Territory, Ancestry, and Female Leadership: Vanessa Fiuza’s Transformative Research in an Indigenous Community

On January 20, the Santiago Center, Universidad Católica's (UC) Regional Centers and Stations (RCER) and the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Studies (CIIR), hosted the webinar “Territory, Ancestry, and Female Leadership: An Anthropological Report on the Julián Collinao Indigenous Community.” The event featured a presentation by Vanessa Fiuza, the first recipient of the Santiago Center’s field research grant in Chile. During the webinar, Vanessa presented the findings from her three-month research, conducted at UC’s Local Development Center (CEDEL) on the University’s Villarrica campus in southern Chile.

The event opened with remarks from Chris Molinari, Programming Officer, and Antonio Campaña, Director of the Santiago Center. Sergio Guitart, Executive Officer of RCER, expressed his gratitude to the audience and Vanessa, highlighting the significance of the Santiago Grant. This initiative, a collaboration between the Global Center and UC, enables Columbia University graduate students to conduct impactful field research based at one of UC’s field stations throughout Chile. Guitart emphasized the value of the network of research stations in fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, promoting academic training, and addressing local challenges with global perspectives in partnership with local communities. “We are very open to continuing this collaboration and look forward to developing more opportunities for research, field instruction, and community engagement, because that is the project that our university is pursuing,” he stated.

Natalia Caniguan, a researcher at CIIR, discussed Vanessa’s work and findings. Alongside Professor Francisca de la Maza, Associate Professor of History at UC’s Villarrica Campus and Assistant Director of CIIR, Natalia had been collaborating with the Julián Collinao Mapuche community of Relicura on a Fondecyt research project exploring the emergence of tourism in specific territories. The community had requested an anthropological report to address challenges related to real estate pressures and encroachment by large landowners. The report was intended to support their appeals to the Chilean state, highlighting the environmental, cultural, and social impacts of land loss. Vanessa’s interest in working in Mapuche territory aligned perfectly with the community’s needs, enabling her to contribute significantly to their efforts.

After arriving in Santiago in October and meeting with the Santiago Center team and UC’s global mobility team, Vanessa traveled to Villarrica, where she lived for three months. During this time, she conducted fieldwork, site visits, and in-depth research, developing a strong connection with the Julián Collinao community. This collaboration culminated in the production of a comprehensive anthropological report, providing the community with a valuable resource to advance their objectives. “This collaboration exemplifies how academia and institutional knowledge can serve communities by providing tools to address systemic inequalities and empower their claims as Indigenous people living in Chilean territory,” Caniguan remarked.

Caniguan further highlighted the mutual learning experience of the project: “Working with Vanessa not only benefited the community but also enriched our understanding of these issues. It demonstrated the potential of collaborative research to generate meaningful change.”

Vanessa then presented her findings, which were detailed in a 40-page anthropological report. A Brazilian psychologist specializing in women and gender issues, Vanessa is pursuing an M.A. in Human Rights Studies at Columbia’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Motivated by her commitment to women’s rights, Indigenous rights and climate issues, she applied for the Santiago Center’s research grant hoping to combine her academic interests with hands-on field experience.

During her presentation, Vanessa explained the methodology behind her research, which involved nine in-person interviews with families in the Julián Collinao community of Relicura, located about 60 km from Villarrica. These interviews were transcribed, analyzed, and incorporated into the report as testimonials. The report addressed the community’s land ownership challenges, the impacts on heritage resulting from the presence of large-scale developments in the territory and the critical role of women in community leadership through a gender lens and ecofeminist perspective.

Vanessa shared maps illustrating the community’s land distribution and areas under threat. She expressed her gratitude to Natalia and Professor de la Maza for their openness to incorporating gender and ecofeminist perspectives into the project. “When addressing nature and environment, it is important to consider the intersections of gender, environment and how communities that society defines and perceives as vulnerable, are affected,” Vanessa noted.

She also emphasized the importance of collaboration, crediting the community members for their patience with her language limitations. Vanessa reflected on the broader implications of language as a barrier, noting that in the past, when most community members were not fluent in Spanish, this vulnerability was exploited. “When facing language barriers, it's easy to label people as 'others,' those who don't speak Spanish, who don't really belong, and who are therefore easier to exploit. That's why it's vital for the community to have legal representation and advocates who understand their specific needs and knowledge,” she stated.

Vanessa’s presentation was organized around three central themes: territory, ancestry, and female leadership.

Territory

The Chilean state granted the community’s land to Julián Collinao and his descendants in 1908 through a “Título de Merced” — a legal document issued during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that formally recognized indigenous communities' ownership of specific plots of land. Today, the land is divided into 61 lots owned by Julián Collinao’s descendants and their families. Vanessa’s research uncovered emblematic cases that highlight the complexities of property ownership, including irregular sales, occupations, and legal disputes. To analyze each case, the team gathered information from the Real Estate Registrar and the local Notary Office. Oral accounts also played a crucial role in understanding the loss of land, often tied to irregular sales or occupations that resulted in land usurpation. “The report is important because it provides the community with documented evidence to support their claims and strengthen their advocacy efforts,” Vanessa explained.

Ancestry

Vanessa detailed the historical significance of the community’s land, originally owned by Julián Collinao and later formalized through the efforts of his son Juan. “Juan Collinao bridged the community and the state, starting legal procedures to claim and ratify the ownership of their land. This land is stunning. It holds immense cultural, environmental, and economic potential, which makes it a target for external interests,” Vanessa noted. She also highlighted the community’s work to implement sustainable tourism initiatives and their ongoing efforts to resolve land conflicts.

During her time in Villarrica, Vanessa developed a close bond with the family of Polidoro Garrido Collinao, a fourth-generation landowner and grandson of Juan Collinao. Reflecting on her unique opportunity to enter the community, which is closed to the public, Vanessa remarked, “They are the guardians of the environment, bridging the past and present. They preserve the memory of their ancestral land, emphasizing its sacredness. Beyond their cultural and environmental significance, they possess invaluable knowledge.”

Vanessa added that while outsiders might only see grass and land, community members perceive much more. “People are trying to build houses on sites of cultural and environmental importance. From an outsider's perspective, it may appear as just grass and land, but they see an organized nature indicating sacred lands, holy trees, medicinal herbs, or ancient cemeteries,” she explained.

Female Leadership

For Vanessa, the leadership role of Indigenous women in the Julián Collinao community was evident in many ways: as advocates, lawyers, current community leaders, defenders of their land, storytellers of their history and guardians of their culture. The current leader of the Community, Ruth Garrido, also serves as the president of the Mapuche Territorial Council of Pucón.

Vanessa reflected on the unique nature of leadership within the community, emphasizing that for Indigenous women, leadership is not merely a tool and it’s not about power, it’s a necessity to safeguard what is theirs. She noted that these women rise to leadership roles from places marked by pain, fear, and injustice, transforming those experiences to protect their rights and their communities. Their leadership is profoundly different from the often selfish or ambitious models associated with power, as it focuses on collective well-being, cultural preservation, and a deep connection to their land: “Even in the face of total loss, the constant disrespect for their ancestral rights, or the invasion of their territories, these women do not give up. Their leadership emerges from adversity and resilience, and is profoundly transformative. This leadership is sustainable because it’s collaborative. Decisions are made in groups and through various methods, rather than being defined by a single leader. It’s a type of leadership we should all strive to apply in some way,” she stated.

From an ecofeminist perspective, Vanessa observed that the systemic exploitation of nature parallels the oppression faced by women under patriarchal structures. She explained how society often views nature as something inert, an entity to exploit. “We leave nature behind to live in big cities and expect it to serve us, so we exploit it. It’s beautiful to observe the interconnection with women, because we understand what it is to be exploited and the expectation to produce, whether it’s bearing children or conforming to roles dictated by patriarchy,” she expressed. Vanessa also highlighted that this is why women are uniquely positioned to empathize with and defend nature, and that this interconnectedness fosters a form of leadership that is both collaborative and protective, with women responding to exploitation by championing the preservation of the environment.

An initial version of the anthropological report was presented to the Julián Collinao community on January 11 for their approval, with a final version incorporating their feedback currently in progress. At the end of the month, Vanessa returned to New York to complete her studies at Columbia University, deeply moved by the experience. Not only was it personally transformative, but it also deepened her understanding of Latin American indigenous perspectives and ecofeminism. Through this journey, she learned from Mapuche women leaders and their profound connections to land, nature, and ancestry—insights that will be invaluable for her thesis on Amazonian women.

She also credited the women she met in the indigenous community, such as community leader Ruth Garrido, her sister Alejandra, who is a lawyer and advocate for the community, and Professor Francisca de la Maza, for inspiring her to pursue an academic path and consider applying for a PhD in the future. "It's important to stay connected to universities to carry out this kind of work, particularly when it relates to women and environmental protection," she noted. She also expressed her gratitude to the Santiago Center for the opportunity, calling it a major source of inspiration for the next steps in her life.

Watch the complete video of the event here.