As approved by the Board of Governors in its meeting held on November 24, 2022, the following Position Statement on Culture and Curriculum has been resolved to be adopted:

Key principles of understanding:

• MLCU respectfully acknowledges the tribal people and their land and landscapes where we work and learn;
• MLCU values the tribal community with all their unique traditional socio-bio-cultural heritages and value systems including their community institutions with unique positions of Elders – past, present and future.
• MLCU endeavours to demonstrate ‘partnership in practice’ by engaging with tribal communities in a cohesive, culturally sensitive, gender inclusive and age-appreciative value systems through education, research and challenging conversations to inspire new and innovative ways of thinking and being ‘tribal people’ that contribute to holistic development of the tribal communities that transcends to nation building and global humanity.

Statement of Strategic Intents for Advancement of Tribal People at MLCU:

• Providing learning platform for pathways to higher education for tribal students to create positive and successful outcomes;
• Promotion of strong quality of research and leadership for tribal students that builds local communities, national and global expertise on tribal development issues and practices;
• Building collaborative and partnership linkages between the University and tribal institutions, other regional, national and international institutions promoting tribal/indigenous studies, as well as to organize and facilitate for research and knowledge exchanges;
• Enabling and facilitating social innovations and sustainability, ensuring integrated relevant education that could encompass economic opportunities for all sections of tribal communities;
• Endeavour to foster and stimulate local, regional, national and international partnerships and collaborations that will enhance opportunities for tribal people.

Policy and Strategy

1. Indigenisation of curriculum:

• Acknowledging and recognizing tribal peoples’ way of learning/knowing, ways of doing and ways of being, the University will endeavor to embedding tribal perspectives into its diverse curriculum to enable the graduates to better appreciate, understand and value tribal systems as well as enable them better prepare to work with tribal peoples, families and communities.
• University staffs and faculty will be oriented to tribal culture, values and practices as part of their orientation courses and/or faculty development.

2. Inculturisation of university functions and activities:

• Promote tribal dresses in university events such as convocation, etc.
• Promote all such tribal practices and activities that will enhance national integrity and wholesome learning.
• Promote tribal ambiance in the university campus, office, and classrooms through displays of unique tribal materials such as woven materials as curtains, baskets, tools, paintings, photos, maps which depicts the rich culture of the tribal peoples including unique flowers and plants that grow in the region. (All items can be labled for identification.  By doing this, students, faculty, and visitors will become well informed) Also, wise sayings/quotation from tribal chiefs/leaders can be printed and hang on the walls of each floors of the building.

3. Indigenisation of education:

• With very high ratio of students from diverse tribal communities with low socio-economic but mature age, and many rural and first-in-family background, MLCU prides and defines itself by who it embraces, rather than who it excludes, and because of this, MLCU may consider itself a unique university.
• Building on this uniqueness, MLCU will endeavour to focus on creating and nurturing stronger relationships and wider opportunities that will enable greater prospects of education, research and employment, and mutually meaningful reciprocation of knowledge and learning with tribal communities and their institutions.
• MLCU’s tribal education statements would mean constant development and implementation of strategies that will enhance access, participation, retention and success of tribal students in the University, as also participation in University’s decision-making processes.

4. Engaged in tribal events:

• Organise/host various key/selected tribal socio-cultural events in the University with the objectives of deepening students’ understanding and learning on tribal cultural values that will contribute to their overall learning growth and character building.
• Promote cross-cultural values that will contribute to national and international integration with deeper appreciation of diversity of culture as integral part of human values.

5. Engaged in tribal research:

• Oral traditions
• Health and healing practices
• Nutrition and food systems
• Traditional learning and education systems including “Youth Dormitory Systems” – often girls and boys separately (such as Nokpante of the Garos, Morung of the Nagas, Zawlbuk of the Mizos, IingKhynraw of the Khasis, Sier of the Koirengs of Manipur, etc).
• Traditional conservation practices of natural resources, biodiversity and wildlife.
• Traditional governance, adjudication and justice systems.
• Traditional land and land tenure systems.
• Traditional sustainable livelihood practices.
• Tribal Church / Tribal Christian & Inculturisation, Tribal Religion/Traditional Religion, Tribal belief system of ‘Man-Nature-Spirit’, etc.
• Tribal values and exploring concepts (ex. courage, success, intelligence, happiness, fear, jealousy, etc.) in the worldview of the tribal peoples.

6. Engaged in documentation and preservation of tribal stories and culture:

• Promote documentation (using both video and systematic research) of various tribal stories, tales and fables, superstitions and belief systems.
• Periodic publications and demonstration of documented stories via research and/or screening of videos.

7. Engaged with Tribal Communities

• MLCU will endeavour to adopt tribal villages for building linkages between communities and HEIs (higher education institutions) for mutually beneficial knowledge and learning.
• Each Department of the University will identify and dovetail in its 5-year plan at least one or two action areas for implementation in the adopted villages.
• All engagements with tribal peoples/communities would be on the principle of “Free Prior Informed Consent” (FPIC) [the University will develop a “How to Do Note” for FPIC to be followed by all departments/faculty].