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'Carabineros desaloja comunidad Mapuche / Police entering Mapuche territory', by Aurora Ortiz. (Photo: Martin Melaugh)

This arpillera, the second in a series of four, portrays the carabineros (police) violently evicting the Mapuche people from their land. At the time the police entered their land, the community was harvesting the wheat and storing it in bags for use in the months ahead. We can see a tractor being driven by a Mapuche woman. The men are holding their trutruca towards the sky (a wind instrument used in their ceremonies), beseeching their God - Ngenechén - for help.

The artist has portrayed the Mapuche flag as the sun, prominent in the sky along with the Andes. This iconic mountain range and the sun are common design features of Chilean Arpilleras.

Aurora has described how she and her husband have been closely involved in the Mapuche struggle since the early 1980s. "When El Consejo de Todas las Tierras (The Council of all the Land) leadership was being persecuted by Pinochet's dictatorship, we as a family helped bring them undercover to Santiago and sheltered one of them in our home. We had insightful conversations and we took on their struggle."

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