Letter from Moira Millán: Being an indigenous woman in the time of Milei
On International Indigenous Women's Day, Moira Millán, a Mapuche warrior, denounces racism and the cruelty of those in power against Indigenous peoples. And she explains why they are on alert.
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PILLAÑ MAWIZA, Puelwillimapu. Today, September 5th, is International Indigenous Women's Day , but the commemorations of racist Argentina do not highlight this day on any calendar. This year, 2025, is proving particularly difficult for us. A racist and misogynistic dictatorship has been established, using state resources against Indigenous peoples.
As a Mapuche woman, I suffer the cruelty of power, just like my sisters who are determined to defend the right to live as Mapuche. I live in Puelwillimapu ; here is my homeland and my ancestral land, which have been here for centuries. I belong to this territory , invaded, plundered, and governed for almost two centuries by bloodthirsty, racist, misogynistic, and genocidal invaders. Chubut was built at gunpoint, with the arrival of European riflemen who had a green light to kill us and then, as privileged settlers, seize our lands.
Nothing has changed since then. One example of this is the violent invasion we suffered on February 11th , when 100 heavily armed and hooded repressors entered my community, the Lof Pillañ Mawiza. About seventy of them broke into my small house, smashing things, hitting us, throwing us to the floor, stealing, and arresting Victoria, our friend and comrade. They acted like the death squads during the dictatorship: I didn't see their faces, hidden behind dark cloth. Sometimes I think I run into them in the streets, in shops, in a café, but I would never recognize them.
"They are denying us the right to defend ourselves."
From February until today, we have been denied the right to defend ourselves . Judge Jorge Criado, who ordered the 12 raids on different Mapuche communities, is not allowing any lawyer to enter the case to defend us . The excuse is that we are neither charged nor suspected of any crime. However, on that day, they took our belongings—cell phones, computers, books, notebooks—and even seized our DNA. This last act is so serious that, in any healthy society, it would not only provoke outrage but also raise an alarm, prompting a halt to such violence.
This is a society born of genocide. Those who have always held power in this part of the world have been the descendants of the beneficiaries and accomplices of the attempted extermination. The judge uses a truth as a ploy: our innocence. But he does not authorize the restitution of our belongings and—above all—he does not declare the case null and void.
Summer is approaching, a season I used to enjoy with my family, but which they have turned into a nightmare by setting fire to entire territories. There is no doubt that it is the government itself and real estate speculators who are profiting from the lands ravaged by fire. Today, my greatest fear is that they will use the DNA of more than fifty Mapuche people to frame us for the devastating crimes they are committing.
I express my solidarity and embrace the sisters of the 40 Indigenous nations in Argentina , those who struggle daily to survive amidst famine, drought, evictions, and multiple forms of violence. Despite all the pain , their path is marked by love and strength . Both in the north and the south, the threat of dispossession, water privatization, and a potential neocolonial takeover keeps us worried and on high alert.
Sisters, it is time for unity, and to weave the struggle with courage and clarity. Let us do it. I know the telluric force that dwells within us.
Today, September 5, 2025, I commemorate the International Day of Indigenous Women, joining the millions of voices that call for Freedom, Peace, and Justice for the Palestinian people, and that one day Memory, Truth, and Justice will not be just a slogan, nor a state policy solely for the benefit of the white elite, but an exercise in healing that seeks to restore harmony among peoples.
Moira Millán, from Puelwillimapu, Marici Weu!
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