RESTAURATEUR Dr Peter Hodges, of Tea Gardens’ Tillerman’s Restaurant, has been named as the Australian Consul for the Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia.
In August 2025, Peter was awarded the Médaille de la Légion de la Constellation du Sud (Medal of the Legion of the Southern Constellation) by Prince Phillipe III.
This honour comes from La Société royale de la constellation du Sud (the Royal Society of the Southern Constellation), which was founded in 1875 by King Orélie-Antoine I, and was bestowed last year to recognise Peter’s steadfast dedication and advocacy of the Kingdom.
Admission to the order is based on services to the fields of administration, arts, science, letters and industry without religious nor political considerations, and has, over the last 200 years, been awarded to international dignitaries including the Shah of Persia, Presidents and Consuls of Venezuela, Paraguay, France and Greece, and many other diplomats stationed in or near Europe.
With strong connections to the town of Périgueux in France, Tillerman’s is well-known locally and further afield as a purveyor of delectable French and French-inspired cuisine, and recently held its 28th Bastille Day celebration upon the Tea Gardens riverfront.
“Prior to the COVID pandemic, I witnessed a friend receive his own knighthood in France several years ago, and met lots of people associated with the modern incarnation of the Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia, including the Dean of the local Fine Arts Academy,” Peter told NOTA.
“I showed an interest, and became better acquainted with the Auspice Stella organisation, asking them if I could help to spread awareness of the situation of indigenous South Americans.”
Auspice Stella is a French-based non-profit organisation that seeks to protect the rights of the Mapuche people of the Araucania and Patagonia regions in southern South America, and even holds special consultative status in the United Nations Economic and Social Council as of 2013.
Post-COVID, Peter revitalised communications with Auspice Stella at a mass held in France in honour of St Rose de Lima, the patron saint of Peru and all indigenous peoples of South America.
His existing, extensive academic background studying the realities of colonialism served to reinforce efforts to raise awareness of the Mapuche people, and in 2024, Dr Hodges spoke to a local audience in Tea Gardens about the Mapuche situation.
“A recording of my message made its way to Prince Phillippe III, the current declared head of the Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia, and Auspice Stella asked me to join in order to strengthen the cause of the Mapuche people,” Peter explained.
Peter was asked to be a Consul for the Kingdom as a result of his strong interest in indigenous affairs around the world.
Though the Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia, which encompasses a swathe of both southern Chile and Argentina, is not a formally recognised state, its amazing historical backstory has retained a life of its own to the present.
“In the 1860s, Antoine de Tounens, a French lawyer and civil servant sought adventure abroad, and landed on the coast of southern Chile, near Tierra del Fuego,” Peter explained.
“He met the Mapuche (“ma-push”) indigenous people of the region, and recognised their suppression at the hands of the contemporary Chilean government, exploiting land rights and resources, ignoring their culture.”
“Tounens met the Mapuche chieftains and offered (without any authorisation to do so) the help of the French government to end their oppression, and even set up a ‘New France’ state, later called ‘Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia’ after the two geographical regions.”
“Tounens observed both regions as living without dependence upon either Chile or Argentina, wrote a national constitution for it, based on France’s at the time, and even designed a tricolour flag of blue, white and green.”
“The Mapuches made him ‘King’ via a culturally acceptable vote, which was ridiculed back in France, but the contemporary government of Chile, in particular, was not amused, so they arrested him, imprisoned him in Santiago, and only let him return to France after he submitted to being declared ‘insane’.”
Tounens spent the rest of his life trying to return to South America, and despite dying in poverty, the town where he once lived and worked, Tourtoirac in Dordogne, France, now hosts his gravesite and bust, and is one of the many sites visited on Tillermans’ many annual ‘French Connection’ tours to nearby Périgueux, and celebrates St Rose de Lima as often as possible, with the next planned for late August 2026.
By Thomas O’KEEFE
You can help your local paper.
Make a small once-off, or (if you can) a regular donation.
We are an independent family owned business and our newspapers are free to collect and our news stories are free online.
Help support us into the future.
