Community-Based Leadership
The pandemic in 2020 made us all reconsider our lifepaths, and in my case, it made me think about what was missing in my work as an advocate for Indigenous Peoples’ rights. I went to Law School to fight for justice, and after finishing my undergraduate studies, I had the privilege to start working with Indigenous communities, supporting them in their struggles to protect their territories from extractive industries. When I realised law was not the problem but its lack of enforcement, I decided to immerse myself in politics, hoping to address that problem. I then realised that while politics is (big) part of the problem, there was one that I found more deeply rooted: (racist) education.
It was during that period of reflection that I was selected by the Talloires Network to participate in the Next Generation Leaders (NDL) conference in 2021 to work in the group of Civic Engagement Futures. I had the honour to work for several months with amazing and lovely partners, critically analysing the universities’ role in civic engagement and the education itself that they were providing in a world where racism, structural inequalities and genocides are still occurring and where the climate crisis is not being taken seriously by society in general.
It was during this process of research for the NGL conference that I could see clearly how Westernized universities were a big problem for Indigenous Peoples’ resistance due to the Eurocentric epistemologies that are taught. They only perpetuate the false and outrageous idea that the colonisers’ race, their knowledge and way of living are superior to the colonised’ race. Indigenous peoples’ spirituality, cosmovision, science and knowledge are not only excluded in higher education but treated as inferior, uncivilised and backward. What surprised me at that time was the fact that it was so obvious, but still, not many people were addressing it as a problem in our universities.
So, in my case, the preparation for the NGL conference was that push we all need when thinking about important changes in our careers because it is scary to leave our comfort zone to the unknown. Then, the consolidation of the FYBY movement was key in my decision to now focus my work on higher education. I honestly do not know which came first, NGL and FYBY, or my willingness to work on education, or both at the same time. It is like I dared to dream for a change, and the universe gave me this community as a gift, as a sign to keep dreaming further!
The NGL programme and the For Youth by Youth movement have allowed me to reassure the idea that we deserve another type of education and we deserve another world. More importantly, they gave me a community, so I know that I am not alone in this journey. Whenever I feel overwhelmed or frustrated because I feel the battle against the system is too much, I can remember that dreaming for a decolonial education is a collective dream that is already being accomplished, in diversity, with love and compassion among each other.
The material impact in my life has been my LLM in International Human Rights Law and Public Policy dissertation, about the right to an intercultural higher education as a human right, which would not have been possible without this programme. Now, I have the certainty that it is our right, and we should demand for it to be respected. The spiritual impact is that it allowed me to dream big again, embrace the change and dare to believe in the collective.
So, friends, let’s not be afraid of change, as long as our constant is love, we will get there. Now, it is our turn to tell the younger ones that it is safe to dream big and start taking action!