Chilean Artists Abroad for Mapuche Earthquake Victims

GfbV

Source: INOCA

On Saturday, February 27, 2010 Chile was struck by a devastating earthquake. It registered 8.8 on the Richter scale and caused heavy damage and destruction in many parts of the country. We are members of the Organization of Chilean Artists Abroad, the INOCA Association (www.inoca.net), and we have decided to stage an event to help rebuild our country. This event takes places on Sunday, March 28, 2010,  4:00 pm at the Saal des Rhenania in Cologne, Germany. There will be live acts with music, video installations, performance, poetry readings, an art auction, games for children, and food. We want to collect funds for a social project for the Mapuche people living in the Tirua village in the Bio-Bio region of southern Chile. (more…)

realeyz.tv’s first film partner - Society for Threatened Peoples

realeyz.tv is happy to announce its cooperation with the GfbV, The Society for Threatened Peoples-International. The GfbV is the film partner for our documentary SWITCH OFF! - APAGA Y VÁMONOS . Starting today, you can read regular blog articles with background information, news, and commentary posted by the GfbV.

The Society for Threatened Peoples International  (GfbV) is a human rights organization who for the past 40 years, has fought for the rights of threatened peoples, persecuted minorities, and indigenous communities world wide. The GfbV are advisors to the UN, and a participating organization at The Council of Europe. Their work with these institutions, as well as their media campaigns and public relations work, fights persecution, discrimination, and threats on behalf of those who otherwise may go unheard. The Mapuche, the “heroes” of the film “Switch Off!”, have long suffered oppression and displacement. The industrial exploitation of Mapuche territories has been catastrophic for their communities.  This documentary bears vivid witness their struggles.

State and paramilitary repression of the Mapuche peoples

The conflict that began in 1990 in southern Chile among landowners, lumber   companies and the indigenous population has escalated.

The Mapuche, normally a peaceful tribe, successfully defended their freedom and territories against first Incan and later Spanish colonists. Yet in the past century, they have lost nearly 90 percent of their land. They suffered above all during the Pinochet dictatorship, when indigenous territories were privatized by the state and awarded to transnational lumber companies, who went on to clear the forests of their naturally occurring trees and plant fast growing species that destroyed the forests’ ecological balance and caused soil to become infertile. (more…)

The BíoBío Dam Construction Project in Chile, the ENDESA and the impending fusion with the German energy corporation, E.ON

Text:  Anika Stowasser: Society for Threatened Peoples, Göttingen and Yvonne Bangert in September 2006

The BíoBío river has great symbolic meaning to the Mapuche people living in Chile. Before Spanish colonialists ultimately completely subjugated the Mapuche people, the river represented the border separating free Mapuche territory from the lands already under colonial rule. Today, the river is the site of six reservoir dams planned to become Chile’s largest source of electrical power. Two of these dams, the Pangue and Ralco, have already been built. The Ralco was finished in 2004 and is the world’s third largest dam. To create its reservoir, most of the ancestral lands belonging to the Pehuenche-Mapuche were flooded, spelling the demise of this ancient culture. The dam’s project initiator and manager is the Spanish utilities company ENDESA who is currently negotiating a merger with the German energy giant, E.ON. (more…)