Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the role of a mining company in the Diaguita’s reemergence process (Chile). The analysis shows how the neoliberal multiculturalism politics leads to a compatible indigeneity with the mining companies’ interest and the Chilean State’s criterion.

Paper long abstract:

Based on a fieldwork of many years, this paper analyses the combined roles of a Canadian mining company (Barrick Gold, Pascua Lama project) and the Chilean State, in the process of rebuilding the autochthony of the Diaguita, an indigenous people recently recognised by law whilst considered as disappeared since the XVI century. The Diaguita's re-emergence process, Pascua Lama's development and its opposition movement have simultaneously taken place in the early 2000's in the northern Chilean Huasco Alto region. Nearly fifteen years from the beginning of the project, Diaguitas are now both the main opponents of Barrick Gold and the main target market of its social responsibility policies, making the Canadian company an ambiguous but major actor in their re-emergence process. The data shows how the actions of the State, combined with the action of the mining company, have contributed to the reemergence and the strengthening of the Diaguita's collective identity, but also to the division of the main local indigenous organizations. Analyzing this process shows the inherent logic of the neoliberal multiculturalism model and the mechanisms leading to a compatible indigeneity with the mining companies' interest and the Chilean State's criterion.