Abstract

The article approaches the Mapuche tourism storytelling in the local identity and territorial processes focused on the Araucanía Region. The perspective of analysis focuses on anthropological conceptions related to indigenous tourism, authenticity, touristic narrative and mapuche storytelling. The research methodology is ethnographic through fieldwork, including participant observation, in-depth interviews, group meetings and press follow-up, related to various areas where both state and self-managed actions linked to Mapuche tourism development are implemented. The Mapuche tourism storytelling constitutes the main distinction of the Mapuche touristic offer, which differentiates it from any other touristic experience. The valuation and cultural and historical construction, in this context of Mapuche tourism development, are key to this distinction that is interrelated with other processes that the Mapuche sectors of the region are experiencing, such as territorial claims, resistance to the presence of extractive projects and political demands linked to the conditions of loss and degradation of land. The construction of the tourism storytelling in general takes place in a context of implementation of public policies that promote indigenous tourism and that are executed by private agents who take on the role of intermediaries and executors of public policy. Depending on these intermediaries/executors, through programs and projects, the story can be constituted as a form of strengthening of identity and territorial, or as a reproduction of a discourse oriented only to the potential tourist. In this process of building a story, various situations are developed that allow us to go deeper into the nuances of state action with regard to the Mapuche people. The ways in which Mapuche tourism is expressed in the local space are identified not only as an economic opportunity, but rather as a process of strengthening and even territorial cultural resistance.