Paper short abstract:

Based on an ethnographic study in Chile, my paper will focus on the resistant and creative practices of a group of rural and indigenous Mapuche women. Organised in a network to defend food sovereignty, the garden is the starting point of their politicization

Paper long abstract:

I will first explain how the expansion of forest plantations in the region (Araucania) under study, has affected local ecosystems, but also the relationships (material and symbolic) that Mapuche communities have with their territories, in a continuum of colonial violence. I will show how these changes have had a particular impact on local food production and women experiences.

We will see then, how the Mapuche huerta (food garden), historically occupied by women, is a space of transmission in situ, emotional and highly aesthetic, in opposition to the monocultures carried by agricultural development policies. The huerta is the intimate space of Mapuche women, a place of reciprocal care of the territory-body . It also has an emancipatory potential, allowing, in certain cases, a relative economic and food autonomy. Above all, it provides women with their own place to make decisions.

I will finally present the forms of resistance that the "Trawun pu Zomo" network put in place to defend their territory and their link(s) to it. The trafkintü, a barter ceremony, places solidarity and kume mogen (Buen Vivir) at the heart of their exchanges. The trafkintü is also a space of care, mutual learning and politicization of their identity, through the revaluation of knowledge/practices related to food, and the reactivation of collective memories. The Mapuche huerta thus becomes political, moving from the intimate to an object of struggle and a strategy of unity and valorization of women, challenging the industrial agriculture system.