Weaving Solidarity: Decolonial Perspectives on Transnational Advocacy of and with the Mapuche (Mapudzungun)

With this historical framework in mind, the present study is based on the idea that decolonial movements, especially of groups in Latin America, such as the Zapatistas or the Mapuche,6 serve as key reference points for contemporary expressions of international solidarity in the Global North. Nevertheless, the struggle of the Mapuche in particular is largely overlooked and internationally unrecognised. For that purpose, the present study provides a detailed account of how the struggle of the Mapuche became transnationalised since the 1970s (chapter four) and explains the reasons for transnational Mapuche advocacy transcending the domestic context in Chile, as well as its framework and strategies (chapter five). Notwithstanding, using Indigenous movements as reference points for struggles for liberation and emancipation is not without its difficulties. On the one hand, such decolonial movements outside of Eurocentric constraints are often conceptualised as historical alternatives outside of the left-wing melancholia (Traverso 2017) in the Global North—that is, a state of mind to mourn and self-reflect upon the failed and defeated left-wing political projects throughout the twentieth century, that nevertheless continue to inspire future political action. As such, they carry the burden of representing a historical horizon for humankind beyond late capitalism and the climate crisis. Put in drastic terms, the Global North needs to “forget the socialist mumbo-jumbo and play the Indian card” (Oppenheimer 2002, 54).The present research will engage in that debate and discuss the complicated relationship between the Mapuche and the non-Indigenous Left, as well as the consequences and opportunities arising thereof. On the other hand, and taking the insights from postcolonial critique to the context of the Americas, there is a long-lasting tradition in the Global North of stereotyping and romanticising American Indigenous and Native people (Berkhofer 1979). Particularly, the German-speaking context has been analysed as overly enthusiastically engaging with and referring to Indigenous people and Native Americans. Here, the term “Indianthusiasm” intends to describe the particular German racial gaze through which Indigenous people and Native Americans are racially stereotyped, idealised, and romanticised (Calloway, Gemunden, and Zantop 2002; Usbeck 2015). In addition to these debates, the present study seeks to critically discuss the relevance of a Maputhusiasm within the expressions and experiences of international solidarity and advocacy with and of the Mapuche.