Value Of Indigenous Knowledge Research Articles

Lawfare in America: A Commentary on the Standing Rock Sioux

ABSTRACT Renewed emphasis by the executive branch regarding the value of indigenous knowledge in government policy hints at the long historical trajectory of eliding native perspectives in American federal planning. Even liberal democracies can marginalize social groups through the enforcement or threat of enforcement of laws. Rules-based societies therefore can exercise disproportionate command through the application of laws in which sanctions are attached to noncompliance. This article follows Charles Dunlap’s definition of lawfare, where laws are applied, or misapplied, as a substitute for military action in order to achieve an operational objective. Lawfare so defined is a valuable lens through which to view the Standing Rock Sioux protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, a more than 1000 mile long underground oil pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois. This protest was effectively criminalized and dissent met with sanctions including incarceration. The case illustrates the fragility of rights when the law is applied to achieve operational objectives.

Reimagining indigenous knowledge in a multicultural science classroom

ABSTRACT The study is premised on the belief that the intent and coherent integration of indigenous knowledge (IK) in science classrooms as advocated for by various curricula is not paying dividends. There is need to reimagine the nature, source and utility value of IK in multicultural science classrooms to ensure inclusivity. The study sought to explore teachers’ conceptions of the nature, source and utility value of IK in making science concepts more accessible to learners in multicultural science classrooms. In this qualitative case study, 20 science teachers were interviewed to determine their conceptions. Data were collected through open-ended interviews and analysed thematically. Teachers’ perspectives provided a more precise illustration of their level of innovative IK integration in science classrooms. Some teachers demonstrated inadequate understanding of the nature of IK which stifled meaningful IK integration. While some teachers exhibited knowledge of IK sources, they, however, failed to conceptualise how various forms of IK learners bring to the science classrooms could be reconciled and meaningfully utilised. Reimagining the nature, source and utility value of IK remains a key imperative for fostering inclusivity in science classrooms. It is recommended that teacher professional development programmes should provide meaningful opportunities for building teacher professional capacity.

Commentary: Considering the Value of Indigenous Knowledge and Practices

Commentary: Considering the Value of Indigenous Knowledge and Practices

Buen Vivir: A Path to Reimagining Corporate Social Responsibility in Mexico after COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the unsustainable relations between business, society, and the natural environment in Mexico and around the world. Given these unsustainable relations, this essay asks the question: How can Mexican and multinational corporations enable human flourishing both at work and in the communities where they operate? It answers the question by examining how the Indigenous concept of Buen Vivir (living well) can serve as a basis for reimagining corporate social responsibility (CSR). Methodologically, it draws on ancient and contemporary Nahua poets as sources of ancestral Indigenous knowledge. Using these poets, the paper first establishes the applicability of Buen Vivir for Mexico. Relevant concepts include the quality of life, the relationship of humans to nature, the goal of economic growth, and the value of Indigenous knowledge. Using Buen Vivir as a framework for rethinking CSR, the paper integrates business within nature and dialogues with ancestral knowledge. It also focuses on localism and particularism, on quality in addition to quantity, on alternatives to economic growth, and on community. It ends by examining the implications of Buen Vivir for CSR theory and practice by incorporating Indigenous practices of communal work and conceptualizing the firm as a member of the community.

Social Work, a Spiritual Kind of Work: Exploring the Experiences of Māori Social Workers

ABSTRACT Although Indigenous practitioners around the world emphasise the importance of spirituality in social work, epistemic injustices often perpetuate the neglect of traditional knowledge in everyday practices. This paper explores the experiences of six Māori practitioners who work from cultural perspectives in the New Zealand context. Since these individuals subscribe to Indigenous Māori philosophies, Kaupapa Māori Theory is an important part of this study’s epistemology. The research findings provide some unique interpretations of Māori spirituality while highlighting the value of Indigenous knowledge within the broader spheres of social work practice and education. IMPLICATIONS Social work practice is decolonised through culturally responsive methods and prioritising the Indigenous voice within Australian and New Zealand social services. Social work education is strengthened through the recognition of culturally responsive pedagogical frameworks within mainstream curricula and institutes.

Entwining indigenous knowledge and science knowledge for sustainable agricultural extension: exploring the strengths and challenges

ABSTRACT Purpose To explore the challenges and strengths of employing an extension approach, which entwines indigenous knowledge and science, for the purpose of enhancing sustainable agricultural practices. Design/methodology/approach We assessed an agricultural extension approach which entwined indigenous knowledge and science. Data for this paper were qualitative and quantitative in nature as gathered from semi-structured interviews, farmer observations, surveys and the researcher’s field notes. Findings Indigenous knowledge has enormous potential to contribute to sustainable agriculture, yet it is rarely included in agricultural extension. There are many inhibiting factors which may contribute to the lack of inclusion of indigenous knowledge in extension programmes, including: perceived value of indigenous knowledge; knowledge protocols; cultural constraints; access to indigenous knowledge; and, misrepresentation of indigenous knowledge, but also strengths such as enhanced sustainable agricultural practices. Practical Implications Understanding the strengths and challenges of entwining indigenous knowledge and science may support extension policies which further value indigenous knowledge and recognise accessibility and property rights, thus maximising the strengths and limiting the challenges. Theoretical implications Whilst the present study further supports theories which recognise the challenges (accessibility; perceived value; intellectual property rights; cultural embeddedness) and strengths (contribution to sustainable agriculture) of including indigenous knowledge in agricultural extension, this study also offers an alternative approach to agricultural extension. Originality Much has been written regarding the value of indigenous knowledge and its potential in sustainable agriculture. This paper explicitly reports on the strengths and challenges of entwining indigenous knowledge and science in an alternative agricultural extension approach.

Towards decolonising a module in the pre-service science teacher education curriculum: The role of indigenous knowledge systems in creating spaces for transforming the curriculum

Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed many changes in a quest for social justice. However, these changes have not infiltrated the South African higher education landscape, which continues to privilege epistemic traditions that are embedded in western frameworks. The science curriculum had been instrumental in promoting western worldviews as universal. This has resulted in normalising the subordination of non-western people and their knowledge systems. In seeking a change in the tenor of science education, this paper reports on a qualitative study that explored the intersecting influence of the pre-service science teacher curriculum and indigenous knowledge systems. In reconceptualising a part of one science module, the curriculum is used as a vehicle to depart from western epistemic canons, by reframing who teaches, what is taught and how it is taught. A purposively selected sample of 224 pre-service teachers engaged in a field trip and a gardening project that was facilitated in part, by an indigenous knowledge expert. Pre-service teachers planted a vegetable garden using indigenous methods, and cultivated indigenous and non-indigenous plants. Pre-service teachers captured the processes of planting and growing the gardens in their portfolios and reflected on their learning by responding to questionnaires. Data drawn from the portfolios and questionnaires were analysed thematically. Findings revealed a consciousness-raising of pre-service teachers about the value of indigenous knowledge and their endorsement of an indigenous knowledge expert as a legitimate teacher in higher education. Insights into using IKS to create spaces for transforming and decolonising the curriculum by engaging an IK expert to teach, bringing previously marginalised IK to the centre, and finally, teaching and learning in contexts which maximised interaction between the pre-service teachers and the materials being studied in their natural setting, were also revealed.

Ethnobotany of Colorant Plants in Ethnic Communities in Northern Vietnam

Vietnam is the tropical country, which includes 12,000 flowering plant species in its flora. And Vietnam is a homeland of 54 ethnic minorities with a broad range of experience in using plants for dyeing, especially for food.As a result 43 species belonging to 24 families giving a dye for food were identified. Ethnic people have abundant knowledge in using plants for dyeing food such as processing, preparation, mixing plants to require colors. In the framework of this study, we report on the traditional colorant species in Northern Vietnam and the value of indigenous knowledge in processing and blending plants to achieve required colors.

Environmental Reviews and Case Studies: Traditional Environmental Practices of the Eva Aetas: The Value of Indigenous Knowledge in Rehabilitation

The Eva Aetas are custodians of a degraded upland environment in Sitio Pita Bayan-bayanan, a small community in the town of Orion, Bataan, the Philippines. Having lived there for seven decades, they have watched their ancestral land decay from a lush forest to barren grassland. Acknowledging the fact that they have played an active role in its degradation, the Eva Aetas have transformed their environmental practices to adapt to their situation. From crop choice to harvesting methods and ethnomedicine, they provide various means to maximize the minimal outputs of grasslands and possibly allow its eventual rehabilitation. The use of development communication and the application of relevant local policies provide the means as to how their current situation could be remedied.

Building indigenous knowledge capacity for development

The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in development. The paper focuses on the role that IK and local cultural values play in the process of development. Currently, knowledge, information, science and technology used in development are produced in developed countries without heed being paid to their impact on the local environment. IK, although often short‐shirted, establishes a harmonious relationship between the social system and the environment in any given developing countries. Access to global knowledge is vital for supporting IK as well as for sustaining development.

Cooperative Research: An Example from the Wet Tropics of Queensland

AbstractIn recent years there has been wider recognition of the important role that Indigenous knowledge can play in developing and implementing natural resource management (NRM) strategies. The biophysical surroundings of many Indigenous peoples are of symbolic significance to them, hence their perception and values of natural resources may be vastly different to those of scientists or managers. We discuss a research approach that explicitly embraces the co-production of knowledge to facilitate NRM in Australia. We demonstrate that if particular methodologies are used and specific criteria met, cooperative research can represent one pathway for the integration of Indigenous and scientific knowledge. We suggest an important step for genuine knowledge and systems integration is in research direction-setting. Our approach practices multi-directional learning and mutual benefit, promoting cross transfer of skills by the cooperative generation and documentation of information. Indigenous knowledge and associated systems are strengthened and the value of Indigenous knowledge and systems is recognised alongside accepted scientific knowledge and methods. Essential to the methodology used is the creation of partnerships based on trust between co-researchers and the generation of genuine action research outcomes.

The value of indigenous knowledge in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in the African Sahel

Past global efforts at dealing with the problem of global warming concentrated on mitigation, with the aim of reducing and possibly stabilizing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere. With the slow progress in achieving this, adaptation was viewed as a viable option to reduce the vulnerability to the anticipated negative impacts of global warming. It is increasingly realized that mitigation and adaptation should not be pursued independent of each other but as complements. This has resulted in the recent calls for the integration of adaptation into mitigation strategies. However, integrating mitigation and adaptation into climate change concerns is not a completely new idea in the African Sahel. The region is characterized by severe and frequent droughts with records dating back into centuries. The local populations in this region, through their indigenous knowledge systems, have developed and implemented extensive mitigation and adaptation strategies that have enabled them reduce their vulnerability to past climate variability and change, which exceed those predicted by models of future climate change. However, this knowledge is rarely taken into consideration in the design and implementation of modern mitigation and adaptation strategies. This paper highlights some indigenous mitigation and adaptation strategies that have been practiced in the Sahel, and the benefits of integrating indigenous knowledge into formal climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Incorporating indigenous knowledge can add value to the development of sustainable climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies that are rich in local content, and planned in conjunction with local people.

Competing Health Models in Mexico: An Ideological Dialogue between Indian and Hegemonic Views

Models of health in Mexico emerge out of a conflictive interaction between two systems of knowledge and values: one from Western culture, considered superior and legitimate (by the majority), and an Indian one, regarded as inferior. The conflicts that arise from this ideological difference affect the success of public health programs directed to broad sectors of population with an indigenous culture. This gives rise to many problems in the treatment of Indian peoples, limiting their chances of a more adequate health system. This article focuses on how ideologies are negotiated between agents from the national hegemonic health system and the traditional healers, using as an example an interethnic health program developed in a mostly Indian municipality, Cuetzalan, in the Mexican state of Puebla. In this program intercultural interaction established a dialogue between the two health models, explicitly aiming to generate more adequate health programs for Indian communities. The attempt however was permeated by ideological resistance within an interethnic relationship framed by national and local interpretations of the value of indigenous knowledge.

Indigenous Technological Knowledge and Practices of Tribal People in Maharashtra

Although the value of indigenous knowledge is growing, it has not received much attention from development professionals and academicians. The present paper discusses the tribal people’s indigenous...