Abstract

Based on an interdisciplinary approach, this article identifies and reflects on the wordlings generated around waterscapes in Mapuche territory. Waterscapes have ecological and hydraulic value, and they are differently lived and experienced. For Mapuche communities in Wallmapu (Patagonia) waterscapes are living entities where human and other-than-human histories converge. We approach three hydric scenarios in Wallmapu: water scarcity, water abundance, and induced water scarcity in the watersheds of the rivers Lepá (Chubut, Argentina), Chimehuín (Neuquén, Argentina), and Huenehue (Los Rios, Chile). The comparison of our case studies reveals the character of the indigenous waterscapes and the tensions arising from the global economic model and its impact in water management. Our analysis shows how indigenous communities distinctively construct waterscapes based on their biocultural memory and establishing with the water an intersubjective relation. As a result, they not only become engaged in a multiverse where different communities converge, although as part of distinctive realities, but also, they secure and protect their provision of water. We conclude by suggesting that equivocal relations and partial connections facilitate the recreation of the divide between Mapuche – no matter how diverse the communities are - and non-Mapuche inhabitants of the Wallmapu in a context where water management may derive from the former some important lessons.