Indigenous academics form valuable partnership

The president of the University of Lethbridge believes several universities in Canada and Mexico will have considerably increased relationships thanks to an Aboriginal partnership they have.

Dr. Mike Mahon, the president of the Lethbridge university, is confident numerous initiatives will result from a meeting held at his school in late June.

The meeting, which included officials from nine Canadian universities and eight Indigenous universities in Mexico, was staged to help improve Aboriginal educational experiences and research collaborations.

A similar inaugural meeting had been held in Mexico City in March of 2012.

“I see it being valuable on multiple levels,” Mahon said of the Canada-Mexico partnership. “It’s creating opportunities for our First Nation students to learn from and gain experience from another country. And I see a lot of opportunities for our faculties to learn from Indigenous universities in Mexico.”

Joining representatives from the University of Lethbridge at the June meeting were 15 Canadian schools that are part of the consortium, including the University of Regina, University of Manitoba, Nipissing University, University of the Fraser Valley, Lakehead University, Vancouver Island University and Nicola Valley Institute of Technology. The University of Alberta also had a representative in attendance although the U of A is not a member of the consortium.

Mexico officially has 12 schools that are part of the joint program. Officials from eight of these schools travelled to Lethbridge.
Mahon said dialogue between officials from the two countries allows for the sharing of knowledge. The partnership also leads to student and faculty exchanges, joint research activities and even collaborative academic programming.

As a result of this partnership, a Blackfoot family will welcome a Mayan student who will study at the University of Lethbridge during the 2013-14 school year.

Also, Lethbridge is sending one of its students to the Mayan Intercultural University of Quintana Roo to teach English language classes this coming school year.

Mahon believes numerous other ventures will result from the meeting.

“Over-all we are hoping this will spark more one-on-one activities, but also consortium-based activities as well,” he said.
Mexico has “enthusiastically agreed” to hold a similar meeting in 2014, said Mahon. “Going forward the goal is to have the presidents involved. That way it will keep this as a priority.”

Besides the Mayan Intercultural University of Quintana Roo, other Mexican schools that had representatives at the Lethbridge meeting were from the State of Mexico’s Intercultural University, Indigenous Intercultural University of Michoacan, Intercultural University of the State of Puebla, Intercultural University of Chiapas, the Indigenous Autonomous University of Mexico and the Institute of Indigenous Languages.