Ph.D. Research Profile: Marcela A. Palomino Schalscha
Indigeneity, autonomy and new cultural spaces: The decolonisation of practices, being and place through tourism in Alto Bío-Bío Chile
Contact Details
Room: 402
Phone: +64 3 3 364 2987 ext. 8839
Fax: +64 3 364 2907
Email:marcela.palomino@pg.canterbury.ac.nz
Mail:
Department of Geography,
University of Canterbury,
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch, 8140,
New Zealand
Research Overview
My thesis explores the engagement of a group of Mapuche-Pewenche communities with tourism in southern Chile. I argue that Trekaleyin, their tourism initiative, is part of a broader and long history of resistance and struggles for autonomy, territory and decolonisation, in which identity, development, agency and relations with other beings are negotiated, revitalised and re-produced.
From my experience working as a development practitioner with these communities in the beginnings of Trekaleyin, I became interested in understanding the ways in which, as a collective experience, it is embedded and articulated with political concerns and contestation with regards to neoliberalism and multiculturalism. Also, how the communities are incorporating and reactivating diverse and solidarity economies in their work on tourism, while at the same time reworking their relations with and the market economy itstelf. And finally, I suggest that through Trekaleyin, the communities are also re-producing a relational and open sense of place and connectivity, mobilising particular ways of knowing, being and relating to territory and more-than-human beings in a context of global neoliberalism, reshaping scales and their po
ssibilities.
With this thesis I aim to explore how, through their engagement in tourism, community members are disrupting, expanding and hybridising discourses and practices around development, the economy, environment and cross-cultural relations, reworking them so as to craft a better position from where they can participate in them, but whose consequences extend beyond the “local”, affecting us all, both indigenous and non-indigenous. Therefore, from an ethnographic site, this thesis brings new perspectives to the study of development and tourism, in particular among indigenous peoples, in which autonomy, hybridity, diversity and relational ontologies are articulated.
Achievements and awards
In June 2010 I was awarded the Indigenous People Speciality Group Graduate Paper Competition for my presentation at the Association of American Geographers in Washington DC (more details below).
In 2010 I founded and am currently the current National Representative for the NZGS PostGraduate Students Network.
Publications
Palomino-Schalscha, M. forthcoming. The geographies of tourism and development. In: Wilson, J. (ed.) Routledge handbook of tourism geographies. New perspectives on Space, Place and Tourism. London: Routledge.
Hirt, I. & Palomino-Schalscha, M. (2011) The geopolitics of memory and the military on the occasion of the IGU Regional Meeting 2011 in Santiago de Chile. Political Geography,30 (7), p. 355-357 (doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2011.07.003) De la geografía, los militares y crítica con motivo de la Conferencia Regional 2011 de la UGI en Santiago de Chile
Palomino-Schalscha, M. (2001) Percepción de los habitantes de dos comunidades mapuche ante el paso de la Carretera Costera. IX y X Regiones. Tesis presentada como requisito para la obtención del Grado Académico de Geógrafa. Instituto de Geografía, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Santiago.
Conference papers
Palomino-Schalscha, M. (2010) Indigenising development in the Queuco Valley, Alto Bio Bio, Chile. Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, Washington DC
Palomino-Schalscha, M. (2010) Indigenous peoples and more-than-polical struggles over self-determination. Tourism in Pewenche territory, Chile. Conference of the New Zealand Geographical Society Conference in conjunction with the Institute of Australian Geographers, Christchurch
Palomino-Schalscha, M. (2010) Indigenous peoples, Development and Tourism: Diverse economies and the paradox of the market in the case of Trekaleyin. DevNet Conference, Palmerston North
Palomino-Schalscha, M. (2009) Lugar, Encuentro y Desarrollo: Turismo en comunidades Pewenche del Valle del Queuco, Alto Bio Bio. XXX Congreso Nacional y XV Congreso Internacional de Geografia, Talca, Chile
Palomino-Schalscha, M. (2009)Conducting Research: Ethics, Friendship and Relevance, New Zealand Postgraduate Conference, Wellington
Palomino-Schalscha, M. (2009) Tourism and Development in Pewenche communities, Alto Bio Bio, Chile. Departmental Seminar, Geography Department, University of Canterbury, Christchurch
Palomino-Schalscha, M. (2009) Turismo, Poder y Etica: Investigando Desarrollo en las Comunidades Pewenche del Alto Bio Bio, Valle del Queuco. Presentation given at the Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano, Santiago, Chile
Palomino-Schalscha, M. (2008) Researching development discourses and practices among Mapuche-Pewenche communities in the Queuco Valley, Alto Bio Bio, Chile. 24th Conference of the New Zealand Geographical Society, Wellington
Palomino-Schalscha, M. (2008) Making Development, Making a Living. Development among Pehuenche communities in Chile. Poster presented at the Building Research Capabilities in Social Sciences (BRCSS) Conference, Auckland