Mapuche Hip Hop in Time, Space and Testimony

Authors

  • Jacob Rekedal Universidad Alberto Hurtado

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.24265

Keywords:

global hip hop, Mapuche, ethnomusicology, archive studies, Digital Technologies

Abstract

This article describes an archival project about Mapuche hip hop, with digital primary sources and testimonies. The project includes a database and cartography highlighting the importance of Mapuche hip hop as a decolonizing artistic practice. In the collaborative and multifaceted sense of hip hop, the archive deals not only with music and events, but also with posters (visual art) and audiovisual productions. Based on digital media, the archive delineates a history that began several decades ago, and that bridges multiple generations of artists as well as different geographical areas. The quantity and complexity of the contents of the archive demand a systematic approach, but not from science as hegemonic epistemology. Hence the incorporation of oral testimonies, in order to place the perspectives of Mapuche rappers at the centre of our work. Ethnomusicology, concerned with ethics but weighed down by the colonial baggage of its origins, provides a useful but sometimes problematic backdrop for this project. We started in 2019 by organizing elements based on contextual details, for example hip hop as a pedagogical tool, as a political discourse and as an arena for artistic experimentation. We have also considered music as a means of circulating information and ideas within and beyond Mapuche territory. The archive facilitates the careful study of Mapuche hip hop and its history from multiple angles.

Author Biography

  • Jacob Rekedal, Universidad Alberto Hurtado

    Jacob Rekedal is an ethnomusicologist (PhD, University of California, Riverside, 2015), and assistant professor at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile. He has carried out research projects with Stateside support from the UC Pacific Rim Research Program and Fulbright, and in Chile from the Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio (Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage), and the Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (National Research and Development Agency). Between 2015–2020, he was the Chilean representative to the International Council for Traditional Music, and currently remains active in that organization.

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Discography

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Videography

Waikil. 2018. ‘Taiñ wirintukun mapuche’. Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tLNRrU-7yE

Published

2025-05-07

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Rekedal, J. (2025). Mapuche Hip Hop in Time, Space and Testimony. Journal of World Popular Music, 11(2), 142–165. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.24265