Wednesday Evening Seminar (WES) is an East-West Center student-led initiative supported by the Education Program and a generous gift from Richard H. Cox.

The theme for WES this week is exploring different innovations in education. In light of internationalization and globalization, indigenous education movements offer different approaches to education - especially for indigenous peoples. Our speakers will share their experiences in indigenous education movements within their communities.

Butet Manurung, founder and director of SOKOLA, a non-profit organization advocating literacy for indigenous people of Indonesia. Butet is a native of North Sumatra, she named her organization after her first project, Sokola Rimba, a school for Orang Rimba of Sumatra, Indonesia. SOKOLA provides education for more than 10,000 children and adults of indigenous tribes and marginalized groups throughout Indonesia. She developed a cultural-based curriculum to help indigenous communities solve some of the issues surrounding them. She has received UNESCO’s “Man and Biosphere Award” in 2001, Time Magazine’s “Hero of Asia” in 2004, “Ashoka Fellow” in 2006, “Asia Young Leader” in 2007, “Young Global Leader” in 2009, Ernst and Young Indonesian Social Entrepreneur of the year 2012 and the “Asia Nobel Prize” Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2014. She graduated from Universitas Padjajaran with two bachelor’s degrees in anthropology and Indonesian literature. She finished her master's degree in applied Anthropology from the Australian National University in 2011. In the session, she will share her experience with SOKOLA and her perspectives on indigenous education.

Manulani Aluli Meyer, Konohiki - Kūlana o Kapolei is an initiative of Hawaiʻi Papa O Ke Ao at the University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu. She is the fifth daughter of Emma Aluli and Harry Meyer.  Her family hails from Mokapu, Kailua, Kamamalu, Wailuku, Hilo and Kohala on the islands of Oʻahu, Maui and Moku o Keawe(another name for the Big Island). The Aluli ʻohana is a large and diverse group of scholar-activists who have spent their lives in Hawaiian education, justice, land reclamation, law, health, cultural revitalization, arts education, prison reform, transformational economics, food sovereignty, Hawaiian philosophy and most of all, music. She works in the field of indigenous epistemology (philosophy of knowledge) and its role in world-wide awakening. She obtained her doctorate from Harvard (Ed.D. 1998) by studying Hawaiian epistemology via language, history, and the clear insights of beloved Hawaiian mentors. In the session, Professor Aluli-Meyer will discuss indigenous ideas and educational transformation in Hawaiʻi and their linkages with global movements in society.

Wednesday Evening Seminar (WES) is an East-West Center student-led initiative supported by the Education Program and a generous gift from Richard H. Cox.

The theme for WES this week is exploring different innovations in education. In light of internationalization and globalization, indigenous education movements offer different approaches to education - especially for indigenous peoples. Our speakers will share their experiences in indigenous education movements within their communities.

Butet Manurung, founder and director of SOKOLA, a non-profit organization advocating literacy for indigenous people of Indonesia. Butet is a native of North Sumatra, she named her organization after her first project, Sokola Rimba, a school for Orang Rimba of Sumatra, Indonesia. SOKOLA provides education for more than 10,000 children and adults of indigenous tribes and marginalized groups throughout Indonesia. She developed a cultural-based curriculum to help indigenous communities solve some of the issues surrounding them. She has received UNESCO’s “Man and Biosphere Award” in 2001, Time Magazine’s “Hero of Asia” in 2004, “Ashoka Fellow” in 2006, “Asia Young Leader” in 2007, “Young Global Leader” in 2009, Ernst and Young Indonesian Social Entrepreneur of the year 2012 and the “Asia Nobel Prize” Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2014. She graduated from Universitas Padjajaran with two bachelor’s degrees in anthropology and Indonesian literature. She finished her master's degree in applied Anthropology from the Australian National University in 2011. In the session, she will share her experience with SOKOLA and her perspectives on indigenous education.

Manulani Aluli Meyer, Konohiki - Kūlana o Kapolei is an initiative of Hawaiʻi Papa O Ke Ao at the University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu. She is the fifth daughter of Emma Aluli and Harry Meyer.  Her family hails from Mokapu, Kailua, Kamamalu, Wailuku, Hilo and Kohala on the islands of Oʻahu, Maui and Moku o Keawe(another name for the Big Island). The Aluli ʻohana is a large and diverse group of scholar-activists who have spent their lives in Hawaiian education, justice, land reclamation, law, health, cultural revitalization, arts education, prison reform, transformational economics, food sovereignty, Hawaiian philosophy and most of all, music. She works in the field of indigenous epistemology (philosophy of knowledge) and its role in world-wide awakening. She obtained her doctorate from Harvard (Ed.D. 1998) by studying Hawaiian epistemology via language, history, and the clear insights of beloved Hawaiian mentors. In the session, Professor Aluli-Meyer will discuss indigenous ideas and educational transformation in Hawaiʻi and their linkages with global movements in society.