ABSTRACT
Indigenous identity formation is a precarious and difficult process for Mapuche youth who are schooled for 12 years or more. This chapter argues for the benefits of combining Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital, and habitus with the concept of new racism as a lens through which to understand the structural and agentic aspects of indigenous identity management. This is exemplified in the contemporary case study of Chile. Data is provided from OECD and Ministry of Education data to show how in this highly racialised country, indigenous students experience altogether different modalities of inclusion and belonging compared to non-indigenous peers. The privileges of whiteness are naturalised in the regions with most indigenous residents, among staff and among some Mapuche indigenous students. Simultaneously, however, these young people discursively resist society’s and school’s exclusionary values and reformulate the meanings of being indigenous among themselves. The chapter concludes with some thoughts on the implications of these schooling processes for the future of indigenous voice and indigenous self-identification, and recommendations about how schools can tackle new racism through more culturally sensitive pedagogies and critical perspectives.
