Towards situated practices for disaster risk reduction (DRR): Indigenous counter-mapping in Saavedra, Chile

The tsunami of 1960 (after the magnitude 9.5° earthquake in Valdivia) is considered one of the most powerful disasters ever recorded, and the implications of this event have been comprehensively studied in terms of fatalities, monetary costs, and infrastructure damage, among others. This article reflects on the tsunami not as a single event, but as the beginning of a chronic disaster that has been occurring over years and decades in rural Saavedra, due to the loss of the best land for both livestock and arable farming since that event. Through a counter mapping approach, this article analyzes how local knowledge has been key to overcoming this disaster, despite intracommunity differences due to intergenerational dynamics. In short, it reveals that this knowledge has not only been useful in enabling Lafkenche communities to be more prepared, but has strengthened situated practices for disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Chile.