Mapuche Territorial Knowledge for Childhood: Orality, Playful Perspectives, and Intergenerational Knowledge

A compilation of knowledge about nature based on the Mapuche worldview was materialized through a research project enriched by interviews, school workshops, and bibliographic resources. This project took place in Pucón and Curarrehue, located in the La Araucanía region, between 2021 and 2022. The result was a document-inventory compiling 112 pieces of knowledge drawn from interviews and field notes, many of which were also illustrated. These include teachings about the importance of seeking permission before exploring the environment, taking only what is necessary, and knowledge about stones, waterfalls, and the Milky Way, among other topics.

Magdalena Ulloa, one of the directors and researchers of the project from the collective Otro Habitar, in collaboration with Piera Medina from Fundación Escala Común, explains that the team worked with Mapuche sages, lonkos, and intercultural educators. They also conducted workshops with three educational institutions: Saltillo de Loncofilo, Loncofilo, and the Quelhue school. “In the Mapuche world, we found magical narratives and knowledge that address biocultural memory and a worldview embedded in the daily lives of children, elders, and adults,” Ulloa shares.

She elaborates that these approaches emphasize caring for socio-ecosystems, offering explanations and metaphors through mythical beings, astronomical knowledge, and a rich collection of medicinal plant wisdom, among other insights. “We discovered that this living culture retains information passed down through generations, even in the face of hyperconnectivity and potential Westernization,” she states. Ulloa adds that this research serves as a way to foster a connection with nature and, simultaneously, as an opportunity to activate the memory of the territory.

This project, one of the winners of the 2021 Cultural Heritage Fund, has gone through various stages. Currently, it is in a dissemination phase supported by our foundation, which will culminate in the printing of illustrated copies. These include illustrations by Tatiana Vuskovic and texts composed of interviewee testimonies and bibliographic sources. The material will be shared with participating communities and families. Ulloa adds that activity cards are being developed for use in playful mediation workshops, and all this knowledge will be made available in the region’s public libraries.

On the significance of this approach, our Director of Learning, Manuela Méndez, emphasized, “It is essential to collectively value biocultural knowledge through perspectives that reveal ways of interweaving with nature present in Mapuche culture. These are valuable not only for the communities themselves but also for everyone attuned to creating actions and caring for socio-ecosystems.”

Regarding the next stages of the research, intercultural educator Ana Millaqueo is expected to join the team, pending the results of the Indigenous Peoples category of the Fondart fund to finance the printing of an additional 500 copies. This will ensure that the territorial knowledge gathered in this project continues to circulate, generating new perspectives on the diverse ways of relating to nature upheld by the Mapuche people.

Finally, we highlight a phrase included in the introduction of this research, in the words of Mapuche academic and poet María Lara Millapan (2018):

“Mapudungun is of this place, it lives here; it is the language of the earth, and it is the earth speaking through the oldest trees that claim their existence. Nature always invites us to contemplate it and contemplate ourselves. The birds speak, the water, the wind. This is how it is expressed in the Mapuche world; this is how our grandparents taught us.”