To commemorate the anniversary of of the Abya-Yala Museum and Intercultural Day in Ecuador, the university held the academic forum titled "Interculturality, education and museum in UPS", an online event that was broadcast through social networks. The speakers were José Juncosa, anthropologist and director of the Humanities and Social Sciences area of UPS; Catalina Álvarez, professor of the Communication and Intercultural Bilingual Education undergraduate program; Paulina Vega, representative of Museo de la ciudad and Hugo Calle Forrest, coordinator of development cooperation and culture of the Provincial Government of Los Ríos.

María Sol Villagómez, vice president of our branch campus in Quito, said that these events allow reflection and dialogue that strengthen interculturality, which is present in the academic work of UPS. They also remembered the legacy of Father Juan Bottasso, founder of the Abya Yala Museum by presenting a video.

Vega spoke about the fact of rethinking the presence and work of museums. "We need to see them as educational spaces that seek a direct connection with the public by generating community ties to stop the idea that a museum is directed to a specific group." Regarding interculturality, he stated that it is being built and that museums are places to generate encounters and dialogues that allow us to understand their logic and needs.

Álvarez referred to the museum as a representation and symbolization of nationalities because they show the worldview, vitality, languages and historical processes. "Undoubtedly they contribute to education because they break the obsolete imaginations and concepts about indigenous people, they also present a diversity and show that indigenous cultures are not ancestral, but are built day by day."

Calle spoke about his work experience at the International Council of Museums ICOM Ecuador and stated that it is necessary to talk about a new paradigm where interculturality and the role of museums promote social equality. "We need it to be seen as heritage, the public as a community and the building as a territory so that museums become intercultural, dynamic and of active communication".

Juncosa spoke about the history of the Abya Yala Museum, which was originally a missionary museum. "Its purpose, from an anthropological point of view, was to recover pieces before they were lost; today it is the university museum at the service of the community." He presented three strategies of the museum for the educational field: metonymy to make objects a possibility or opportunity to reconstruct the whole; take advantage of dystopia, turn it into resources and fight against the ethnographic present, fight against stereotypes.

Nataly Orbe, coordinator of the Museum, thanked everyone who got together to remember Fr. Juan Bottasso and to present the role of museums today. The Abya Yala Museum turned 63 years old and is a place to learn about the cultural and natural wealth of the Amazon. Its purpose has been to bring different audiences closer to the customs, traditions and practices of the Cofán, Zápara, Secoya, Huao, Kichwa and Shuar nationalities, located in the provinces of Morona Santiago, Napo, Zamora Chinchipe, Pastaza, Orellana and Sucumbíos