Keynote Presenters
Professor Octaviana Valenzuela Trujillo
Octaviana has worked over the past three decades in the area of community-based, educational program development for minority and multicultural populations, particularly Indigenous Peoples. She served as Director of Native American Studies at both Tempe Elementary and Tucson Unified School Districts before going to the University of Arizona as the first Director of the American Indian Graduate Center. Two years later, upon receiving a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Arizona State University, she became Assistant Professor of Education in the department of Language, Reading and Culture at the University of Arizona. In 1995, Dr. Trujillo joined the faculty at the College of Education at Arizona State University and later served as director of the Center for Indian Education and editor of the Journal of American Indian Education. Currently, Professor Trujillo is Northern Arizona University’s chair of the Department of Applied Indigenous Studies.
Her studies have been augmented during summers through such activities as a Fulbright Fellowship in India, attending the Instituto Cultural de Guanajuato in Mexico, and participating in the 17th study session of the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. She has since traveled extensively internationally. She has been the recipient of a number of academic distinctions including a Newberry Library Scholarship for research at the D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian in 1988, a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in 1990, a research grant from the Arizona Humanities Council, a Smithsonian Community Scholar Fellowship in 1991 and a Kellogg Leadership Fellowship in 1993.
In 1992, Octaviana was elected as the first woman Vice Chair of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona and was awarded “Woman on the Move” by the Tucson YWCA. Subsequently, she became the Chairwoman during her tenure on the tribal council, establishing the first Department of Education and shepherded state and national legislation. A primary focus of her work as a tribal leader has been “Nation Building” that takes advantage of her academic and professional experience with women, children and families. Local and international work has included Indigenous leadership development and the urbanization of Indigenous communities. These include projects addressing the need for more linguistically and culturally appropriate curriculum and instruction, and other strategies for family literacy. Octaviana also serves as an active member of the American Friends Service Committee. Her committee work focuses on Indigenous Peoples issues, community relations, and international affairs. Other national board service includes, Native American Public Telecommunication and the Kellogg Fellows Leadership Alliance. Her interest in peace and human rights advocacy has included work in the Middle East, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Mr Calma is an Aboriginal elder from the Kungarakan tribal group and the Iwaidja tribal group whose traditional lands are south west of Darwin and on the Coburg Peninsula in the Northern Territory. He has been involved in Indigenous affairs at a local, community, state, national and international level and has worked in the public sector for over 30 years.
