ABSTRACT
Denouncing it as a threat to Indigenous ways of lives and the environment, local Mapuche communities and the nearby non-Indigenous towns of the Región de Los Ríos, southern Chile, have raised stiff opposition to the building of hydroelectric power plants. Different national and international strategies have been devised to stop the Norwegian energy company SN Power diverting the rivers of the Mapuche territories for hydroelectric power generation. The project has been challenged on many grounds, but two issues have predominated: first, the acquisition of water rights infringed Mapuche’s rights over their territories and the government’s provisional concession for the development of the hydroelectric projects did not consult the local communities affected by it (Nordbø and Utreras 2007). In this context, the conference held in Oslo – and sponsored by the Norwegian NGO FIVAS – had a positive effect insofar as the company agreed to halt their initial surveys in the region and engage in open discussions with local communities.However, despite this agreement and subsequent meetings, the project – and the conflict – continues. Even though there are massive power disparities between the Mapuche and SN Power, this case exemplifies the increasing emphasis of Indigenous groups to make local violations of their rights a global issue in the fight for the protection of their territories, resources and ways of life. Furthermore, it highlights a new strategy that requires alliances with national and international NGOs who contribute funding, research data, publicity and contacts with national governments and international organizations, but also reflects a tendency to bypass the nation state in order to counter such projects. The multinational threat to Indigenous territories has created a global strategy. The Mapuche challenge to the plunder of their lands and waters is just one among many
that highlight the ongoing conflicts to which Indigenous peoples are exposed as a consequence of private and state sponsored projects that seek to physically transform the territories in which
they live, and which are at the centre of their ways of lives. Although not new, such threats have acquired an increasing global dimension that involves transnational actors whose objective of profit maximization cannot be reconciled with the social and cultural stability of local populations. Many of the laws and policies of states are designed to facilitate the operations of these enterprises, and in many parts of the world this inevitably involves first the appropriation of Indigenous lands, and second, in almost all cases, negative social and psychological transformation of the peoples themselves. This chapter focuses on the consequences of contemporary global events on Indigenous
peoples. The first part will deal with the connections between globalization and Indigenous peoples. This serves both as a starting point and as an analytical frame.We will then examine sites of contestation such as Indigenous mobilizations, the international recognition of Indigenous rights, the court cases, the role of advocacy groups and the quest for indigenous identity revitalization.
