Six Mapuche women are resisting fracking operations in the Argentine Patagonia by chaining themselves to drilling rigs.

Indigenous women in the Campo Maripe community in the Argentine Patagonia are actively participating in the resistance to “extractivism” by using their bodies to protest fracking.

These women have put their bodies on the line, chained themselves to rigs and barricades, in order to protect their land.
These six Mapuche women have taken the risk of putting their bodies on the line to stop the drilling rigs from further endangering their community. Aboriginal women are central to the continent-wide resistance against extractivism, and the story of these women from the Campo Maripe community in the Argentine Patagonia is a solid example of their ongoing contribution, and the importance of indigenous resistance for social movements worldwide.

“We women are nowadays more vulnerable to pollution-related diseases —at Lof Maripe, for example, 90 percent of women are sick, Maria told Nancy Moreno. “Most of them have cancer. There are bone problems, different problems, and the ones that are sickest are women.”