THE SILENCES SHAPING THE MEMORY OF THE MAPUCHE IN THE NATIONAL HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF CHILE

Abstract

A widespread link between the process of nation-building and the rise of museums is evident in late-nineteenth-century Latin America. The Chilean National Historical Museum (MHN) was founded in 1873 with the purpose of exhibiting the nation's heritage, beginning with the Spanish colonization. This article focuses on examining the narrative displayed in the MHN, particularly the silences surrounding the Indigenous Mapuche. It analyzes the implications this absence brings to the collective memory of the nation. Using museum catalogs, newspapers, and nineteenth-century literature, this research traces the contrast between how Indigenous and colonial artifacts are exhibited in the museum, wherein the Mapuche are framed aesthetically, therefore relegating them to the past. By stripping from them any contemporary existence, the Mapuche are relegated to an anecdote of ancient times. I document how the primary collection of the museum reproduces a narrative by which European heritage is the starting point of the nation's progress, silencing the voice of Mapuche history and hence producing a script that lacks a nuanced understanding of Chile's Indigenous reality. At a time when Chile is experiencing violent conflict in the Araucanía region, the MHN obscures Mapuche identity and inhibits a dialogue between Indigenous communities and the state. [museum, Mapuche, national identity, colonialism, Indigenous]