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VIII ASAEC international congress 2011
Indigenous peoples, conflicts and power in education and culture

November 9 to 11, 2011
in the "Universidad Nacional de Córdoba". Córdoba, Argentina

The Argentine Association for Canadian Studies (ASAEC), in the context of the Bicentennial of the American people, is proposing to create a space for the recuperation and exchange of experiences and reflections with and among the indigenous people from all over the continent.

There are similarities and divergences, differences that potentiate and complement, differences that are marked by conflict, based on a fruitful dialogue, which enable the opening of a forum of reflections and actions South-North-South which sum and articulate with processes and productions in all America on realities, disagreements, constructions and resistances of the Native people of America.

This encounter will be based on education and culture as focal points which will allow us to specify conflicts and transformation alternatives within the framework of the construction of power. Talking about education and culture means dealing with the problems of access to the land, water, natural resources, development and identity. It also means highlighting conflict and inequality. Finally, it means thinking in the possibility to create new and distinct social territories, taking into account their complexity and from an epistemology of the differences and multidimensionality.

Our intention is to create mechanisms that can help democratize a still fragile democracy –which is in permanent evolution and suffers great contradictions-. We believe in the importance of building governance and promoting the respectful participation of the different perspectives on this issue. This will allow us to create new fields of reflections and to generate creative practices that foster initiatives and movements in our territories. We think that the experience of the Canadian society to that effect is very rich and deserves to be included in our dialogue.

The Congress will take place at the National Library of the city of Buenos Aires from November 9th to 11th, 2011. However, this event will also be the materialization of an encounter- a space for sharing advances, problems, agreements and disagreements that emerge in the forums, workshops and seminars realized in the course of the year 2011 and during the II International Forum on Knowledge, Wisdom and Imaginaries developed in 2010.

Audience – Guests

In order to activate an academic and community-wide movement of ideas on interculturalism, we will convene members of communities and social organizations of indigenous peoples and other groups, as well as academicians, professors, students, researchers, thinkers, knowledge managers, leaders, elderly people, field workers and members of the State at the three levels of government -national, provincial and local- of various countries throughout America.

Objetives

To generate a space of reflection and cross-cultural –and international- exchange of ideas and experiences which will allow us to create a new accompaniment field for Indigenous Peoples in order to restore their capacity to manage their heritage.

To foster Indigenous Peoples’ empowerment in order to assure the effective exercise of the rights recognized to them at the national and international level.
To ponder upon what terms their rights are to be acknowledged and ensured.

To ponder upon the States’ obligations, responsibilities and guarrantees related to individual and collective rights of Indigenous People in order to reduce the implementation breach between law -in particular the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples Rights in 2007- and effective reality.

To analyze legal questions which arise within the application of State Law with respect to the recognition of the customary rights and traditions of the Indigenous People.

To acknowledge the legitimacy of their struggle for the land, of their defense of natural resources and of their right to maintain their identity.

To acknowledge cultural diversities of each indigenous community, while retrieving common issues and analyzing different answers attempted on:

The use and rights over their lands and resources, their dignity as a collectivity,
The State’s acknowlegment of their rights and specifity,

An all-inclusive and respecful approach from non formal and formal education addressing related issues,

The access to primary health care, etc.
In short, we wish to put emphasis on sharing knowledge and wisdom, on sharing the social and political construction of the territories, on creating adequate conditions for the recognition and exercise of indigenous rights so that all the actors involved can have a transparent and responsible handling of the issue.

To analyze the conditions which enable:
The acknowledgement of the specific realities of indigenous women, inquiring into and sharing good management practices,
The promotion of youth participation in projects that give appropriate answers to their necessities, interests and expectations,
The recuperation of ecological experiences and practices that favor civic education and opinions on the issue,
The highlighting of the knowledge and wisdom of the elderly people, fostering spaces of inter-generational dialogue
The creation of times and spaces to recuperate and recognize stories that contribute to create possible and desirable futures.

The contribution to a repertory of good practices and strategies consistent with the state of advancement and the global (international instruments) and local level.
The deepening of the question of self-government as an inherent right of the indigenous people

 

 

Expected Results

A publication in book format which will gather all the papers and the conclusions of the Forum “Pueblos Originarios, conflictos y poder en la educación y la cultura”. This will be the 2nd volume of ASAEC’s North-South Publication Initiative for the America
The creation of a North-South network which will link Indigenous People (from North and Latin America and Canada) and specialists on this topic in order to establish a permanent exchange of experiences; to strengthen and gain ground on related issues
The diffusion of the event’s conclusions through the media (internet, newspapers, radio)
The issuance and diffusion of a recommendation to governments, agencies and organizations from the intervening countries
The incorporation or creation of an Observatory network to favor update, supervision, counselling and the generation of initiatives with regards to Indigenous Peoples.

 

Background

 


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