Abstract: This exhibit documents Indigenous Mapuche peoples’ fight to reclaim ancestral territories from Chile’s forestry industry. The photographs were taken in 2024 during a Global Justice Ecology Project delegation which interviewed Mapuche political prisoners, their families, spiritual leaders, and activists engaged in resistance against the destructive expansion of industrial pine plantations on their land.
Two centuries ago, the Tapihue Treaty recognized Mapuche territorial sovereignty south of the Biobío River. This was shattered in 1861 with the brutal “Pacification of the Araucanía,” which displaced and killed thousands of Mapuches to make way for settler expansion. In 1974, under the Pinochet dictatorship, Forestry Decree Law 701 subsidized development of industrial pine plantations, deepening poverty and devastating the water supply.
Today, Mapuche communities continue to fight for land restitution, facing increasing militarization and repression. New laws, including the Usurpation Law, criminalize their efforts and render land reclamation illegal. This photo essay highlights the resilience and determination of Mapuche communities as they strive to restore their culture, language, spirituality, and traditional livelihoods in the face of systemic injustice.