Indigenous People in Latin America: Movements and Universities. Achievements, Challenges, and Intercultural Conflicts

ABSTRACT

The idea of social movements tends to be associated, in a reductionist manner, with protests in public spaces and negotiations in institutional spaces. Nevertheless, social movements are agents of change across a wide variety of social spaces. One of the most notable ones is that of education. While the most visible initiatives tend to be short-term courses, some sectors of several social movements have also promoted higher education programmes through alliances with conventional Higher Education institutions, or have created their own institutions. Indigenous peoples around the world have long fought for their educational rights. Some have struggled for access to higher education institutions, for suitable reforms to existing institutions, and for the right to establish their own institutions. Their interest in advancing higher education initiatives is directly related to a need to train individuals in political, professional and technical resource areas in order to successfully advance projects of social, economic, political, institutional, and/or legal reforms. Based on participatory field and documentary research, this article discusses some salient aspects of the experiences of higher education institutions that sectors of indigenous people movements in Latin America have established, highlighting their main achievements and challenges, as well as the intercultural conflicts they confront.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous Universities
• Intercultural Universities
• indigenous movements
• Latin America
• critical higher education
• indigenous education
• intercultural education
• intercultural citizenship
• buen vivir

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Corrigendum

Acknowledgements

This article is based on research done by the Project on Cultural Diversity, Interculturality and Higher Education of the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO-IESALC), which I have directed since 2007.⁷ With the collaboration of almost 70 colleagues from 11 Latin American countries, the Project has at present published four books containing 40 studies about particular experiences in this field, and 10 studies on national contexts, which also present basic data about 60 additional experiences (Mato 2008a, 2009a, 2009b, 2012). About half of the colleagues involved in the Project are indigenous or Afro-descendant professionals, while others are professionals who do not identify as such but who have been working for many years in this field collaborating with communities and/or organisations of indigenous or Afro-descendant peoples. Most of them, along with other special guests, have participated in two international meetings that issued recommendations now partially adopted in official declarations of the Culture and Education Commission of the Latin American Parliament (Panama City, 2012), and the Regional Conference on Higher Education (Conferencia Regional de Educación Superior, Cartagena de Indias, 2008). The recommendations were also presented at the World Conference on Higher Education (Paris, 2009). Indigenous organisations increasingly reference these declarations as formal support of their demands and proposals in the field of education. Following up this UNESCO-IESALC project experience, in 2011 the Third of February National University (Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero) established the Program on Higher Education and Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples in Latin America,⁸ and more recently promoted the creation of the Inter-University Network on Higher Education and Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples in Latin America,⁹ that currently counts on the institutional participation of around 40 universities. These two large projects have provided me many opportunities for onsite observations and exchanges with key individuals and organisations from various sides of this field throughout Latin America. Insights from these projects have greatly contributed to the preparation of this article. It would not be possible to mention the names of all the people who over these years have enhanced my understanding of this subject matter. I must mention, however, that this article in particular has benefitted from the generous feedback of the anonymous reviewers and editorial team of the Journal of Intercultural Studies. I am also thankful to Emeshe Juhász-Mininberg for feedback and editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Daniel Mato, Doctor in Social Sciences. Since 2010 he has been Principal Researcher at the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council, and the Associate Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Advanced Research at Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero. Since 2007 he has been the Chair of the Programme on Cultural Diversity and Interculturality in Higher Education at UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Between 1978 and 2010 he was a Professor at Universidad Central de Venezuela. He has been a Visiting Professor at several universities in various Latin American countries, as well as in Spain and in the United States. He has worked closely with intellectuals and organisations of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples since 1986.

Notes

1 In this article the term ‘conventional’ higher education institution (HEI) is used to name those institutions that have not been expressly designed and developed to respond to the demands and proposals of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples.

2 A book produced by the UNESCO-IESALC project specifically focuses on the analysis of the gaps between sanctioned norms and public policies, associated budgets, and State practices in the field of Higher Education in Latin America (see, Mato 2012, 2015). Several studies further discuss these gaps for specific country cases (e.g. Cunningham-Kain 2003, Pancho, 2004, Chirinos Rivera and Zegarra Leyva 2005, Mato 2008a, 2008b).

3 ‘Amawtay Wasi’ is an expression in kichwa/quechua language that can be translated into English as ‘House of Knowledge’.

4 The Kichwa expression Sumak Kawsay, and its Aymara language equivalent Suma Qamaña, are ethical principles that comprise the world visions of these two indigenous communities. They are usually translated into Spanish as Buen Vivir, which we may translate into English as ‘Living Well’ or ‘Living Harmoniously’. These peoples and other indigenous intellectuals and organisations of the Americas prefer these terms to the Western concepts of ‘development’ and ‘progress', emphasizing that they are not related to access to material goods and/or individual ‘quality of life’, since both of them, as well as their equivalents in some other indigenous peoples' languages, imply living harmoniously both in community and with Mother Earth (Yampara 2004, Choque-Quispe 2006).

5 Some of the publications in English mentioned in the CEAACES document, and which have already been published in Spanish translation, are James Gleick's book published in Spanish as Caos: la creación de una ciencia (Seix Barral 1988), or Bart Kosko's book published in Spanish as Pensamiento borroso: la nueva ciencia de la lógica borrosa (Editorial Crítica 1995), as well as Michael Gibbons'La nueva producción del conocimiento (Pomares-Corredor 1997), which is even available Open Access online: http://www.ses.unam.mx/docencia/2007II/Lecturas/Mod1_Gibbons.pdf (Accessed 21 December 2013).

6 These informants have granted their formal approval to be identified in print alongside their testimonies.

7 For more information refer to the Project's website: http://www.iesalc.unesco.org.ve/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=405&lang=es.

8 For more on this project see, http://untref.edu.ar/sitios/ciea/programa-y-proyecto/programa-educacion-superior-y-pueblos-indigenas-y-afrodescendientes-en-america-latina-esial/.

9 For more information on this Network, see Red Esial: http://untref.edu.ar/sitios/ciea/red-esial/.