**3. Education in the indigenous peoples living and resisting**

explicitly racial and cultural fields, featuring the geography of Master and Slave, as termed by Aristotle. Post-colonial society melts the visible and legal boundaries of oppression and slavery; however, the colonialist culture is deeply rooted in the deepest "being" of colonized men, i.e., the oppressor's shadow remains culturally and psychologically hosted within the

In his conclusive—and to some extent desperate—narrative, Fanon leaves some warning to those "wretched of the earth" who conquer their independence, advising them to stay clear from the mistake of "mimicking" Europe, implicitly emphasizing the vigor of the Eurocentric colonialism domain in the epistemological and cultural scope: "Mankind expects from us something betterthan this generally demeaning mockery"; and "if we hope to transform Africa into a new Europe,America into a new Europe, than we'd better entrust the Europeans with the fate of our country," as "they'll know better how to do it than the best amongst us" (p.275) [12]. Hence, for Fanon, the conquest of political independence, ousting colonizers from the territory, is just the first stage of the decolonization process and maybe this is the most visible phase of the "liberating war," since the enemy to be defeated is in plain sight beyond the trenches. The toughest and most complex challenge is to fight the shadow of the oppressor that is ingrained in the soul of the colonized population and in the minds of the "colonized intellectuals."

One of the most efficient imperative rationales of European modernity is achieved through colonialism in knowledge, "driven" by Eurocentrism. Eurocentrism is both a vision of the world and a new form of power; it is an epistemological knowledge matrix that justifies and validates this new world standard for the power of modernity/colonialism. Eurocentrism, states Anibal Quijano, is the perspective of knowledge whose systematic compilation began in Western Europe during the first half of the seventeenth century, though its origins date from earlier times. Its ideology was built together with the "specific bourgeoise secularization of European thinking, as well as the world's experience and needs of the capitalist, modern/

The philosophy of liberation proposed by Enrique Dussel is that one which stems from the ontological criticism to the normative moral of the prevailing social system, which also implies "unraveling" and decolonizing the Eurocentric epistemological knowledge geography, mostly the epistemological decolonization of human and social sciences. The "liberating" term evokes historical experiences and mythical reports referring to the liberating processes in oppressed people that deposed the domineering moral order and transcended their oppression and enslavement by means of a new and more equitable social order. In the past, there was the enslaving moral of ancient societies, the European feudal period servitude, the castes system in Eastern and Asiatic societies, and the modern and contemporary colonial order in America,

Africa, and Asia; in the present, there was the neoliberal-grounded capitalist moral.

The liberating philosophy, therefore, is a philosophy born in and developed from the life conditions of the oppressed/excluded ones, a "pedagogy of the oppressed" as meant by Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, and Paulo Freire, aspiring to justice, equity, and life quality. More than a Western-style philosophy, Dussel expresses some radical criticism to the positivistic and illuministic vision of history, as reported from the Eurocentric stance. It demystifies the key arguments of the West European history of philosophy, evidencing a philosophy of

colonial, Eurocentric power, established from America" [13].

oppressed ones, as Paulo Freire would put it.

102 New Pedagogical Challenges in the 21st Century - Contributions of Research in Education

What was the life style and, particularly, education in the major civilizations in *Abya Yala* like? What was education like for the people in the forests? The entire epistemological reality of the original people was "covered" by the West European epistemological modernity. Our first pedagogical mission is to dig and "uncover" this immense world that was buried. When Spanish conquerors invaded the *Anáhuac* territory (currently Mexico and Guatemala) in 1519, for instance, the Aztec civilization was organized into 38 provinces. On top of a complex urban structure that impacted the Spaniards' first impressions, there was a public education system and an erudite culture that valued the art of knowledge to be preserved and shared by means of books. The books, as Jacques Soustelle points out, "were regarded as very important by ancient Mexicans"; in the temples and more affluent homes, there were rich libraries, and the profession of painter-scribe (*tlacuiloani*) was particularly valued. Spaniards still had a chance to witness the existence of two public education systems: "the neighborhood schools, where male instructors taught boys and female instructors taught girls, to get them prepared for real life," and the monastery-school (*calmecac*), "where teaching was performed by priests" [15].

The Inca civilization, differently from the Aztec, did not need written language to develop its complex urban architecture or its knowledge in astronomy and mathematics; they developed a recording and accounting method using a technique involving knots on ropes. When Spaniards invaded the *Tawantinsuyu* territory, they not only destroyed the "admirable" city of Cusco, *Tumipampa, Cajamarca, Huánuco, Jauja, Huaytará*, and *Vilcashuaman*, but also destroyed and covered the information and knowledge artifacts from this complex cultural diversity of the Inca civilization. In the State territory, for instance, there were two educational modes, one institutional, and another informal, "natural education" [16].

The *Tawantinsuyu* empire developed between the 12th and 15th Centuries, gathering within its domain millennial traditions from other people. The Empire's social basis was strongly supported on an *Ayllu* network, a family and community organization created by kinship within a territory collectively shared by a number of families. At its climax, the Inca empire had its domains spanning from the present territory of Colombia to Argentina, covering about 1.5 million square miles, with an estimated population of 30 million inhabitants [17].

Education-wise, the Empire organized a system of educational agents in different tiers and roles, a system that privileged the male members and the higher classes, however including all communities that were part of the Empire. Teaching philosophy, practical moral, and literature were assigned to the *Amautas,* wise men who represented the higher knowledge of the Inca culture. Knowledge on poetry, nature, and good life was conveyed by the *Harávecs*, recognized for their knowledge and memorization skills. Priests also had their educational role, and one of the most acclaimed was Willac Umu, a specialist in teaching philosophy and religion. The *Kupucamáyoc* were specialists in the *Kipus* arts, the method used for recording and accounting with ropes, enabling knowledge in arithmetic, mathematics, and record-keeping in the Empire. The *Chasquis* were some kind of messengers of knowledge. Their role was in communication, transmitting information, usually performed by physically fit youngsters who had a good memory. Other educational agents, no less important than the previous ones, were the *Mitmacs*, some kind of cultural envoys intended to spread the Inca culture by replacing, in rebellious territories, those who opposed the sovereign's power, thereby performing this pacific occupation through the dissemination of the Empire's language and lifestyle in the occupied territories. The Inca government recruited *Mitmacs* from among the working population, selecting experts in varied occupations, such as shepherds, farmers, painters, masons, and goldsmiths [16].

sexually abused"; and these boarding schools were "correctional facilities where boys and girls were tortured with extreme fierceness." According to the civilizing process adopted by these two major modern North American states, Indians should be civilized and humanized, beginning with the younger children. Based on the mandatory education laws, state employees pulled boys and girls from their parents' arms, to send them to boarding schools, "where the goal was to suppress Indians, however without slaughtering them physically [19]."

Precursors of Decolonial Pedagogical Thinking in Latin America and *Abya Yala*

upheaval context, we see a scenario of interests and conflicts elicited by three major projects: the independence of Colombia, led by the colonized elites from Panama, in 1903, a situation that split the Kuna people territory and caused widespread discontent, since part of the Kuna families thereon would belong to Panama, and the other part to Colombia; the imperialistic US government project, which benefitted from the independence, and took over the construction of the Panama Channel (1904–1914); and the Kuna people autonomy project, which culminated in the 1925 revolution. Atencio López Martinez explains that, after independence, new issues came up for the Kuna people, among them the invasion and colonization policy by nonindigenous foreigners, fishing and hunting poachers, and explorers seeking minerals, coconuts, rubber, wood, and other natural resources. Martinez states that "Panama government took no action to placate those grievances, neither at that time, nor in the ensuing years, so the conflict in *Kuna Yala* escalated." Furthermore, the situation got worse after Law #59 was passed, in 1908. It determined the "civilization of the Indians," i.e., a legal instrument to use all "peaceful means" to acculturate into civilized life all "savage tribes" living in the territory of Panama. In order to render viable such "evangelizing" project, government sent missionaries and teachers as "civilizing agents," making available "abundant land plots for non-indigenous settlers" [20]. Faced with this invasion and colonization scenario, the leaders of the Kuna and other indigenous people assembled a general meeting on February 12, 1925, where they passed the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Tule. The key issues in that Declaration to be negotiated with the Panama government were the administrative and political independence of the Kuna people in its territory; land boundaries defined for the San Blas jurisdiction (Kuma Yala); jurisdiction of the plantations in Armila and Mandinga bay, as well as the exploit of iron and manganese; and also the implementation of educational institutions that

In Southern Colombia, other indigenous people also rebelled against the national State colonization and modernization project. This resistance can be found and understood from the path and work of Manuel Quintín Lame, a Colombian Indian from the landless Paeces people, who had to work in the farms of major landowners, like his father. He was born in 1883, in the Polindara reserve, currently located in the Totoró county, Cauca district, in Southern Colombia. According to his testimony, he dictated the book *Los pensamientos del indio que se educó dentro de las selvas colombianas (The Thoughts of the Indian Educated in the Colombian Forests)* to the Indian Florentino Moreno, who wrote very well and who finished it by December 1939. Nevertheless, its first edition only came out in 1971. A second edition was published in 1987,

people to rebel in 1925. In this

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In Panama, this enforced cultural disrespect caused the Kuna2

respected the Kuna people cultural traditions [20].

Different documents and works also use Cuna or Dule to refer to the Kuna people.

2

In the early seventeenth century, the Peruvian Indian Felipe de Guama Poma de Yala (1534–1615) wrote his *First New Chronicle and Good Government*, a 1200-page document, denouncing the social injustice of the Spanish colonial regime and asserting the peaceful coexistence of the two worlds. He also implicitly advocated for the return of an educational system focused on the *Tawantinsuyu* cultures. In his chronicle, Guama Poma states that the Inca people had nothing to learn from the European colonizers, since these had nothing good to teach to the conquered people other than the art of violence and prejudice. Guama Poma's claims were not awarded [18]. In both the Spanish and Portuguese colonial systems, there was an extended process of culture assimilation imposed by military, judicial, religious, and educational action. In colonial societies, educating the indigenous ethnic groups was paramount, and priests and missionaries were the ones who performed the most durable colonizing educational work, with the purpose of "civilizing" and "acculturating" Indians.

In the nineteenth century, the colonizing elites—who fought for independence and spread the patriotic discourse and the colors of the new national identities—viewed both Indians and negroes as an obstacle to the intended advancement of the Eurocentric modernization. In this (in)dependent modernization context, three policies were found, relative to the indigenous people: the extermination policy for those Indians who resisted invasion of their territory; the confinement policy in reserves and schools for the ethnic groups who preserved their indigenous identity, aiming at social control and progressive acculturation to the national State; and the school education for the rural population, in regional realities (mostly Andean and Central America), where the prevailingly indigenous and mixed population had been born and survived within the colonial society's borders. Within the national States, the education the new republican nations offered to the indigenous people, during the first 150 years after political independence, was focused on assimilation and acculturation. That school education was conceived and organized by the State and the Catholic Church.

The schooling offered—and in many cases imposed—by local governments was an extension to the colonization effort, intolerant to the lifestyle of indigenous cultures. In the United States and Canada, after having "conquered the West," many indigenous children were plucked from theirfamilies and sent to boarding schools. Yataco states that "in these schools, they were forbidden to speak their ancestors' languages, children were separated from their parents, their grandparents, and their cultures; they were psychologically, physically, and oftentimes sexually abused"; and these boarding schools were "correctional facilities where boys and girls were tortured with extreme fierceness." According to the civilizing process adopted by these two major modern North American states, Indians should be civilized and humanized, beginning with the younger children. Based on the mandatory education laws, state employees pulled boys and girls from their parents' arms, to send them to boarding schools, "where the goal was to suppress Indians, however without slaughtering them physically [19]."

of the most acclaimed was Willac Umu, a specialist in teaching philosophy and religion. The *Kupucamáyoc* were specialists in the *Kipus* arts, the method used for recording and accounting with ropes, enabling knowledge in arithmetic, mathematics, and record-keeping in the Empire. The *Chasquis* were some kind of messengers of knowledge. Their role was in communication, transmitting information, usually performed by physically fit youngsters who had a good memory. Other educational agents, no less important than the previous ones, were the *Mitmacs*, some kind of cultural envoys intended to spread the Inca culture by replacing, in rebellious territories, those who opposed the sovereign's power, thereby performing this pacific occupation through the dissemination of the Empire's language and lifestyle in the occupied territories. The Inca government recruited *Mitmacs* from among the working population, selecting experts in varied occupations, such as shepherds, farmers, painters, masons, and goldsmiths [16].

104 New Pedagogical Challenges in the 21st Century - Contributions of Research in Education

In the early seventeenth century, the Peruvian Indian Felipe de Guama Poma de Yala (1534–1615) wrote his *First New Chronicle and Good Government*, a 1200-page document, denouncing the social injustice of the Spanish colonial regime and asserting the peaceful coexistence of the two worlds. He also implicitly advocated for the return of an educational system focused on the *Tawantinsuyu* cultures. In his chronicle, Guama Poma states that the Inca people had nothing to learn from the European colonizers, since these had nothing good to teach to the conquered people other than the art of violence and prejudice. Guama Poma's claims were not awarded [18]. In both the Spanish and Portuguese colonial systems, there was an extended process of culture assimilation imposed by military, judicial, religious, and educational action. In colonial societies, educating the indigenous ethnic groups was paramount, and priests and missionaries were the ones who performed the most durable colonizing edu-

In the nineteenth century, the colonizing elites—who fought for independence and spread the patriotic discourse and the colors of the new national identities—viewed both Indians and negroes as an obstacle to the intended advancement of the Eurocentric modernization. In this (in)dependent modernization context, three policies were found, relative to the indigenous people: the extermination policy for those Indians who resisted invasion of their territory; the confinement policy in reserves and schools for the ethnic groups who preserved their indigenous identity, aiming at social control and progressive acculturation to the national State; and the school education for the rural population, in regional realities (mostly Andean and Central America), where the prevailingly indigenous and mixed population had been born and survived within the colonial society's borders. Within the national States, the education the new republican nations offered to the indigenous people, during the first 150 years after political independence, was focused on assimilation and acculturation. That school education

The schooling offered—and in many cases imposed—by local governments was an extension to the colonization effort, intolerant to the lifestyle of indigenous cultures. In the United States and Canada, after having "conquered the West," many indigenous children were plucked from theirfamilies and sent to boarding schools. Yataco states that "in these schools, they were forbidden to speak their ancestors' languages, children were separated from their parents, their grandparents, and their cultures; they were psychologically, physically, and oftentimes

cational work, with the purpose of "civilizing" and "acculturating" Indians.

was conceived and organized by the State and the Catholic Church.

In Panama, this enforced cultural disrespect caused the Kuna2 people to rebel in 1925. In this upheaval context, we see a scenario of interests and conflicts elicited by three major projects: the independence of Colombia, led by the colonized elites from Panama, in 1903, a situation that split the Kuna people territory and caused widespread discontent, since part of the Kuna families thereon would belong to Panama, and the other part to Colombia; the imperialistic US government project, which benefitted from the independence, and took over the construction of the Panama Channel (1904–1914); and the Kuna people autonomy project, which culminated in the 1925 revolution. Atencio López Martinez explains that, after independence, new issues came up for the Kuna people, among them the invasion and colonization policy by nonindigenous foreigners, fishing and hunting poachers, and explorers seeking minerals, coconuts, rubber, wood, and other natural resources. Martinez states that "Panama government took no action to placate those grievances, neither at that time, nor in the ensuing years, so the conflict in *Kuna Yala* escalated." Furthermore, the situation got worse after Law #59 was passed, in 1908. It determined the "civilization of the Indians," i.e., a legal instrument to use all "peaceful means" to acculturate into civilized life all "savage tribes" living in the territory of Panama. In order to render viable such "evangelizing" project, government sent missionaries and teachers as "civilizing agents," making available "abundant land plots for non-indigenous settlers" [20].

Faced with this invasion and colonization scenario, the leaders of the Kuna and other indigenous people assembled a general meeting on February 12, 1925, where they passed the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Tule. The key issues in that Declaration to be negotiated with the Panama government were the administrative and political independence of the Kuna people in its territory; land boundaries defined for the San Blas jurisdiction (Kuma Yala); jurisdiction of the plantations in Armila and Mandinga bay, as well as the exploit of iron and manganese; and also the implementation of educational institutions that respected the Kuna people cultural traditions [20].

In Southern Colombia, other indigenous people also rebelled against the national State colonization and modernization project. This resistance can be found and understood from the path and work of Manuel Quintín Lame, a Colombian Indian from the landless Paeces people, who had to work in the farms of major landowners, like his father. He was born in 1883, in the Polindara reserve, currently located in the Totoró county, Cauca district, in Southern Colombia. According to his testimony, he dictated the book *Los pensamientos del indio que se educó dentro de las selvas colombianas (The Thoughts of the Indian Educated in the Colombian Forests)* to the Indian Florentino Moreno, who wrote very well and who finished it by December 1939. Nevertheless, its first edition only came out in 1971. A second edition was published in 1987,

<sup>2</sup> Different documents and works also use Cuna or Dule to refer to the Kuna people.

by The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), and a third one in 2004, by the University of Cauca and the Faculty of Humanities of Universidad del Valle [21].

make their political choices for a world endowed with more fairness, solidarity, and welcom-

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In Bolivia, our chosen educator was Elizardo Pérez (1892–1980), one of the pioneers of liberating pedagogy, in our opinion. Pérez was born in Ayata, Muñecas province, La Paz district. He died at age 88 in Buenos Aires (Argentina). In 1931, he led a "cultural revolution" through one of the most unique pedagogical experiences in Latin America. Under authorization from Bailón Mercado, Minister of Education, and in partnership with the Aimara native Avelino Siñani (1881–1941), he founded the *Ayllu* school in Warizata, an indigenous school whose pedagogical project was inspired in the ancient legacy from the Inca civilization. Pérez conceived the school project convinced that indigenous education should take place in the community and cultural environment where people lived; that the school should become a preservation center for indigenous traditions, and at the same time, it should create solid

In his book *Warisata: The ayllu school* (1962), Elizardo Pérez refers to the book *Creation of the National Pedagogy* (1910), by Franz Tamayo (1879–1956), a Bolivian thinker who rebuked importing educational ideas and projects from Europe. Peréz believed that the spirit of the indigenous man had survived, and that the mission of the indigenous school was to bring it to life, "modernizing without giving away traditions, civilize without disrupting its ancient culture and institutions" [22]. His book is an invaluable historic document, as Elizardo Pérez describes one of the most liberating pedagogical experiences in Latin America. He conceived a pedagogical project aligned with the people in *Abya Yala*. His project became viable under the dialogical partnership with the Aimará indigenous master Avelino Siñani *who, with his own knowledge and understanding, and without any official backing, did a pioneer educational job with the children in that region*, as observed by Carlos Soria Galvarro (1981/2014). Elizardo Pérez, points out Soria Galvarro, *acknowledges Avelino Siñani as the true inspiration for Warisata, describing him* 

Warisata was not a casual choice for the *ayllu* school. Elizardo Pérez selected an indigenous territory, far away from both urban centers and the countryside areas where chiefdom by landowners prevailed. The school was collectively and cooperatively built by that very indigenous population, with supplemental resources from the State, Bolivian society friends' associations, Elizardo Pérez's own funds, and building materials donated by the governments of Peru, Venezuela, and Mexico. The architectural design of the *ayllu* school drew admiration and conservative fear, as it was an investment for the indigenous population. It was a two-story building, having an 8000 sq.ft. yard, surrounded by trees and a garden. The design also included a boarding school, with five dormitories hosting 150 beds. Inside, there were five classrooms, five other rooms for offices and storage, plus six workshops for practical classes and production in carpentry, textiles, tapestry, and blacksmithery, as well as canteen, kitchen, and bathroom [24].

The Bolivian indigenous people, like other countries having an expressive indigenous population, has had an endless struggling history. In 1780 there was the Tupac Amaru II rebellion (Tupac Katari), led by the native José Gabriel Condorcanqui against the Spanish colonial system, and in 2000 the Water War in Cochabamba, the first anti-neoliberal

ing, for a respectful intercultural and interethnical coexistence.

conditions for the socioeconomic development of the community.3

*as an apostle-like figure, an Andean "amauta"* [23].

3

revolution in the twenty-first Century.

What do we see in the "thoughts of the Indian educated in the Colombian forests"? Quintín Lame characterizes nature as a mother and master of divine origin; he explicits a conception of otherness, differences between Indians and white men. He learned the Spanish language as a strategy to accuse the oppression of his people. As Martha Elena Carvajal points out, *Quintín Lame, like the vast majority of American Indians, in tune with his legacy cosmic vision, feels, sees, and conceives nature, in itself and in the land, as his mother; and just like the actual Peace Indians, Nature is his "nasa kiwe," his motherland* [21]. It explicits a concept of "natural education," emphasizing the moral value of an educational philosophy ingrained in nature.

Quintín Lame says he did not receive the schooling intended for non-Indians; and he knew that this education represented prestige and access to the modern society knowledge. However, he observes that his "natural education" was and is at least as important as the formal education provided to non-Indians. Grounded on the indigenous people's tradition, Quintín Lame conceives nature as the great master of life. He says that *the little Indian hasn't seen or enjoyed these knowledge or educational principles*. However, he remarks that *Nature has educated me under its shadow, its warmth and its freeze; it has shown me idyllic poetry under those shadows; it has also shown me its three kingdoms—mineral, animal, vegetable; it has taught me to think; it showed me where my office was, in the desert loneliness had given me*. What is the cradle of knowledge, asks Quintín Lame? Nature. And what is nature? Nature, he says, *is the Book of God and the Science of God is infinite, while the Science of men is limited* [21].

Hence either North or South of the Americas, the indigenous people resist as much as they can to the modernity expansionistic project; and modernity/colonialism always comes from either the right or the left. In the scope of—private or public—schooling, school has been a national and global instrument for "shaping" modern subjects, implementing curricular disciplining practices that suppress the historical and cultural diversity of the people in *Abya Yala*.
