According to statistics, this community currently has a little over one million 745,000 inhabitants and just 10 percent speak Mapuzugun, their mother tongue.
“Although there are bilingual intercultural education programs for indigenous peoples, these are still being translated into Spanish today,” Mapuche academic Elisa Loncon told Cuarta Pared.
He explained that both the loss of the language and the decline in the number of speakers of this language are due to structural problems in Chilean state politics, in addition to the decision-makers being non-Mapuche and ignorant of reality. Elisa Loncon is an expert in intercultural education and works at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Santiago, she was also the first President of the Chilean Constitutional Convention.
“The state saw the Mapuche as its internal enemy and has been fighting them militarily to this day. For this reason, the state of emergency is maintained in Wallmapu (Mapuche territory) today,” criticized Loncon.
He added that current grandparents and grandmothers suffered from abuse, discrimination and violence and therefore did not transmit their language to the new generations.
In order to reverse this situation, the scholar considers it necessary to advance the policy of redress for the human rights violations suffered by this community.
This includes participation in decision-making, allocating resources for Mapuzugun’s language planning, updating the dictionary, standardizing writing and grammar, strengthening intercultural education, and supporting the training of bilingual teachers.
Asked about the importance of preserving the Mapuche language, the expert explained that “in the language lies the key to thinking and knowing to preserve the land, biodiversity and life in society, based on mutual respect and respect for each other the nature.” .
(From Cuarta Pared, Orbe Cultural Supplement)