The country’s indigenous teams make up 12. 8% of the population, but the government’s reaction has been criticized as “monocultural. “
Far from the gray towers and sprawling suburbs of Chile’s capital Santiago, the country’s indigenous communities are facing new demanding situations from the pandemic.
The country’s 10 indigenous teams make up 12. 8 percent of the population, scattered from the southern tip of Patagonia to the dry plains of the Atacama Desert in the north and remote Easter Island in the South Pacific.
But the Chilean government’s reaction to the pandemic has been criticized as “monocultural,” as stay-at-home calls largely forget the truth of the lives of indigenous peoples, many of whom live in poor rural communities.
“The government said it was well prepared for the pandemic, but those arrangements were obviously designed for urban populations of European descent,” said Dr. Nelson Vergara, head of the First Nations branch of the Medical Union of Chile.
“Western criteria dictate that we live in houses with a small garden or balcony if you’re lucky, but rural life for indigenous people is not like that. . . People can’t stay at home,” he explains.
Four months after Chile showed its first case of coronavirus, Vergara believes that knowledge about patients’ indigenous identities is not being properly collected, making it difficult to truly extent the virus’ effect on indigenous communities. The Ministry of Health may not respond without delay. to a request for comment.
Although Chile first reported a low number of cases and deaths, the country has now shown more than 300,000 coronavirus cases and 6,434 deaths according to the government’s official count.
When deaths from probable, as yet unconfirmed viruses are included (such as through the World Health Organization), the total number of deaths has exceeded 10,000.
Forty-five of those who showed deaths occurred in La Araucanía, the southern province that is home to the majority of the Mapuche population, Chile’s largest indigenous group.
Araucanía for centuries was the scene of the Chilean state’s war of “pacification” against the Mapuche, who left the territory underdeveloped and impoverished – remains the poorest region of the country.
The virus first arrived in the region with tourists during the southern hemisphere’s summer months. Its immediate spread among the local population was accelerated through cultural customs and close family ties.
“Mapuche communities are grateful for friendship and solidarity,” said Francisco Yevilao Huaiquillán, leader of the network in Lonquimay, a rural province of 11,000 other people that was one of the first outbreak hotspots.
“Everyone knows each other and we greet other people with hugs and kisses, but that was one of our biggest problems, because it created the best situations for a virus to spread,” he explained.
The economy has also collapsed as selective closures have limited the movement of people.
In L’onquimay, as in other rural communities in the domain, citizens regularly sell farm animals and pine nuts, but investors have been deprived of ownership through restrictions, which has stifled the community’s income.
Almost 40% of the citizens of La Araucanía have casual jobs, and Mapuche who promote vegetables on the streets of Temuco have been violently chased away by the police.
Chile’s indigenous peoples were already struggling. According to a 2017 survey, 30. 2% of the indigenous population lived in a situation of multidimensional poverty, an indicator that takes into account health, schooling and coexistence.
“The Mapuche have very few resources and are among the most vulnerable in the country,” said Andrés Cuyul, a professor in the Department of Public Health at the University of La Frontera. “The same state that has brought us diseases since the eighteenth century is now the one that is intended to take care of us.
“But the reaction to the pandemic was never designed for other indigenous people — what do other people in poor rural communities intend to do with online yoga and cooking classes?”
Although a fund of 2500 million pesos ($3. 1 million) has been established for Mapuche companies, the application procedure is completely online and therefore of little use to rural communities where access to the web is sporadic and virtual capabilities are very scarce.
The local government has made available a handful of documents in the Mapuche language, Mapudungun, yet little has been done to convey the message to other indigenous peoples.
“People in those spaces don’t perceive the authorities and the challenge goes far beyond language and literacy,” Vergara said.
“A policy that works in Santiago will be interpreted in the same way through an indigenous user in the countryside. “
As literacy rates and spelling differ among Mapuche communities, Vergara and his branch distributed audio recordings in Mapudungun with protection and hygiene instructions.
“We’re glad we’re talking about it regardless, but it deserved to have happened months ago,” he said. “They can’t just realize that one in 10 Chileans identifies as indigenous. “