Notes on Indigenous Knowledge (IK)

What is IK?

• - Knowledge passed down from generations and internalized by the communities through a process of socialization
• - Part of their lifestyles
• - What is suitable Indigenous knowledge or indigenous education: education is the transmission of values and the accumulated knowledge of a society whereas knowledge is state of knowing or understanding gained or retained through experience or study
• - Over many generations IPs have developed a holistic knowledge of their lands, natural resources and environment, which has been recorded within oral traditions
• - IK refers to detailed and complex systems of knowledge the IPs have gathered and developed of their natural environment, including plant and animal ecology, climate and other local conditions and resource management
• - IK is key element of the social capital of the poor and constitutes their main asset in their efforts to gain control of their lives. It is an integral part of the culture and history of a local community
• - IK is not confined to IPs alone – all communities have developed their own body of knowledge over generations
• - IK systems are dynamic: new knowledge is continuously added. Such systems do innovate form within and also will internalize use and adapt external knowledge to suit the local situation
• - IK systems are cumulative, representing generations of experiences, careful observations, and trial and error experiments
• - Biodiversity and indigenous nationalities are indeed very much interconnected and sociocultural diversity is characterized by diversity in caste, ethnicity, language and religion, culture and region

Use of IK

• - Disaster management – human practices that evolved over centuries i.e. IKs have been tested by time and proven to be sustainable and effective in both reducing disasters and avoiding unavoidable hazards
• - Promote sustainable development
• - To solve global environmental, social and economic problems in the forms of increased poverty, human induced climate change, depletion of natural resources, spread of infectious diseases, violation of human rights
• - Developing IK as career. Some of the careers can be – trapping, hunting, fishing, guiding, skinning, wood-making, herbal medicine, wild-rice harvesting, etc.

Western Knowledge System (WKS) and Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS)

• - Amalgamation of WKS and IKS can bring a paradigm shift in education – indigenous scholars have discovered that IK is far more than the binary opposite of western knowledge. IK fills the ethical and knowledge gaps in Eurocentric education, research and scholarship
• - The authorization approach of most education systems imposed on IPs didn’t take into considerations the importance of the traditional and cultural values these societies. Rather, the educational system emphasized assimilation of indigenous peoples into the national mold. Most indigenous children failed to adapt these systems and, as a result, indigenous communities have very high illiteracy rates and poor educational qualifications
• - Although there are apparent attractions in meaningful dialogue between western science and IK, in reality there remains tensions

Incorporating IK in formal education system

• - There is a need for new lines of communication between WKS and IKS for valuing indigenous knowledge in formal education system, examining governments’ efforts to indigenize curricula
• - We need to explore the academic performance of indigenous children at their school and compare it with non-indigenous counterparts
• - Teacher must understand the unique background knowledge of indigenous students in order to best help them meet the learning needs
• - The best way of teaching is helping students know how to apply what they already know to novel learning opportunities
• - According to Ignas (……) curriculum design should be based on
• a. Community based research
• b. Understanding of students (what they know already
• c. Unique situation of indigenous communities
• - Many course books and its contents are ethnocentric, Eurocentric and sexist which are harmful for indigenous children in building their confidence and self-respect
• - The western knowledge has been documented and has become easy to include in curricula. If we have to do so to IK then we must identify and document them. It needs more research
• - The new paradigm in education emphasize the localism and globalism, making the enshrinement of indigenous and traditional knowledge in national curricula – an ideal situation from which to begin developing the necessary social, cultural and educational capital necessary for indigenous, rural and local peoples to become the participants in the global community
• - The education system of developing countries like Nepal has been unsuccessful because curricula are designed for a mainstream and largely urban populace. It has limited utility for remote rural communities. This tendency has ensued rampant unemployment.

Fusion of IK and western science

• - Western science and IK are represented as two different, competing knowledge systems, characterized by binary divide, a divide arguable evolving out of the epistemological foundations of the two knowledge systems.
• - Education and knowledge existed in the form of IK and skills before the intrusion of WKS into our educational practices
• - Sustainable development can be achieved by integrating the two
• - Education is the most elementary and important tool for the revival and application of IK. Education can establish linkage between IK and modern technology, and also bring about the connections with local context and knowledge
• - A solution to soothe the conflict between Eurocentric knowledge and indigenous knowledge is to recognize the existence of different knowledge systems, different world views, and sciences and aims at making a contribution to education with multicultural face
• - The two knowledge systems may in fact be closer than the dichotomy implies. The critical difference between IK and scientific knowledge lies in their relationship to power that it is not the holder of IK who exercise the power to marginalize
• - Knowledge is too vast and exalted a subject to be compartmentalized into watertight chambers with names like indigenous or scientific. Nor are the terms indigenous and scientific mutually exclusive
• - We need to explore traditional native knowledge and western science, then we should find common grounds between them – neither we can neglect western epistemology, nor can we leave indigenous knowledge in the same stage
• - Keeping all three options of learning (formal, non-formal and informal) open, we need to make a fusion between western science and indigenous knowledge. Challenges are many, but it is the only option we can take for sustainable development and proliferation of all forms of knowledge and skills so far neglected due to a hegemonic and colonial influence western world

Valuing/promoting Indigenous Knowledge

• - “When a knowledgeable old person dies, a whole library disappears” – An old African proverb
• - IK has an advantage over western science in the context of poor communities, in that information is tested in the context of survival and the means of existence

Practices

• - Hybridization of WKS and IKS has been taking place in some forms: a farmer uses both natural and chemical fertilizers
• - In recent years IK has been the subject of congresses, conferences, meetings, as well as countless papers, articles and reports
• - Traditional economies are the basis of indigenous and tribal people’s economic survival. IK is supporting rural economy through the expertise of farmers in animal breeding
• - Longing for genuineness, Eurocentric scholars are now struggling to respect IK
• - The interests of outsiders in the IK have emerged in tandem with the politicization of indigenous groups and the indigenous-rights movement. Many IPs are demanding that their rights to be heard in development decisions
• - Development efforts that ignore local circumstances, local technologies, and local system of knowledge have wasted enormous amount of time and resources

Prospects

• - Indigenous students need the opportunities to explore and study how their culture constructs its own knowledge
• - We need to learn from local communities to enrich the development process
• - If IK is leveraged with modern technologies, it certainly help to enhance development activities
• - IK is very much driven by the pragmatic, utilitarian and everyday demands of life
• - In IK development there exist a real danger of over-valorizing and over-romanticizing indigenous knowledge in practice
• - The IK is an autumn seed (covered with Eurocentric snow) and when spring comes it will emerge to nourish nations, languages, heritages and communities. The autumn seed lies within the mind of and spirit of every child, it lies inherent and latent. The autumn seed requires only a nourishing educational system and direct experience with the good road to unfold its ancient wisdom and teaching
• - The countries like Nepal, where majority of the people live in rural areas, acquiring IK of how to navigate and survive on the land, and how to use local resources to feed, clothe, and provide one’s family, may be much greater relevance for the context in which many indigenous groups continue to live today

Why IK deteriorated

• - The authorization approach of most education systems imposed on IPs didn’t take into considerations the importance of the traditional and cultural values these societies. Rather, the educational system emphasized assimilation of indigenous peoples into the national mold. Most indigenous children failed to adapt these systems and, as a result, indigenous communities have very high illiteracy rates and poor educational qualifications
• - Indigenous youths are often forced to leave their traditional communities and move to urban areas to pursue employment or education opportunities. Young people who wish to learn and engage in traditional careers frequently leave school at early age. This detachment is not only the economic obligation of supporting their family but also the overemphasis on Eurocentric education and neglect to the indigenous knowledge possessed by these youths
• - IK is often undervalued relative to western scientific knowledge, both by nonlocal project managers and local communities themselves
• - WKS caused IPs to be viewed as backward and passive recipients and IK became invisible to Eurocentric knowledge in latter’s theory and global science
• - Erosion in IK has occurred due to rapid population growth, growth of international markets, educational systems, environmental degradation, and development pressures related to rapid modernization and cultural homogenization
• - More and more knowledge are being lost as a result of disruption of traditional channels or oral communication. Neither children nor adults spend as much time in their communities anymore. It is harder for older generations to transmit their knowledge to young people
• - In the past, outsiders (for example, social, physical, and agricultural scientists, biologists, colonial powers) ignored IK, depicting it as primitive, simple, static, and “not knowledge”. This historic neglect has contributed to the decline of IK systems
• - Eurocentric thinkers dismissed IK in the same way they dismissed any sociopolitical cultural life they didn’t understand; they found it to be unsystematic and incapable of meeting the productivity needs of the modern world (Battiste, 2002, p. 5)
• - Besides western science that is formal education, the colonial language as the medium of instruction has further hastened the decline of indigenous language, culture and knowledge itself
• - ILO (2005) found that IPs were generally not involved, their priorities were generally not involved, not reflected and the PRSPs were therefore not likely to solve the poverty situation of IPs.

Globalization, industrialization and IK

• - Industrial countries should bear the brunt of climate change impacts where the indigenous peoples will share their knowledge on bio-diversity and land management to develop national mitigation strategies
• - The globalization process facilitated by the western/global education system, is systematically universalizing the world knowledge system and weeding out all other forms of knowledge systems, institutions and resources that are not western in origin
• - The balanced education system will incorporate both indigenous and Eurocentric knowledge – this should be reflected in world education systems. It will be a harbinger for creating a balanced globalization
• - IPs represents about 5% of the world population, but over 15% of the poor.

Gender and IK

• - In indigenous communities, women have taken on the great responsibility of transmitting traditional knowledge, skill and intangible heritage from one generation to the next, however, when foreign values are introduced, this conception is severely affected or even destroyed. As a result there is negative impact on the relationship between men and women
• - Male to male and female to female transfer of generational indigenous knowledge is one of the practical phenomenon in some parts of the world
• - Through their daily works, rural women have accumulated intimate knowledge of their ecosystem, including the management of pests, the conservation of soil and the development of plant and animal genetic resources
• - Women farmers are largely responsible for the selection, implementation and adaptation of plant varieties. In many regions, women are also responsible for the management of small livestock, including their reproduction. Women often have highly specialized knowledge of wild plants used for food, fodder and medicine than men.

IK in Nepal

• - At the time of contact with European colonizers the Nepalese had achieved true civilization: they (Nepalese) didn’t abuse earth, they promoted communal responsibility, they practiced equality in gender relations, and they respected individual freedom
• - We need to resurrect Nepalese indigenous epistemology
• - In a ‘food for work’ program in Nepal, IK has been a more effective agent of development than modern technology (WB, n. d.)
• - Indigenous peoples (or Janajatis as they are known in Nepal) make up at least 36.31% of the population and comprise of 59 officially recognized distinct groups with their own languages, cultures and belief systems
• - GON initiatives: protection and development of IPs (Interim Constitution); National Committee for Development of Nationalities (1997); Formation of National Foundation for the Development of Indigenous Nationalities (2003); social inclusion, participation of IPs in decision making, special programs for IPs, positive discrimination or reservation in education, employment, etc.; proportional representation in development; socially exclusive economic framework, etc. (Three Year Interim Plan).
• - Although the modern development indicators show that Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, it is very rich in bio and sociocultural diversity

Some questions

• - What legal provisions should be made to enhance indigenous knowledge to ensure sustainable development?
• - What are international practices to promote indigenous knowledge in order to avail them for reducing some pertinent global problems?
• - What are the challenges in incorporating indigenous knowledge in environmental education and science education?
• - How to develop traditional occupations as careers?
• - Should we commercialize IK?
• - What type of Nepalese traditional knowledge should be taught or included in the curricula?
• - How to leverage technology for promotion of IK in the digital age?
• - How recognize the knowledge and skill of IPs?
• - How to harness indigenous environmental knowledge?
• - What should be the role of education to preserve and maintain the knowledge of IPs and local communities?
• - Should we pursue international legal measures to extend intellectual property rights to cover IK or to treat it as a public good?
• - How to enhance IK research in higher education in Nepal?
• - How effective are the contributions of INGOs such as ILO, UNESCO, WB, etc. to preserve and promote IKs?
• - Have the member countries been following ILO Convention No. 169 that deals with the rights indigenous and tribal peoples?
• - How much intervention is acceptable in the idyllic IKs?
• - Have IPs participated in the development of MDG strategies? What is lacking in MDG strategies?

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

• - IPRs are mechanisms to protect individual and industrial inventions and are usually in effect for a specified period. Legal rights prevent others from copying, selling or importing a product without authorization. In essence there are six forms of IPRs: patents, plant breeding rights, copyright, trademark, industrial design, and trade secrets. Among them, patents and plant-breeders’ are most relevant to IKS.
• - Some scholar’s argue that for IPs, life is a common property which can’t be owned, commercialized and monopolized by individuals…Accordingly, the patenting of any life forms and processes is unacceptable to indigenous peoples
• - We reaffirms that imperialism is perpetuated through IPR systems, science and modern technology to control and exploit the lands, territories and resources of IPs – CS Canada, (1996a) as cited in Grenier (1998)