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Mapuche flag is each of the flags used as an emblem and symbol of the Mapuche Indigenous people and the Mapuche communities and Indigenist political organizations in Chile and Argentina. There are several different flags representing the Mapuche communities and territories. The latest from 1992.
The first records on the use of flags of Araucanian people date back to the Spanish chronicles during the War of Arauco, the more known was described in Canto XXI of the epic poem La Araucana (1569). There, Alonso de Ercilla described in one of their songs, to a warrior named Talcahuano, which inhabited the land near the present city that bears his name, who was followed by troops that wore blue, white and red emblems. The most characteristic feature of the old Araucanian flag is the Guñelve (wünelfe in Mapudungun) that is a symbol from the Mapuche iconography which can be described as an octagram or a star with eight points. It represents the planet Venus, but has also erroneously been thought to represent the canelo tree, which is considered sacred among the Mapuches. [1] The guñelve, also called the "Star of Arauco", inspired Bernardo O'Higgins in creating the current flag of Chile. [2]
In March 1991, the Chilean Mapuche Indigenist political organisation Aukiñ Wallmapu Ngulam, also known as Council of All Lands, made a call to make the flag of the Mapuche people. About 500 designs were submitted, of which one was selected for the Mapuche people. The flag is called Wenufoye (in mapudungun The Heaven's Winter's Bark ). [3]
The colors and forms of this Mapuche flag represents:
Apart from the Wenufoye, there are five other flags representing the different territories: Huenteche, Huilliche, Lafquenche, Nagche and Pehuenche.
The flag of Argentinian Mapuche people was created in 1987 by Julio Antieco, and ratified in 1991 by the 1st Assembly of Aboriginal Leaders and Communities in Trevelin. The Chubut Province declares this symbol as "official emblem of the aboriginal communities of the province" (Act 4,072).
Their colors and symbolism are:
The flag of Chile consists of two equal-height horizontal bands of white and red, with a blue square the same height as the white band in the canton, which bears a white five-pointed star in the center. It was adopted on 18 October 1817. The Chilean flag is also known in Spanish as La Estrella Solitaria.
Huilliche is a moribund branch of the Araucanian language family. In 1982 it was spoken by about 2,000 ethnic Huilliche people in Chile, but now it is only spoken by a few elderly speakers. It is spoken in the nation's Los Lagos and Los Ríos regions; and mountain valleys, between the city of Valdivia and south toward the Chiloé Archipelago.
Mapuche or Mapudungun is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people. It was formerly known as Araucanian, the name given to the Mapuche by the Spaniards; the Mapuche avoid it as a remnant of Spanish colonialism.
The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who share a common social, religious, and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage as Mapudungun speakers. Their homelands once extended from Choapa Valley to the Chiloé Archipelago and later spread eastward to Puelmapu, a land comprising part of the Argentine pampa and Patagonia. Today the collective group makes up over 80% of the indigenous peoples in Chile and about 9% of the total Chilean population. The Mapuche are concentrated in the Araucanía region. Many have migrated from rural areas to the cities of Santiago and Buenos Aires for economic opportunities, more than 92% of the Mapuches are from Chile.
The Picunche, also referred to as picones by the Spanish, were a Mapudungun-speaking people living to the north of the Mapuches or Araucanians and south of the Choapa River and the Diaguitas. Until the Conquest of Chile the Itata was the natural limit between the Mapuche, located to the south, and Picunche, to the north. During the Inca attempt to conquer Chile the southern Picunche peoples that successfully resisted them were later known as the Promaucaes.
The Gününa küna, or sometimes, Puelche are indigenous peoples living east of the Andes Mountains in Chile and Southwest Argentina. They spoke the Puelche language. The name "Puelche" was not native, but was given to them by the Mapuche. They were annihilated by plagues and epidemics in the late 18th century, with survivors merging into other groups such as the Mapuche, Het, and Tehuelche.
The Araucanian languages are a small language family of indigenous languages of the Americas spoken in central Chile and neighboring areas of Argentina. The living representatives of this family are Mapudungun and Huilliche, spoken respectively by the Mapuche and Huilliche people. These are usually considered divergent dialects of a single language isolate.
Chilean mythology includes the mythology, beliefs and folklore of the Chilean people.
The Araucanization of Patagonia was the process of the expansion of Mapuche culture, influence, and its Mapudungun language from Araucanía across the Andes into the plains of Patagonia. Historians disagree over the time period during which the expansion took place, but estimate it occurred roughly between 1550 and 1850.
Cuncos, Juncos or Cunches is a poorly known subgroup of Huilliche people native to coastal areas of southern Chile and the nearby inland. Mostly a historic term, Cuncos are chiefly known for their long-running conflict with the Spanish during the colonial era of Chilean history.
Pehuenche are an indigenous people of South America. They live in the Andes, primarily in present-day south central Chile and adjacent Argentina. Their name derives from their dependence for food on the seeds of the Araucaria araucana or monkey-puzzle tree. In the 16th century, the Pehuenche lived in the mountainous territory from approximately 34 degrees to 40 degrees south. Later they became Araucanized and partially merged with the Mapuche peoples. In the 21st century, they still retain some of their ancestral lands.
The Moluche or Nguluche are an indigenous people of Chile. Their language was a dialect of Mapudungun, a Mapuche language. At the beginning of the Conquest of Chile by the Spanish Empire the Moluche lived in what came to be known as Araucanía. The Moluche were called Araucanos ("Araucanians") by the Spanish.
Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM) is a radical, militant indigenist organization engaged in political violence in pursuit of attaining an autonomous Mapuche state in the territory they describe as "Wallmapu".
The Mapuche conflict involves indigenous Mapuche communities, also known as the Araucanians, located in Araucanía and nearby regions of Chile and Argentina. The conflict itself is related to the land ownership disputes between the State of Argentina and Chile since the 19th Century as well as corporations such as big forestry companies and their contractors. In the past decade of the conflict, Chilean police and some non-indigenous landowners have been confronted by indigenist militant Mapuche organizations and local Mapuche communities in the context of the conflict. Some scholars argue the conflict is an indigenous self-determination conflict; others like Francisco Huenchumilla see it as the expression of a wider political conflict that affects all of Chile given the existence of other indigenous groups.
The Guñelve, sometimes known as the Star of Arauco, is a symbol from Mapuche iconography which can be described as an octagram in saltire.
As an archaeological culture, the Mapuche people of southern Chile and Argentina have a long history which dates back to 600–500 BC. The Mapuche society underwent great transformations after Spanish contact in the mid–16th century. These changes included the adoption of Old World crops and animals and the onset of a rich Spanish–Mapuche trade in La Frontera and Valdivia. Despite these contacts Mapuche were never completely subjugated by the Spanish Empire. Between the 18th and 19th century Mapuche culture and people spread eastwards into the Pampas and the Patagonian plains. This vast new territory allowed Mapuche groups to control a substantial part of the salt and cattle trade in the Southern Cone.
The origin of the Mapuche has been a matter of research for over a century. The genetics of the Mapuche do not show overly clear affinities with any other known indigenous group in the Americas, and the same goes for linguistics, where the Mapuche language is considered a language isolate. Archaeological evidence shows Mapuche culture has existed in Chile at least since 600 to 500 BC. Mapuches are late arrivals in their southernmost and easternmost (Pampas) areas of settlement, yet Mapuche history in the north towards Atacama Desert may be older than historic settlement suggest. The Mapuche has received significant influence from Pre-Incan (Tiwanaku?), Incan and Spanish peoples, but deep origins of the Mapuche predates these contacts. Contact and conflict with the Spanish Empire are thought by scholars such as Tom Dillehay and José Bengoa to have had a profound impact on the shaping of the Mapuche ethnicity.
The Council of All Lands or Aukiñ Wallmapu Ngulam (AWNg) is an indigenist separatist organization that defines itself as aimed to create a "Mapuche state" in Chile and Argentina in the territories defined as "Wallmapu" by them. Its leader is the "werkén" Aucán Huilcamán. The organization has its roots in the Commission for the 500 years of resistance, created in 1989 as a splinter group of ADMAPU, whose members had become critical of ADMAPU. The commission subsequently changed name to Consejo de Todas las Tierras in 1990.
Wallmapu is the word in the Mapuche language to say "Universe" or "set of surrounding lands", currently used by some historians to describe the historical territory inhabited by the Mapuche people of southern South America. The term was coined in the early 1990s by Indigenist groups but gained traction in the 2000s as the Mapuche conflict in Araucanía intensified. Some view the Wallmapu as being composed of two main parts Ngulumapu in the west and Puelmapu in the east, with the southern part of Ngulumapu being known as Futahuillimapu.
