Memoria oral mapuche a través de cantos tradicionales ülkantun: recordando la época de ocupación (siglos XIX y XX)

Abstract

This paper shows the findings of a research aimed at analyzing the Mapuche memory in times of occupation and territorial reduction (late 19th century to early 20th centuries), taking as a reference some oral traditions, mainly the ül or ülkantun chants, which are used to convey the memories of those days. From a methodological point of view, a documentary review of primary sources (phonograms, manuscript files, and books) was carried out as well as an ethnographic field work with Andean communities. The compiled contents express the feelings and the suffering of people who were deported to Buenos Aires, La Plata, Martín García island; the territorial spoils, the deaths and the re-settlement on distant lands. Thus –from a Mapuche perspective and through the ül–, we can understand the way by which the Chilean and Argentinean States started their genocidal and pillaging processes during the historical periods known as “Occupation of the Araucanía” and “Desert Campaign”.