Dr. Sheila Gruner, Associate Professor of Community Economic and Social Development at Algoma University (AU) and Director of the Institute of Peoples, Territories, and Pedagogies for Peace (IPTP), recently returned from Colombia where she continues to move forward global collaborations in decolonizing education. In the context of the AU-IPTP-ONIC (National Indigenous Organization of Colombia) agreement, Dr. Gruner was invited to participate in community feedback sessions supporting the creation of the National Indigenous University of Colombia (UNIC), an initiative of the (ONIC) currently under review by the Colombian Ministry of Education.
A team of advisors from the ONIC is working closely with indigenous leaders, educators, and knowledge-holders to evaluate and provide input on the UNIC proposal. This collaborative, community-engaged process includes a series of feedback sessions held in indigenous territories across five macro-regions of Colombia. There are 115 Indigenous Nations in Colombia.
"The importance of Indigenous-led and Indigenous-defined education in advancing reconciliation cannot be overstated," shared Dr. Sheila Gruner. "The National Indigenous University of Colombia (UNIC) proposal is a powerful example of an educational process that engages community members, rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems and worldviews and has a similar cross-cultural emphasis, critical of Western and colonial approaches to research and university education. The proposal is facilitated nationally in Colombia by residential school Survivor and Coordinator of the ONIC Leadership School, Clemencia Herrera Nemerayema, who has visited Algoma and Shingwauk Kinoomage Gamik twice over the past few years within the context of collaborations through the Institute of Peoples, Territories and Pedagogies for Peace (IPTP)."
A second community feedback session recently took place in the Macro-North region, on Zenú territory (San Antonio de Palmito, Sucre, Indigenous resguardo). Indigenous leaders and educators representing more than eight nations gathered with the ONIC/UNIC team of experts to review and strengthen the proposal. These sessions ensure that Indigenous knowledge systems, priorities, and perspectives are embedded in the university's design.
This initiative marks an important step toward addressing historical exclusions in education, an ongoing collaboration, supported through the RCM initiative of the Faculty of Cross-Cultural Studies (FCCS), which directly supports AU's Strategic Directions and Special Mission, responding to the TRC calls to Action.
To view images from the visit, click here.
