Mapuche say no to Microsoft Mapuzugun

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 24 Nov 2006 at 07:56

Mapuche Indians have accused Microsoft of violating their cultural heritage by translating Windows into their language, Mapuzugun, without permission.

The language is spoken by some 400,000 indigenous Chileans, some of whom have taken the software company to court for 'intellectual piracy'. A judge in Santiago will decide in two weeks whether the Mapuche have a case.

'We feel like Microsoft and the Chilean Education Ministry have overlooked us by deciding to set up a committee without our consent, our participation and without the slightest consultation,' said Aucan Huilcaman, one of the Mapuche leaders.

Huilcaman said that rather than supporting Microsoft, the government should be working to make Mapuzugun an official language of the country.

Microsoft declined to comment until the legal dispute is resolved. At the launch of the Mapuzugun Windows in Los Sauces in southern Chile, the company said that it wanted to 'open a window so that the rest of the world can access the cultural riches of this indigenous people'.

Windows has previously been translated into several native American languages without opposition.