect for the Earth and all living things.

Living laterally to the cities and the contemporary consumerist system, these people, divided into distinct communities, defend their territory from the extractivism of multinational corporations (including Italy), monoculture logging, pollution of waterways and more. It also suffers repression from the state, which has always defended the interest of private companies and uses military force to stifle the Mapuche struggle in defense of the commons.

The Mapuche are still seeking justice, which is why Operation Dove has been doing human rights monitoring work for years by living alongside and with the people who ask for its support.

I had the privilege of sharing a small part of the Mapuche resistance journey from January to April this year living in Chile, traveling to collect testimonies and to learn about this people.

On the occasion of my birthday, I ask for your help to enable this valuable project to continue, because it is important for me but also for all of us who walk the same Earth every day!

"Yo pregunto a los presentes

si no se han puesto a pensar

que esta tierra es de nosotros

y no del que tenga más.

Yo pregunto si en la tierra

nunca habrá pensado usted

que si las manos son nuestras

es nuestro lo que nos den.

¡A desalambrar, a desalambrar!

Que la tierra es nuestra,

es tuya y de aquel,

de Pedro, María, de Juan y José.

Si molesto con mi canto

a alguno que ande por ahí

le aseguro que es un gringo

o un dueño de este país."

(Victor Jara)