That was the WORLD Indigenous Business Forum… As in the whole world. And it just happened to be in Rotorua, New Zealand last month.
I heard about it by accident. By word of mouth.
And I got to hang out there for an afternoon and meet a delegation from the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) of Taiwan thanks to the Indigenous Taiwan Aotearoa Business Council (ITANZBC).
This, in turn, has triggered an interesting series of events including making some amazing new friends. And I’m going to write more about this soon.
But just some context, because although this work in Taiwan is new for me, my interest how to apply what we’ve been doing in Aotearoa NZ internationally is not:
- Last year I had the opportunity to work with some vocational teachers from Indonesia and also with another group from Vietnam earlier this year.
- During my years doing literacy and numeracy professional development with ALEC, I had various half-formed ideas about internationalising and exporting our NZ approach to vocational teacher education.
- And this meant that I already had questions about how to integrate indigenous cultural values and worldview with business and education.
The work my new friends are doing in Taiwan in their indigenous communities is amazing. And it’s a privilege to learn a little of what is happening there and share some of what we’ve been doing here.
Stay tuned…!
