Cultural and ethnic diversity goes beyond just thinking about indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples.
Cultural and ethnic diversity has to do with the multiplicity of coexisting cultures, languages, customs and in general with the cultural richness of the peoples that should unite us and not separate us.
For example, in our country, there are differences between paisas, costeños, chocoanos, valunos, raizales of San Andrés and in general the different regions of the country. That is cultural diversity.
In Colombia, the day of cultural diversity is known as the day of the race and is celebrated every October 12 and not only in Colombia but throughout Latin America, proclaiming that “All human beings are equal and no race is superior to another : they’re just different.”
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Qué es educación intercultural?
The term intercultural education means inclusion, respectful coexistence, accepting the differences between people and communities, respecting the cultural identity of each population group.
The entire population should know and have this type of education for the construction of a fair, equitable and multicultural society.
For this, UNESCO determined three fundamental principles of Intercultural Education, which should be incorporated into the educational and pedagogical environment. Intercultural education:
- Respects the cultural identity of the learner by providing quality education that is appropriate and adapted to their culture.
- It teaches each learner the necessary cultural knowledge, attitudes and skills so that she can fully and actively participate in society.
- It teaches all learners the cultural knowledge, attitudes, and skills that enable them to contribute to respect, understanding, and solidarity among individuals, among ethnic, social, cultural, and religious groups, and among nations.
The great task of the countries is to put these principles into practice with strategies that really help to achieve the proposed challenges, through changes in the curricula, teacher training, access to education with equity and without discrimination, and much more.
Brief history of the Plurinational Meeting a benchmark of cultural and ethnic diversity
The Plurinational meeting of nations, peoples and indigenous identities, Afro-descendants, migrants and diversities was born in Argentina in 2019.
The objective of the debates and talks at the meeting has focused on how to think collectively, leaving behind colonial, patriarchal and monocultural norms and hierarchies, which were imposed and legitimized through the construction of the historical narrative, the educational system, the language and the reproduction of stereotypes.
In this link you can find all the information in videos of the talks of the two meetings in case you want to know more details of the important topics discussed.
First Plurinational Meeting of Nations, Peoples and Indigenous, Afro-descendant, Migrant and Diversity Identities
The first meeting was held between October 5 and 6, 2019 with more than 36 nations, indigenous, Afro-descendant and migrant peoples and identities that inhabit that country and inviting social, academic, worker, peasant and professional groups to exchange knowledge, knowledge , to rethink, decolonize and make proposals with the aim of achieving the formation of a Plurinational State.
In its first version, workshops were held to deal with topics such as:
- Indigenous worldview and philosophy
- People of African descent, activism and black consciousness
- Right to habitat and Territory
- Claims of the organization and the Migrant struggle
- Indigenous, social, solidarity and popular economy
- Ancestral Medicine and Health
- Spirituality
- Communication with Identity and Media
- Feeding
- multicultural education
- Politics
- Migrant population, being migrants today
- migration law
- Historical Argentine Afro-descendants
- gender identity and dissidence; among other topics.
There was also a fair of regional and artisanal products and a cultural artistic march and Festival.
Finally, the document was read with all the proposals that the nations, peoples and indigenous, Afro-descendant and migrant identities generated in the meeting in favor of a new Citizen and Plurinational Social Contract, towards a Social Agreement for Good Living.
Second Plurinational Meeting of Nations, Peoples and Indigenous, Afro-descendant, Migrant and Diversity Identities
On November 21, 22 and 23, 2020, the second Plurinational meeting was held virtually, where 12 workshops were held with experts and invited speakers from countries such as Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay to strengthen the joint work networks of struggles, organization and resistance.
Here you can download the document with the declaration of the meeting.
The workshops carried out were the following:
- Plurinational Political Participation. State public policies. Challenges of representative democracy for Indigenous Peoples.
- Experiences of Constitution and Plurinational States in Latin America
- decolonization of gender. Dissidence, struggles and resistance.
- Intercultural health, ancestral medicine. Part respected.
- Land, habitat, territory and prior consultation
- Pluricultural Education: achievements and tensions
- ECONOMY OF GOOD LIVING: alternative economies, care and decolonization. Food sovereignty.
- indigenous genocide. Construction of the Nation State and national identity.
- Census 2021 Argentina. Own information systems for Good Living.
- languages. Linguistic revitalization processes: Qom, Mapuzungun, Quechua, Wichi, Guaraní, Kunza and Gunu to Kuna
- Claims of the Organization and the Migrant Struggle
- South Africanism: Coloniality and Racism
Conclusions of the Plurinational meetings
In the two meetings, a debate was held around the territorial, political and cultural demands of the original peoples of Argentina with the support of sister countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay and Ecuador.
There has also been a debate around the main claims that are part of the agenda of struggle of nations, peoples and indigenous, Afro-descendant, migrant and diversity identities.