Intercultural Education with Indigenous Peoples and the Potential of Digital Technologies to make it Happen

Importance Of Preserving Indigenous Cultures

A very extended opinion among non-academic population is that indigenous peoples, their language, and their knowledge have no value nowadays. We are referring to non-academic population in the same place where indigenous peoples live, as outside that area it is common that they are kept invisible by the media, even local media. With immigrant cultures from other countries, the question of whether governments should make an effort to help them keep their language, traditions, etc. is not so fundamental (though as tax payers they should also be taken into account in the society where they live) because that culture will continue intact in their home places as the dominant one. However, with indigenous peoples, this question is of paramount importance, as they do not have a land of their own where they are the dominant culture. They are not immigrants bringing a sample of a culture; they are the last representatives of the ancestral owners of the land. Therefore, if measures are not taken to protect their way of living, the result can be the total disappearance of civilizations with thousands of years of history and knowledge.