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Undoing disaster colonialism: a pilot map of the pandemic's first wave in the Mapuche territories of Southern Chile

Valentina Carraro (Centro de Investigación para la Gestion Integrada de Riesgo de Desastres, Santiago, Chile) (University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Sarah Kelly (Centro de Investigación para la Gestion Integrada de Riesgo de Desastres, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile–Campus San Joaquín, La Florida, Chile)
José Luis Vargas (Mapuexpress, Chiloé Island, Chile)
Patricio Melillanca (Mapuexpress, Chiloé Island, Chile)
José Miguel Valdés-Negroni (Laboratorio de Análisis Territorial, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile)

Disaster Prevention and Management

ISSN: 0965-3562

Article publication date: 17 November 2021

Issue publication date: 22 April 2022

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Abstract

Purpose

The authors use media research and crowdsourced mapping to document how the first wave of the pandemic (April–August 2020) affected the Mapuche, focussing on seven categories of events: territorial control, spiritual defence, food sovereignty, traditional health practices, political violence, territorial needs and solidarity, and extractivist expansion.

Design/methodology/approach

Research on the effects of the pandemic on the Mapuche and their territories is lacking; the few existing studies focus on death and infection rates but overlook how the pandemic interacts with ongoing processes of extractivism, state violence and community resistance. The authors’ pilot study addresses this gap through a map developed collaboratively by disaster scholars and Mapuche journalists.

Findings

The map provides a spatial and chronological overview of this period, highlighting the interconnections between the pandemic and neocolonialism. As examples, the authors focus on two phenomena: the creation of “health barriers” to ensure local territorial control and the state-supported expansion of extractive industries during the first months of the lockdown.

Research limitations/implications

The authors intersperse our account of the project with reflections on its limitations and, specifically, on how colonial formations shape the research. Decolonising disaster studies and disaster risk reduction practice, the authors argue, is an ongoing process, bound to be flawed and incomplete but nevertheless an urgent pursuit.

Originality/value

In making this argument, the paper responds to the Disaster Studies Manifesto that inspires this special issue, taking up its invitation to scholars to be more reflexive about their research practice and to frame their investigations through grounded perspectives.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Manuel Tironi, the CIGIDEN communication team and the Mapuexpress collective for supporting the research. Sergio Iacobelli designed the icons for the map. The authors thank JC Gaillard and the editors of this special issue, and the two anonymous peer-reviewers for their guidance and constructive feedback. The paper was greatly improved by the exchanges with the other contributors to this special issue. The National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development supported the work of VC (ANID/FONDECYT/3201027) and SK (ANID/FONDECYT/3198067). The work of JMVN was made possible by a scholarship for the program in Master Governance of Risk and Resources of the Heidelberg Center for Latin America (HCLA), and by the project ANID/FONDECYT/11180970 led by Dra. Johanna Höhl. The authors also thank the Laboratorio de Análisis Territorial (LAT) of the University of Chile.

Citation

Carraro, V., Kelly, S., Vargas, J.L., Melillanca, P. and Valdés-Negroni, J.M. (2022), "Undoing disaster colonialism: a pilot map of the pandemic's first wave in the Mapuche territories of Southern Chile", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 68-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-03-2021-0106

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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