Commodifying cultural knowledge: corporatised western science and Pacific indigenous knowledge

Conventionally, indigenous knowledge such as that held by Māori (the indigenous culture of Aotearoa New Zealand) is seen as in total contrast to Western scientific knowledge. In this paper the author puts forward instances where ideology is held in common across cultural borders. A general awareness of facets of shared ideology has been refined, extended and given substance through three curatorial projects involving Dr. Te Huirangi Waikerepuru, a highly respected kaumatua (elder). These took place in Istanbul, Albuquerque and Aotearoa New Zealand. Ethically, acceptance of these commonalities leads to considering the shifting boundary of knowledge in contemporary life.

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Indigenous Knowledge as Resource to Sustain Self-Employment in Rural Development

Handbook of Research on Civic Engagement and Social Change in Contemporary Society - Advances in Human and Social Aspects of Technology ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-4197-4.ch008 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 142-158

Author(s):

Ladislaus M. Semali

Keyword(s):

Secondary Education ◽

Young People ◽

Indigenous Knowledge ◽

Rural Women ◽

Practical Knowledge ◽

Living Condition ◽

Cultural Knowledge ◽

Community Wellbeing ◽

Self Employment ◽

The World

This chapter explores the ways African rural youths and women seek opportunities to innovate and adapt indigenous knowledge as a locally developed resource of community resilience in the attempt to reduce household poverty. The two case groups discussed in this chapter engaged in self-employment enterprises. They drew upon their ecological and cultural knowledge, enabling themselves through shoestring budgets to sustain their livelihood and community wellbeing. The chapter shows that unemployment affects young people and rural women from all occupations and ethnic groups, a situation that puts them in a vulnerable and precarious living condition. The analysis showed that for most of youth found on the Tanzania's streets and urban municipalities, a secondary education has not proven useful in practical knowledge, skills, values or attitudes necessary to enter the world of work or to become self-employed.

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Cross-cultural indigenous training: The South African experience

Culture & Psychology ◽

10.1177/1354067x20908529 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 605-621

Author(s):

Zana Marovic

Keyword(s):

Indigenous Knowledge ◽

South African ◽

Traditional Healers ◽

Cultural Knowledge ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Cultural Perspective ◽

The South ◽

Cultural Aspects ◽

Western Psychology ◽

Indigenous Paradigm

In this paper, the author explores the relevance of indigenous training from a cross-cultural perspective. We start by examining the broader context of traditional Western psychology and its relevance in a multicultural society. A brief description of the indigenous paradigm is followed by a discussion of differences between Western and indigenous psychology, and a proposal of cultural eclecticism as a potential frame for their integration. Next, we discuss the South African context in relation to comparative-cultural aspects of medical and psychological services. The author’s clinical experience informs her increased awareness of culturally inadequate service at the state hospital, developing curiosity about African indigenous healing, and subsequent encounters and collaboration with African traditional healers. Ultimately, the author develops culturally sensitive training that explores cultural biases and generates cross-cultural knowledge and competence. In conclusion, the author advocates that in the area of globalisation and multicultural societies, psychological training and clinical practice, should include dialogue and facilitate collaboration between Western and indigenous knowledge, hopefully leading to a more holistic and culturally inclusive service to a population of different backgrounds. Such collaboration and integration of Western and indigenous knowledge may be a source of professional stimulation as well as a benefit to health-care consumers.

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From Smokebush to Spinifex: Indigenous traditional knowledge and the commercialisation of plants

International Journal of Rural Law and Policy ◽

10.5130/ijrlp.1.2018.5713 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Terri Janke

Keyword(s):

Indigenous Knowledge ◽

Plant Material ◽

Indigenous Rights ◽

Cultural Knowledge ◽

Indigenous Australians ◽

Shared Understanding ◽

Plant Knowledge ◽

Australian Plant ◽

Culturally Based ◽

Indigenous Plant

Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, have diverse relationships with plants and their seeds. This cultural knowledge has been passed on through the generations, creating a deep history that has produced sophisticated fields of knowledge intimately linked to both diverse cultural geographies and the natural environment across the country. Western scientific, government and private sector commercial institutions have been collecting Australian plant material for over 200 years. Sometimes, such ‘collectors’ obtain the Indigenous knowledge simultaneously with the plant material. On occasions, the culturally-based Indigenous ownership of that knowledge is acknowledged by collectors. However in the majority of instances that has not been the case. Furthermore, different western institutions take different approaches to the collection, management and use of Australian plant material and associated Indigenous plant knowledge. A particular challenge in this arena is the lack of any shared understanding of Indigenous knowledge and intellectual property issues that are involved, and how those might best be addressed. But there is a gathering momentum, from diverse quarters, to face such challenges. This paper aims to contribute to consideration of the issues involved in order to promote more robust inclusion of Indigenous rights, interests and concerns.

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Cultural Studies, Indigenous Knowledge and Pedagogies of Hope

Policy Futures in Education ◽

10.2304/pfie.2005.3.2.4 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 153-163 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Makere Stewart-Harawira

Keyword(s):

Academic Freedom ◽

Indigenous Knowledge ◽

International Agreements ◽

Cultural Knowledge ◽

Global Order ◽

Bretton Woods ◽

The World ◽

The Usa ◽

Ways Of Being ◽

Forms Of Knowledge

Notions of crisis and chaos have become the rationale for a new discourse in which empire is the logical outcome of a world no longer secure. One level at which this is manifested is in the rejection by the USA of international agreements to which it is signatory, in the demonstrated failure of the Bretton Woods system to meet its declared objectives, and in the increasingly broad and globalized resistance to globalization. Another is in the attacks on particular forms of knowledge and academic freedom by strong neoconservative elements which seek the reconstruction of societies within a particular cultural and ideological framework. In this context, the construction of pedagogies which articulate a different vision for global order has become a contested and critical task. This article argues two things: first, that the study of culture and ethnicity is vitally important in developing pedagogies for better ways of being in the world, and second, that indigenous cultural knowledge is profoundly relevant to this endeavour.

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the Sustainable Harvesting of Edible Insects in South Africa, with Reference to Indigenous Knowledge, African Science, Western Science and Education

The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education ◽

10.1017/s1326011100004828 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 36 (S1) ◽

pp. 145-154 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Rob Toms

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Food Security ◽

Indigenous Knowledge ◽

Limpopo Province ◽

Knowledge Systems ◽

Food Plants ◽

Western Science ◽

Edible Insects ◽

Ongoing Research ◽

Sustainable Harvesting

AbstractIn our ongoing research on edible insects in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, we have found evidence of the unsustainable harvesting of edible insects and the food plants of certain insects. The decline in the edible insect industry, together with the need for food security provides a strong incentive to investigate possible causes of problems using different knowledge systems. Any solution to these problems needs to take Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) into account if it hopes to be successful and sustainable. We have found that different communities have different explanations for the same phenomena. Some of these explanations correspond with the explanations for the same phenomena in Western science. Where areas of overlap between IKS and Western science exist, these can be used in education in such a way that recommendations for sustainable harvesting can be developed with reference to African science. In this process, the area of overlap between the systems may grow as information from one system is incorporated in another. In this contribution the overlapping roles of IKS, African science and Western science are explored in the teaching of the sustainable harvesting of Indigenous resources for food security and conservation. This creates opportunities to teach relevant science in such a way that the concerned communities can benefit through better food security and the conservation of culturally important plants and animals.

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Decolonizing Diet: Healing by Reclaiming Traditional Indigenous Foodways

Cuizine The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures ◽

10.7202/019373ar ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 0 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Monica Bodirsky ◽

Jon Johnson

Keyword(s):

Indigenous Knowledge ◽

First Nations ◽

Well Being ◽

Cultural Knowledge ◽

Indigenous Populations ◽

Oral Traditions ◽

Cultural Integrity ◽

Food Knowledge ◽

Health And Well Being ◽

Nations Community

Abstract Traditional Indigenous foodways remain important for the ongoing health and well being of contemporary Indigenous North American peoples. Drawing partly on primary research on food-related knowledge and experience within the First Nations community of Toronto, the authors trace how colonial policies of assimilation attempted to destroy Indigenous knowledge and in so doing spawned numerous trans-generational health consequences for Indigenous populations, which are still felt today. While colonial attempts at assimilation seriously undermined the integrity of traditional Indigenous foodways, today this cultural knowledge is undergoing a resurgence. Contemporary Indigenous peoples have expanded upon oral traditions with written stories of food gathering and recipes as a means to revitalize food knowledge, cultural integrity and community -- all inextricably linked to health. As such, the authors argue that fostering the resurgence of traditional Indigenous knowledge about food is a necessary in healing the trauma emerging from colonialism. Indigenous cookbooks provide opportunities to share information about traditional culture and food knowledge along with the recipes more conventionally associated with cookbooks.

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Indigenous peoples and local communities' bio-cultural knowledge at the interface of marine research

10.31124/advance.12151704 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Emma Lee ◽

Cass [email protected] ◽

Kelly Ratana ◽

Aoi Sugimoto

Keyword(s):

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Local Communities ◽

Cultural Knowledge ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Western Science ◽

Marine Research ◽

Science Theory ◽

Research Sector

Globally, the governance and management of land and sea resources by Indigenous peoples and local communities has existed for tens of thousands of years and continues to exert influence over a quarter of the worlds’ surface today (Garnett et al 2018). Yet the primacy of Western science still overshadows the bio-cultural knowledges of Indigenous peoples and local communities. To move beyond exclusions and disenfranchised worldviews, science theory and practice must begin to embrace, engage, respect and support Indigenous peoples and local communities’ bio-cultural knowledges. We draw on the marine research sector, specifically fisheries, to demonstrate where knowledges are providing useful expertise and call for multidisciplinary approaches to co-productions of science. (Prepared for Nature Communications review).

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