The Mapuche Museum of Cañete: Decolonizing the Gaze

This article examines the history of the state-run Mapuche Museum of Cañete in southern Chile. It analyses its multiple and shifting representations of Mapuche culture and history in the context of broader changes in indigenous-state relations, and shows how the museum has both contributed to and been impacted by these changes. Focusing mainly on the conceptual and physical transformations undertaken since a Mapuche woman, Juana Paillalef, was appointed director in 2001, it argues that this colonial institution no longer merely displays the culture of its local Mapuche community, but is also controlled by that community. Reshaped and reinterpreted thus, the museum provides a compelling insight into both the achievements and the limitations of neoliberal multiculturalism in Chile.