Performing Kimvn : Indigenous Repertoire of Identity in Wallmapu
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Authors
Kasperek, Maria
Issue Date
2024-06-01
Type
Thesis
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Abstract
This project seeks to understand Indigenous identity as a diverse repertoire of lived experiences, outward expressions, and personal developments that come from the original peoples and stewards of this earth. Responding to state definitions, which invalidate, folklorize, and misconstrue essential components of the performance of identity while harmfully erasing Indigenous episteme, I propose that Indigeneity is manifested as performances of outward and personal expression of culture, legal and self identification, and the importance of Mapudungvn and community. I conducted field research in Chile where I interviewed ten individuals from the Mapuche organization, Asociación Antumapu de Quilpué, about their perceptions and expressions of their own identities. The findings demonstrate that the repertoire of Mapuche performance identity is an episteme that allows for the preservation and continuation of Mapuche culture and ways of knowing, thus necessitating its implementation and legitimization within the state of Chile in order to work towards Mapuche self determination. I explore the manifestations and definitions revealed in the interviews as a diverse, multifaceted repertoire of mnemonic devices that allow for communal memory and cultural sharing. Ultimately, this ethnography contributes to the fields of Indigenous study by centering Indigenous ways of knowing in relation to identity making as legitimate, necessary knowledge systems, challenging colonial discourses.
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79 p.
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