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About The EventWe invite you to celebrate the launch of internationally renowned Indigenous and environmental rights activist, Elisa Loncon's book Azampu: A Mapuche Philosophy of Care. Elisa will be in conversation with Director of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, Juan Francisco Salazar, while you enjoy wine and cheese in our event space upstairs!
In 2021, Mapuche scholar and activist Elisa Loncon captured international attention when she led Chile’s historic effort to revise its constitution. At a time of mounting ecological crises, her attempts to formally recognize Indigenous and environmental rights challenged ideas about power and led to her being named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year.
In this intimate and accessible book, Loncon shares the Indigenous knowledge system that shapes her work and introduces readers to Mapuche philosophy, which is rooted in Mapuzugun (the "language of the Earth"). She explains how küme mogen, "good living," results from people being in balance with nature and explores Mapuche understandings of language, storytelling and song, governance, social roles and responsibilities, ceremony, and gender and sexuality. She also highlights the vital role Indigenous women play in resisting colonialism and transmitting knowledge about language, food, medicine, and spiritual life.
Elisa Loncon is an internationally renowned Indigenous and environmental rights activist and an associate professor in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Santiago, Chile. She holds a PhD in Humanities from the University of Leiden (2017) and doctoral degree in Literature from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. In 2021, she was elected to represent the Mapuche people in the Chilean Constitutional Convention and then served as the Convention’s first president. That same year, she was awarded the René Cassin Human Rights Award from the Basque Government in recognition of her substantial contributions to the defense of human rights. TIME magazine named her one of the world’s “100 Most Influential People” and she was also recognized by the Financial Times as one of the “25 Most Influential Women of 2021.” She is the author of Azmapu: a Mapuche philosophy of care (UBC Press 2026).
Juan Francisco Salazar is Director of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University and a Chilean interdisciplinary researcher, author, and documentary filmmaker. He is the translator to English of Elisa Loncon’s Azmapu: a Mapuche philosophy of care (UBC Press 2026).
*Please note, unfortunately our wheelchair lift is undergoing ongoing maintainence. We are doing everything we can to fix the problem. We apologise for any inconvenience.
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265 King Street, Newtown, NSW, Australia, New South Wales 2042, 265 King St, Newtown NSW 2042, Australia, Alexandria
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