Indigenous Students Build Connections, Ceremony and Understanding on Transformative Trip to Peru
In February 2025, four Indigenous students from Carleton University traveled to the Andean community of Paru Paru, Peru as part of the “Land as Relation” course (INDG 4905A), with support from The Joyce Family Foundation university matching funds.
Led by Dr. Kahente Horn-Miller, Associate Vice-President Indigenous Teaching, Learning and Research, the group joined architecture students from Prof. Jake Chakashim’s (Architecture and Urbanism) studio class to explore Indigenous land-based knowledge and practices. The trip deepened long-standing connections built through local guide Miguel Paredes, a member of the Quechua community who is committed to creating opportunities for mutual learning between Indigenous peoples of the global North and South.
“The students didn’t just study the land, they lived it,” said Horn-Miller. “This was about shared knowledge, reciprocal learning and the realization that our Indigenous kin in the South are facing many of the same challenges we did over a century ago.”
The journey marked the third in a series of trips initiated in 2024. The first took place when Horn-Miller joined Chakashim’s architecture students for an exploratory collaboration, planting seeds for a deeper relationship with the community. Inspired by that experience, Horn-Miller returned in August with a group of eight Indigenous people from her own community. The group stayed with Quechua families, engaged with local schoolchildren and participated in a cultural exchange of songs, dances and storytelling. By February 2025, the relationship had evolved into collaborative action. In Paru Paru, the four Carleton students worked alongside community members and architecture students to construct a ceremonial structure beside Kinsacocha, a lake that provides water for the village.
“It was incredibly hard but deeply rewarding. Working together, we became part of a joyful process that strengthened relationships and shared purpose,” said Horn-Miller. Knowledge doesn’t always come from books or lectures. Sometimes, it comes from soil on your hands, songs in the wind and the quiet strength of mountains.”
For the students, the trip was transformative.
“As I’ve grown older, I have come to understand how vital it is to know who we are and where we come from,” said Sage Laliberte. “In Paru Paru, I saw how the Quechua people live their relationship with the land daily, in harmony with animals and each other. It reminded me of teachings from my own community and expanded my understanding of Indigenous worldview, particularly the sacred role of women and the land as animate, living kin.”
Dailey Trainor echoed this sentiment in an essay for the course.
“Prior to this trip, I understood land as a location. But in Paru Paru, I began to see land as a relative—with memory, responsibility and spirit. Our work on the ceremonial structure wasn’t just construction. It was ceremony in itself, shaped by care and connection.”
Trainor described a pivotal moment when the physical strain of building was eased by the view of the mountains, which offered strength and clarity. “That was a teaching I’ll carry forever.”
The students participated in treks through ancient potato fields and remote mountain paths, visited a coffee plantation and completed a portion of the Inca Trail. At every step, they were immersed in Quechua ways of life: assisting with meal preparation, tending the school greenhouse and learning textile-making from women weavers—experiences that transcend traditional classroom learning.
From learning to braid grasses for the ceremonial roof, to the joy of finishing a difficult trek, to the laughter shared with local children, each moment layered a deeper sense of respect and kinship. The relationships formed between the students and the land, the students and the Quechua community and among the students themselves highlighted the true meaning of relational learning.
“These students supported each other, worked together and formed their own small community,” said Horn-Miller. “They embodied the very lessons the land was teaching—about reciprocity, responsibility and resilience.”
The students returned not only with new skills and memories, but with a deeper commitment to carrying forward what they learned in their studies, communities and future generations. What began as an educational opportunity evolved into a journey of cultural exchange, community building and personal transformation.
As land-based learning becomes more integrated into post-secondary education, experiences like this trip to Peru demonstrate its unique power to connect theory with lived reality.
