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El Ciudadano

Original article: Werken de la Comunidad Domingo Ñancucheo y Domingo Melin en Boroa denuncia que CONADI tiene paralizada injustificadamente la compraventa

By Javier Pineda Olcay

Situated on the banks of the Quepe River, near its confluence with the Cautín River, the Domingo Ñancucheo and Domingo Melin Community occupies a historically significant area known as Boroa, which was one of the last regions to resist Spanish occupation.

In 1883, a group of Capuchin priests settled in Boroa. Initially, the chief Ñancucheo granted them 4 hectares by the Quepe River to establish a mission aimed at protecting land and promoting social and cultural development for local communities. However, they quickly began to encroach upon the ancestral lands of the community.

The territories belonging to the leaders Ñancucheo and Melin were reduced to just 276 hectares, as marked in the Title of Merced N°837 granted in 1902. Nevertheless, this was inadequate. The Boroa Mission appropriated a significant portion of the land, claiming 40% of what belonged to the Title of Merced. Ultimately, the lof lost nearly 210 hectares to the Capuchins, encompassing both ancestral land and properties covered by the title.

This dispossession was legitimized by the Chilean State, which allowed these property titles to be registered under the religious congregation’s name, with the Diocese of Villarrica as the current owner. However, the Community has consistently asserted their rights, even engaging in a legal battle in the Indigenous Tribunal.

The promise made by the Capuchins to educate local Mapuche youths in agricultural techniques was not upheld. More than 140 years after their establishment, the lands have increasingly ceased productive output. However, this situation began to change with the push for territorial recovery.

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Starting in the 2000s, formal requests for the recovery of lands identified in Title of Merced N°837 began. Anthropological studies demonstrated the community’s deep-rooted connection to this territory extending south of the Quepe River.

This request remained dormant until the time of the Popular Uprising, when nationwide protests reached Wallmapu. In 2020, a group of Mapuche individuals from communities east of the Boroa Stream initiated a recovery of the lands surrounding the Boroa Mission.

The major hurdle faced during this recovery was that it was not led by individuals with historical ties to the Domingo Ñancucheo and Domingo Melin community. This prompted the leaders of that community to take charge of the recovery process and demonstrate through anthropological studies that they were the historical owners entitled to this land.

This study was presented in 2024 to CONADI and the Archbishop of the Diocese of Villarrica, providing substantial historical evidence. In response, Bishop Javier Stenmayer indicated that it was the State that had granted these properties, thus, it was their responsibility to resolve the matter. Nonetheless, he facilitated a lease of approximately 220 hectares to the Domingo Ñancucheo and Domingo Melin community while the purchase process with CONADI was underway.

CONADI, upon reviewing this new anthropological study, revisited the file submitted by the community in 2002, discovering that anthropologist Patricio Sanzana from CONADI had documented a similar history in 2009.

During a subsequent meeting, the treasurer of the Vicariate of Villarrica, Óscar Gil, and advisors to Álvaro Morales, Director of CONADI, committed to fast-tracking the land purchase, acknowledging that it met feasibility criteria. Later, in another meeting, the CONADI Director pledged to secure funding for the purchase before the current presidential term concluded.

However, over a year later, the purchase process remains stalled. Community leader Maorí Ñancucheo reports that in an inexplicable incident, Carmen Gloria Oñate, chief of staff for the CONADI Director, who had participated in previous discussions with the Domingo Ñancucheo and Domingo Melin Community, advised individuals involved in the 2020 territorial recovery—who lack a historical connection to the land—against the purchase in favor of the Community. She suggested they write a letter to halt the purchase. CONADI did not provide a statement regarding this matter, El Ciudadano reported.

Despite the Domingo Ñancucheo and Domingo Melin community meeting all requirements necessary for land acquisition, the purchase has yet to occur. The file 620-10 continues to collect dust in the CONADI offices.

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Despite this delay in the purchase, the community’s productive and ceremonial activities have continued unabated.

The territorial recovery process, rather than creating divisions between Mapuche communities and the Catholic Church, has strengthened ties with local schools in Almagro, which were invited to celebrate the We Tripantu, the Mapuche New Year that also signifies a new cycle for the lof.

This initiative enjoys recognition from the broader community, fostering discussions with regional deputies and senators, the Municipality of Nueva Imperial, other neighboring Mapuche communities, and local residents.

The lease granted by the Diocese of Villarrica includes the right to engage in productive activities. As such, in 2025, they plan to cultivate 100 hectares with lupins, wheat, and forage oats. The remaining hectares are being cleared for future planting next year.

Families from the community are returning, with half of the leased land already planted. Maorí Ñancucheo, the leader of the Domingo Ñancucheo and Domingo Melin Community, expresses hope for their ongoing process: «CONADI must address the historical debt the State owes our community; they must purchase the lands so we can develop productive processes and allow our family members to return to the community.»

La entrada Community Leaders from Domingo Ñancucheo and Domingo Melin in Boroa Claim CONADI Is Inexplicably Delaying Land Purchase se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.