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Adelaide To Host The World’s Largest & Most Diverse Indigenous Peoples’ Conference

Thousands of people from across the globe are expected to meet in South Australia for the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education 2020, which is now accepting workshop proposals.

Author: Jessica Bassano

The World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education (WIPCE) 2020 will bring Indigenous representatives from across the globe to the Adelaide Convention Centrefrom 2-6 November next year.

The event, which runs roughly every three years, has been held in countries across the world, including Canada, Hawaii and Peru.

WIPCE 2020 academic program committee assistant Mark Tranthim-Fryer said previous events had attracted between 2000 and 4000 delegates.

Tranthim-Fryer said he expected a similar number to convene in Adelaide.

Focused on the theme of “Sovereignty: Our Voices, Our Futures”, WIPCE 2020 will feature a program of keynote presentations, networking opportunities, interactive workshops and discussion forums.

The event is being hosted by the South Australian Aboriginal Education and Training Consultative Council, which is the peak body for engaging with Aboriginal people and community on education matters in South Australia, in collaboration with independent educational institution Tauondi Aboriginal College.

Expressions of interest are open for event delegates and sponsors – and workshop proposals are being accepted.

Proposals must address the conference theme and be led by an indigenous person.

“If we’re talking about sovereignty, then the primary principal is on the premise of indigenous people to be responsible for their own community development,” Tranthim-Fryer said.

“They should be listened to first and foremost. Certainly, there’s other support around and agencies and so on, but for an event like this it’s really important it’s indigenous led.”

Proposal submissions close on November 1, 2019.

Tranthim-Fryer said they had already received interest from a broad range of communities to attend next year’s event.

“There has been a lot of interest from Australia and New Zealand, North America, Canada, the USA and increasingly from South America, Asia, the Arctic Circle and Africa,” Tranthim-Fryer said.

“We’re trying to translate things into Spanish and Cantonese for the North American and Asian indigenous people.”

There are about 370 million indigenous people living in 90 countries around the globe, according to United Nations statistics.

Tranthim-Fryer said the WIPCE 2020 is a chance for indigenous people from all communities to share their education ideas and strategies.

He said while the event was still in its early days, he expected the program to be available towards the end of this year.

“We’re still more than 400 days out but we expect there could be somewhere between 200 and 300 workshops,” Tranthim-Fryer said.

“There’ll be an opening and closing ceremony, which is often quite impressive and a parade of nations from across the world.”

The WIPCE 2020 will also include cultural performances, experiences and forums throughout the week.

This article was originally published on The Lead.

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