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The first menstruation, the pleasure of sexual intercourse, the decision to conceive or not, menopause. Different moments of the life cycle are hidden, disguised, told in whispers, with shame, with ellipses. "I stained myself," "I had my blood," "I'm having hot flashes." While in many cultures there are topics that seem to be exclusive to the intimate and private sphere, the Mapuche worldview maintains that what happens to us in our bodies also happens in the territory . Thus, what is individual is assumed communally as a public and collective event.

All these reflections and debates took place at the "First Comprehensive Sexual Education Conference with Mapuche Identity" organized by the Epu Lafken Mapuche Community of Los Toldos, in the northwest of the province of Buenos Aires, within the framework of the International Day of Indigenous Women .

Students from various secondary schools and nursing programs went on a large bicycle ride to Casa Azul, the rural headquarters of the community. There, the booklet " Katan kawin kuyentun pekuyen . The Life Cycle of Mapuche Women" . It is a collective work written by Mapuche political scientist Verónica Azpiroz Cleñan with the advice of the pillan kushe (spiritual guide) María Elena Tripailaf from Lanín Volcano, Neuquén.

Neither virginity nor monogamy

The material recovers ancestral knowledge, dismantles taboos, and questions the impositions of Christian beliefs that associated the female body with sin. It analyzes the horror and/or fascination with which various Spanish authors documented the sexual freedom of Mapuche women during the colonial era. 

For example, the booklet emphasizes that virginity had no weight in forming a couple. Even, they say, a pregnancy prior to forming a couple was not a cause for conflict. If "the newlywed is already pregnant, impregnated by another man, then the husband almost always decides to adopt the unborn child," they said.

They also investigated the theoretical work of various lamngen (sisters) who researched sexuality and pleasure and discovered what today could be defined as a sex toy characteristic of Mapuche culture. The weskel was a type of cloth made from horsehair that was tied to the penis to stimulate the clitoris and induce orgasms. "This means that sexual pleasure was not hidden or concealed, but that there were also instruments to enhance women's enjoyment."

It can be observed that the consequences of the genocide did not escape sexuality and relationships: polygamous emotional constructs were abruptly transformed by the conquest. The booklet notes that both longkos (community political authorities) and weychafe (warriors) engaged in polygamous practices, which were chronicled by historians of the time. And while they mention polyandry, the state of a woman in a simultaneous emotional bond with two or more people, they acknowledge that it is the practice least historically recorded. "Polygamy or polyandry became extinct or hidden due to the Catholic moralistic prejudice that overvalues ​​monogamy," they maintain.

Without territory, enjoyment becomes a distant plane.

What's happening today regarding Mapuche women's sexual freedom? "Mapuche sexuality and pleasure aren't topics that are being discussed publicly in community spaces," responds Verónica Azpiroz Cleñán, adding, "Disputes over territory, violent evictions, and the criminalization of Indigenous identities make enjoyment a distant memory." 

For the Mapuche political scientist and doctoral candidate in collective health, today "the priority is to survive. Survive if you don't have water, survive if it snows, survive if they come to fumigate you, survive if they want to evict you, survive if they start criminal charges against you. There is a fragility in the rule of law in Argentina that means that strictly sexual health and pleasure issues, and the way the body is perceived, are relegated. Despite the fact that women, especially women, are raising these issues."

" Katan kawin kuyentun pekuyen. The Life Cycle of Mapuche Women" is precisely one of the forms of advocacy, a collective material produced with the support of Mapuche women from the province of Buenos Aires. It was successfully printed through self-management and is already circulating in schools in Los Toldos. Additionally, a series of five videos in which Mapuche women from different territories narrate first-person experiences is freely accessible. These materials were produced with the support of the Southern Women's Fund (FMS) and the Network of Indigenous Professionals.

White feminism and a purely discursive intersectionality

For many years, Indigenous, Afro-Colombian, popular, brown, and migrant feminist and anti-patriarchal movements have been critiquing "white" or hegemonic feminism, accusing it of perpetuating a racist, Eurocentric, and classist logic. The idea of ​​intersectionality : gender oppressions do not exist separately from those of class and ethnicity.

However, for the author of the material, "intersectionality is a concept that is used in academia, but it doesn't have a concrete impact on public policy." In this regard, Azpiroz Cleñan proposes an exercise: "If you look at the work teams of feminist organizations, there isn't a single Afro-descendant or Indigenous person on the main staff. So there's a discourse, but there's no real materialization of that intersection."

The booklet praises Comprehensive Sexual Education Law 26.150 but notes that "there are no materials produced by the state apparatus regarding sexuality from our Mapuche worldview. There is a lot of intersectionality talk and little concrete action."

The Mapuche political scientist asserts that "at no point does feminism raise linguistic rights in its daily practice, and even less does the State enforce these rights in access to healthcare. No one asks, for example, how to equate inequality in access to public health services when a woman is monolingual in Wichí, Qom, or Pilagá."

The material argues that the imposition of Christianity forced us to hide menstruation, desire, pleasure, and the enjoyment of corporality. "For this reason, we are committed to reversing colonialism (even within white feminism) and bringing to light our cultural ways of experiencing bodies, words, advice, clothing, and joy, and sharing them so that the processes of re-mapuchization may multiply," they say.

The festival of menarche

The Epu Lafken Mapuche Community set out to recover various indigenous practices that were devastated by the genocide upon which this country was built. Ceremonies are key because they are where women who have been able to maintain their language find a common space for Mapuche kimün : Mapuche knowledge that condenses the language and its memories. One of the rituals that had been lost and is now being recovered is Katan Kawin , the women's fertility festival.

The material explains that "the celebration of menarche (first menstruation) is experienced communally because what is being celebrated, at the same time, is the fertility of the earth, the possibility of fertilizing new seeds, of generating food, of nourishing other lives. Human life is associated with the life of the land, which is why the fertility festival belongs to the entire earth."

María Elena Tripailaf, a traditional Mapuche authority, explains that in Katan Kawin , "the adolescent girl is prepared for life. We call her maiden. Chaway (silver earrings) are placed on her body, and ngülam (advice) is given so that she can have clarity on her path and understand the values ​​she holds as a Mapuche woman."

It's a joyful celebration. Adult women accompany the women with flowers, gifts, and silverware. And they share all kinds of recommendations, including those for healthy sexuality. "Women have the task of preparing this young woman and giving advice and gifts she can use to protect her life," says the pillan kushe (spiritual guide) of the Mapuche people.

And what's happening among the wentru (males) of the Epu Lafken Community with the recovery of this ceremonial rite? "They're happy," says Azpiroz Cleñan, "because they're the fathers of the girls who have had their menarche. For two years, we've been supporting this process, trying not only to recover the Katan Kawin , but also to support the daughters' friends, to provide them with other tools that will sustain and strengthen them."

Plenopause and political leadership

To discuss menopause, the Epu Lafken Community joins various feminist spaces that rename the end of menstruation as plenopause: a perspective that encourages us to think of this life cycle as a moment of fulfillment. 

"In this phase, we have more time for community or collective activities, to share knowledge and experiences, and to live sexuality with a focus on pleasure, relaxing non-reproductive sexual health care. Many of us have more time to lead political processes," they say.

Furthermore, they warn that this is a time of life when the hegemonic medical system proposes medicalization with hormonal supplements with prescriptions that they consider "neither universal nor have they arisen from the specific needs of Mapuche or Indigenous women on this continent." 

The booklet lists some precautions to take when the moon arrives (menstruation) and reviews the use of various plants to manage pain, mood swings, and increase sexual desire during peküyen (menopause). These are tips, experiences, and reflections that were silenced for years but remained in the collective memory and today, thanks to the work of many Mapuche women, are resurfacing in their territories.