Almost two months after being declared intercultural, the National University of Comahue today began the first diploma in Medicine that interweaves traditional knowledge with that of the mapuche community. With a full quota, this new proposal was processed through the University Extension secretariat together with the Faculty of Medical Sciences. The event took place at the Lof Puel Pvjv, with the participation of the rector of UNCo, Beatriz Gentile, university authorities, Governor Rolando Figueroa, the Minister of Health, Martín Regueiro and members of the indigenous people.
“Despite everything that is happening today with universities, we continue working on alternative thinking. Both this training proposal and the declaration of UNCo as the first intercultural university approved by the University Assembly last March tell us that we are on the right side of life and make us proud as a university,” said the rector and doctor in History.
The diploma will be taught in 9 modules of 16 hours each, divided into 10 hours of theoretical classes and 6 of activities in the form of workshops. In some modules, participants will go to the territory to learn about the Mapuche medicine health center of Neuquén, the intercultural center of Ruca Choroy and the biomedicine centers in the radius of their residence. The total duration will be 144 hours. The quotas are already full.
It is aimed at health workers (professional and non-professional), students of related careers and the community in general that are interested in the topic, prioritizing health teams.
“We are paving the way. This diploma is the door so that the medical career can have another look“said the rector. For his part, Minister Regueiro assured that it is “necessary to train our students with an intercultural perspective. Health is born in the territory.” The central objective of the diploma is to train the community in intercultural health with special interest in the Mapuche worldview.
“Health is interpreted in different ways according to each culture. Its construction is based on knowledge acquired throughout history, which is why subjugated cultures often find it difficult to express their health based on their own worldview,” is highlighted in the foundations of the project presented last year.
The teaching team that will carry out this diploma is made up of leaders of traditional Mapuche medicine and biomedicine leaders. Speakers from the university environment and representatives of the Mapuche people linked to the topic will also participate to address different topics.
Before the diploma launch ceremony, a Mapuche ceremony was held at the rewe, in which, among other members of the community, Paty Piciñam, authority of the Lof Puel Pvj belonging to the Xawvnko Zone of the Mapuche Confederation of Neuquén and Kimeltufe (Mapuche educator). “That our medicine circulates and is not moved clandestinely,” he stated forcefully.
What does interculturality mean?
«Decolonize knowledge. Dismantle the civilizational paradigm, recognize ourselves in other cultures and identities. “The university has the pedagogical duty to contribute to the interculturality as learning the coexistence of knowledge and knowledge and that path must begin to be followed with concrete facts,” he said. Gentle in September of last year when the parameters of this path were beginning to be outlined.
When, upon taking office at the beginning of 2022, the new management of the UNCo announced its work plan for the four years, the UNESCO chair recognized the project of the house of higher studies to become intercultural.
Daniel Mato, researcher at Conicet and director of the UNESCO chair “Higher Education and Peoples Indigenous and Afro-descendant People in Latin America” from the Tres de Febrero National University, explained: “The decolonization of conventional or monocultural universities is the objective. So is your interculturalization, that is, their transformation so that they are relevant to cultural plurality of the societies of which they are part. This demands not only that members of indigenous peoples be incorporated as students, teachers, researchers, managers and officials, but also that their visions of the world, their accumulated knowledge, their modes of knowledge production, their learning modalities and languages be incorporated. ”.
