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New List: Indigenous Knowledge
INDKNOW
INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS LIST
The world has suffered and continues to suffer from a profound loss
of indigenous peoples and rural groups and their knowledge about
the natural world constructed from their intimate ties to land and
place. This loss has been accompanied by neglect and the
marginalization of their practices and beliefs, often figured as
inferior forms of knowing to be replaced by universalized knowledge
derived from the Western scientific tradition.
While the latter tradition has great beauty, power and utility,
attempts to apply it universally without regard for traditional
knowledge systems has in many cases led to failures in sustainable
resource use and the erosion of biological diversity. The imposition
of scientific management regimes without the participation of local
communities and the incorporation of their knowledge systems has
also contributed to the weakening and destruction of traditional
religious, political and social structures with great beauty, power
and utility in their own right. This has prompted debate on whether
the neglect of traditional knowledge violates human rights, civil rights,
and indigenous rights.
In recognition of these issues, there is a dramatically growing
national and international interest in incorporating indigenous
knowledge systems (IKS), including traditional ecological
knowledge (TEK), into truly participatory approaches to
development. Communities are recording their knowledge for use in
their own educational systems and planning processes, grassroots
networks of indigenous and rural communities for promoting IKS are
emerging, national institutions are now regarding IKS as an
invaluable national resource, and the development community
designs development projects that emerge from problems identified
and assigned priority by the beneficiaries themselves, and that build
upon and strenghten community-level knowledge systems and
organizations.
INDKNOW is a forum for discussing issues associated with
indigenous knowledge systems and traditional ecological knowledge.
INDKNOW will carry notices about
publications, projects, ideas and questions of individuals and
groups working to understand, validate and apply indigenous
knowledge systems and traditional ecological knowledge; to
promote the use of indigenous knowledge as complementary to the
scientific tradition; to expedite the obligations of States to support
IKS under provisions contained in Agenda 21, the Biodiversity
Convention, and other international agreements and conventions
applying to indigenous peoples; to work for protection of IK and
just compensation to communities for their knowledge; to support
the international Indigenous Knowledge and Development (IK&D)
network consisting of more than 2500 participants in 106 countries
worldwide; and to facilitate the growing number of formally
established indigenous knowledge resource centers.
Appropriate discussions on INDKNOW include the scope of
intellectual property rights or other property rights regimes
concerning the protection of traditional knowledge, methods for
compensating peoples for sharing their knowledge and for
protecting them against unfair exploitation, the relation
of traditional ecological knowledge to the preservation of cultural
and biological diversity, failures of traditional practices to maintain
ecosystem health and meet human needs, methods and ethics for
investigating indigenous knowledge, the role of community
involvement in using indigenous knowledge for sustainable
development, the relationships between traditional knowledge
and the Western scientific tradition (e.g.: ethnomedicine, ethnobiology,
ethnobotany; ethnozoology, ethnoecology, agroecology, natural forest
management; etc.) and their complementary use for planning and
decision-making, the use of indigenous knowledge in sustainable
development, the close involvement of local communities with
development planning, the development of formal and non-formal
education systems for the transmission of traditional knowledge,
and strategies for empowering local communities and indigenous
peoples to strengthen and incorporate their own belief systems
into their self-determined development.
The investigation of indigenous knowledge is contentious because
it involves local belief and knowledge that may be sacred or belongs
privately to a particular group. It is not the intention of this list to
reveal such knowledge and, as such, subscribers should not post
details of practices that are not already published or are generally
known, that are sacred or private, that involve potentially patentable
or commercially exploitable concepts, or that are offered without the
informed consent of the originators of such knowledge until
generally acceptable methods of compensation are worked out.
Furthermore, the list should not be used for notices about
indigenous and rural political struggles, action alerts for halting
human rights abuses or for the discussion of primarily spiritual
beliefs. While the ability to practice traditional practices and beliefs
closely relies on land rights and cultural rights, these issues are
covered in detail by NativeNet (a set of electronic conferences
sponsored by the South and Meso American Indian Information
Center (SAIIC) and Gary Trujillo carried on the APC network, as an
electronic mailing list, and as a Usenet list. Contact Gary S. Trujillo,
gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us) and in conferences on the APC network (for
information, send a blank e-mail message to econet-
info@igc.apc.org). We encourage people to subscribe to and follow
the important discussions there.
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[for subscription information see previous article]
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This list is facilitated by the Center for Indigenous Environment
and Development (CIED), Seattle, Washington, USA; the Center for
Indigenous Knowledge for Agriculture and Rural Development
(CIKARD); the Center for Traditional Knowledge (CTK), Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada; the Centre for International Research and Advisory
Networks/Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in
Higher Education (CIRAN/NUFFIC), The Hague, The Netherlands;
Cultural Survival (CS), Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; the Society
for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and
Institutions (SRISTI) and the Honey Bee Network, Ahmedabad, India;
and the University of Washington Chapter of the Society for
Conservation Biology (SCB-UW), Seattle, Washington, USA.
Facilitators help maintain INDKNOW as an open forum for discussion,
and do not necessarily subscribe to all of the views expressed on the
list. Other IKS networks are invited to become facilitators to
INDKNOW.
For more information contact:
Prof. Anil Gupta Chairperson, SRISTI and Honey Bee Network
c\o IIM Ahmedabad 380015
India
Fax: (91 272) 427 896
E-mail: anilg@iimahd.ernet.in
Preston Hardison, List Manager
CIED and SCB-UW
4224 University Way Seattle, WA 98105
USA
Tel: (1 206) 547 2361
Fax: (1 206) 547 1666
E-mail1:cied@u.washington.edu
E-mail2: pdh@u.washington.edu
Julian T. Inglis
Center for Traditional Knowledge
Canadian Museum of Nature
P.O. Box 3442, Station "D"
Ottawa, ONT K1P 6P4
Canada
Tel: (1 613) 998 9890
Fax: (1 613) 952 9693
E-mail: wcswt8@ccs.carleton.ca
Dominique Irvine
Cultural Survival - West
106 West Dana Street Mountainview, CA 94041-1223
USA
Tel: (1 415) 964 5086 Fax: (1 415) 964 5087
E-mail: cswest@igc.apc.org
Michael Warren
CIKARD
318 Curtiss Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011
USA
Tel: (1 515) 294 0938
Fax: (1 515) 294 1708
Gerard van Westrienen
International IK and Development Network
CIRAN/Nuffic
P.O. Box 29777
2502 LT The Hague
The Netherlands
Tel: (31 70) 426 0325
Fax: (31 70) 426 0329
E-mail: gerardW@antenna.nl