Mapuexpress - Informativo Mapuche: Bania. Dignity and rights of Mapuche children to use their traditional dress in school (by Victor Toledo LL)

23.11.11

Mapuexpress - Informativo Mapuche

In Collipulli, southern Chile, the director of the local High School two girls were forbidden to wear their traditional dress Mapuche in the photograph of her high school graduation. The affected students belong to the Autonomous Community of Temucuicui. One of the girls is Bania, daughter of lonco of that community, Victor Queipul, who denounced the move as a blatant discrimination. [1]

Right to identity, image rights, right to non discrimination are a set of basic human rights violated by the arbitrary prohibition.

It is the first case in Chile to ban the use of traditional Mapuche dress. In the same year a Mapuche university student wanted to pay their grade exam wearing their traditional dress, which was opposed to the authorities of the University. After an intense campaign of denunciation by social networks, and to the warning of lawsuits for discrimination, the University had searched and respect the rights of the Mapuche student to wear their traditional costume. [2]

The new case involving girls Temucuicui Mapuche is aggravating. On the one hand, adds a new injury to the long list of abuses that have been subjected Temucuicui community, in particular children and the very Bania, which has been observed and documented by UNICEF with the Inter- Human Rights. [3] On the other hand, the new arbitrariness affects the dignity and fundamental rights of indigenous children: the right to cultural identity, self image, and non-discrimination, rights specifically protected by international human rights conventions.

Collipulli's Lyceum, and for state authorities are obliged to repair the damage and ensure that these events are not repeated. The obligation of non-repetition requires deeper into the implications of the case.