Decolonization in Wallmapu: A Perspective from Mapuche Social Work in Contexts of Social Injustice and Colonial Trauma

Abstract

This article examines the complex relationship between Mapuche social work, the State, and the struggle for Indigenous autonomy from a critical perspective grounded in the historical experience of the Mapuche people. It explores how Mapuche social workers navigate a structural tension between their cultural identity and their professional practice within state institutions. Through five sections, the article analyzes the paradox of their role in either reproducing or challenging structures of domination, the State’s role in perpetuating violence, and the need to decolonize social work through everyday practices and the reconstruction of community networks. It highlights Mapuche dialogical mediations that can contribute to autonomy strategies and the memory of resistance in the reconfiguration of decolonized subjectivities. The article concludes that the decolonization of Mapuche social work is an ongoing process of struggle, in which the co-production of knowledge and reflexivity (rakizuam) play a significant role in the long-term regeneration of the Mapuche social and political fabric.