PHM Comics: Promoting Ancestral Knowledge and Practices

A Mapuche family is uprooted from their ancestral land by a nexus of political power and private industry.

One night, a Mapuche man is killed by hired agitators. His daughter Lucia, her mother and the entire community are forced off their land. Displaced, they migrate to a poor neighbourhood of Mar del Plata where Lucia attends school while her mother sells baskets at a local market.

Lucia—like many displaced Mapuche—grows up in an urban landscape devoid of cultural and community connections and values. She feels lost, disconnected from her roots, and marginalized.

When her teacher at school requests the students to present a topic close to their hearts, Lucia is inspired to dig into her community's history and culture. She discovers that as a toddler her life was once rich with ancient rituals that connected her people to their land, to their ancestors, to the forests and the spirits. It was the good life known as "Buen Vivir".

Eager to relate more deeply with her people and their ancient knowledge, Lucia and her mother attend an assembly organized in their city where she learns about a global movement that puts "Buen Vivir" at the centre of the struggle for health for all.

About the Series Editors

Chiara Bodini, founding member of the Centre for International and Intercultural Health (CSI) of the University of Bologna, Italy; a long-standing activist of the People’s Health Movement and co-editor of Global Health Watch 6 and 7.

Ronald Labonté, Professor Emeritus and former Distinguished Research Chair in Globalization and Health Equity, School of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Ottawa, Canada; co-editor
Global Health Watch 6 and 7.

PHM Comics