Temuco to Host Major International Academic Event on Indigenous Peoples: NAISA Conference 2026

Original article: Temuco será sede del mayor evento académico internacional sobre pueblos indígenas: Conferencia NAISA 2026

Luis Cárcamo-Huechante: «NAISA 2026 Launches a Global Indigenous Dialogue from Temuco»

The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) will host its annual conference for the first time in the southern hemisphere, taking place at the Catholic University of Temuco. The association’s president for the 2025-2026 term, Mapuche Huilliche scholar Luis Cárcamo-Huechante, described this milestone as «very significant,» according to Prensa UCT.

«NAISA has previously held its congresses primarily in the United States and Canada, as well as in New Zealand, Norway, and other indigenous territories. There has always been a dream to host this gathering south of the Rio Grande, and that dream is now becoming a reality in Temuco,» Cárcamo-Huechante told Prensa UCT.

The scholar emphasized the importance of not confining the event to categories such as «Spanish-speaking country,» as this «erases the indigenous presence from these territories. What we call Chile today speaks Spanish, but it also speaks Mapudungun, Aymara, Quechua, Kawésqar, and other languages.»

Born in Tralcao, south of San José de la Mariquina, in Huilliche territory, Cárcamo-Huechante began his academic journey at the Austral University of Chile in the 1980s. In 1995, lacking funding opportunities in the country, he traveled to the University of Oregon on a full scholarship and later secured another to pursue his doctorate at the University of Cornell. «I had never flown on a plane and arrived knowing very little English. That says it all,» he shared with Prensa UCT.

The academic explained that his contributions are situated between the «indigenous north»—indigenous scholars from the United States and Canada—and the «indigenous south»—peoples and diasporas from Latin America. «When I started attending NAISA conferences around 2010, the focus was more on indigenous peoples in Anglo-colonial contexts. With other colleagues, we launched a working group from Abya Yala to encourage the participation of indigenous scholars and researchers from Mexico, Central America, South America, and their diasporas in the United States,» he told Prensa UCT.

The conference will bring together nearly 1,000 participants in 257 sessions over three days, featuring panels, roundtables, and local discussions. Researchers from Canada, the United States, Taiwan, India, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia, and Chile will be present, along with potential participants from Scandinavian countries—representing the Sami people—and territories such as Rapa Nui, Hawaii, and the Philippines.

Cárcamo-Huechante hopes the conference «will strengthen an international academic indigenous dialogue, not only about indigenous peoples but in collaboration with indigenous territories and peoples.» Hosting the meeting in Temuco, he concluded, «opens the conversation from this part of the continent, in historically indigenous territory rich in cultural, linguistic, and political density. It’s an opportunity to rethink indigenous studies from different geographies and to expand links between local experiences and global debates.»