Celebrating and Sustaining Indigenous Knowledges through Higher Education

2010 聯合國原住民族議題常設論壇舉辦的世界原住民族高等教育聯盟年會暨國際學術研討會（ the World Indigenous Network Higher Education Consortium， 以下簡稱 WINHEC）公開表示，因全球政府不斷拖延，未能及時改善多所限制的政策而使原住民族研究所以上高等教育入學及畢業比例偏低，這將是未來全球關注的重要議題。 本論文旨在討論 WINHEC 具開創性的學術發展過程及其原住民學術計畫研究團隊在此過程中發現的錯誤。這些計畫的部分概念於 2006 年一場聚集全球原住民代表的 WINHEC 會議中提出，當時會議主題為原住民族高等教育過去至今之問題。 WINHEC 目標為發展以認識論探討本土知識之研究獎學金，這也是全球前所未有的跨文化合作，尤其對澳洲而言更是如此。 2012 年是這個夢想的巔峰，並已發展相關計畫課程，期望使原住民族之本土知識及領袖文化之傳統得以納入高等教育範疇中。

In its intervention at the 10th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2010, the World Indigenous Network Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC) acknowledged that despite a history of protracted but limited attempts by Governments globally to address the low participation and graduation rates of Indigenous peoples from higher education at post graduate level, this continues to be an area of considerable concern. This paper speaks to the development of an innovative academic process that profiles the ground breaking work of WINHEC and a cohort of Indigenous academics in developing academic programs designed to address this systemic failure. The concept of these programs was endorsed in 2006 at a WINHEC conference where Indigenous representatives from across the world met to discuss in part, historical and contempory impediments to Indigenous success within higher education. The goal of WINHEC has been to develop a nested suite of inventive postgraduate awards founded within the scholarship of Indigenous Knowledge which encapsulates an epistemological approach. This has been a ground breaking process that has included collaborative and intellectual contributions of Indigenous academics from diverse cultural nations across the globe and, in particular, Australia. In 2012 the culmination of this dream and the suite of courses developed, honours and embrace the uniqueness of Indigenous Knowledge and the cultural integrity of Indigenous Leadership.