Indigenous knowledge, skills and action:Indigenous women’s learning in the Peruvian Amazon

Drawing on long term ethnographic research in the SE Peruvian Amazon this article asks what kinds and forms of learning do indigenous women value, how are the knowledge and skills they value changing over time and what is the nature of their agency in the face of the discrimination and prejudice that permeate their lives. Harakmbut women’s lives have been transformed over the past 40 years in the wake of neoliberal globalisation, rapacious exploitative economic practices and unregulated illegal gold mining. Within this context, three types of learning emerge as important: learning about indigenous cosmology and way of life; experiential learning through engagement with an expanding capitalist society; and learning through training and capacity building for participation, voice and rights-based advocacy. The article argues that all three types of learning give meaning to Harakmbut women’s lives, their relationship to their history and their views of the world

Multiculturalism and multicultural education approaches to Indigenous people’s education in Taiwan

Taiwan has cast multicultural policies as a remedy for inequalities and injustices its 16 Indigenous groups face. Such policies aim to revive Indigenous languages and cultures and create a more welcoming and inclusive environment in schools. Despite the fact that Indigenous people are expected to be primary beneficiaries of these policies, not much is known about how they have affected Indigenous students and communities, if at all. Relying on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 16 Indigenous participants, this paper explores whether the policies have accomplished or are on the way to accomplishing the goals set, as seen by Indigenous people. The findings show that the multicultural approach to education is still informed by assimilationist logic that expects Indigenous people to adjust to the culture and orientations of the dominant group, and as such, does not redress the existing injustices and inequalities

Peru: Deforestation in Times of Climate Change

This book comprises a total of 14 articles addressing the issue of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon and its impacts, not only on the Amazonian environment and wildlife but particularly on the communities inhabiting the area. These impacts are being facilitated by informal dynamics for which the state is largely responsible and has failed to act promptly enough to put a stop to these dynamics and redirect their drivers towards a sustainable use of the environment and its resources. The most harmful of these dynamics is the expansion of illegal coca growing and alluvial mining. The environmental impacts are, nonetheless, also the result of official policies aimed solely at promoting economic growth that benefits the investment companies to the detriment of the population and the environment. The state has promoted such policies through a strategy of tax reduction (meaning less public investment in social services such as education and health) and a lowering of environmental standards and social rights, such as job security. Their policies have also included the construction of roads that enable companies and extractors alike to gain easy access to new areas rich in natural resources, which are then rapidly plundered. As recent judicial inquiries have shown, these infrastructure projects are based on a logic of corruption rather than national interest. As for the indigenous peoples, they are suffering serious aggression aimed above all at minimizing, or even trying to abolish, the rights protecting them, such as the guarantee of free, prior and informed consultation as provided by ILO C169, the aim of which is to reach an agreement on initiatives affecting them