Australian Aboriginal Wisdom

We Westerners live in a world of continual and unrelenting distraction. Our days begin with the newspapers in the morning, our work world during the day, and television, other entertainments, or the internet in the evenings. In addition, there are our self-promoting schemes and our ever-changing life-styles, replete with families and friends, restaurants and films and various cultural and endless sporting events, all of which are part of the multi-leveled template of distraction that we call life (more here).

Ulwazi: Sharing Indigenous Knowledge 

The Ulwazi Programme is an online media project whose aim is to to collect and disseminate local content, in English and Zulu. It is run from the eThekwini Municipality’s Libraries and Heritage Department, based in Durban...The Ulwazi programme strives to preserve and disseminate local knowledge of communities in the greater Durban area. It creates a collaborative online database as part of the Public Library’s digital resources, relying on community participation for delivering content and posting the content on the Web. (Website)

Indigenous Knowledge on Climate and Earth-Related Areas

This is a bibliographical list. (PDF document)

Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainability

Indigenous people have a broad knowledge of how to live sustainably. However, formal education systems have disrupted the practical everyday life aspects of indigenous knowledge and ways of learning, replacing them with abstract knowledge and academic ways of learning. Today, there is a grave risk that much indigenous knowledge is being lost and, along with it, valuable knowledge about ways of living sustainably. (A multimedia teacher education programme...UNESCO)

Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Urban Design

The goal is to develop architectural and urban design strategies that are not energy or resource neutral but rather generative producers (of energy, ecological habitat, food and water) linked into the energy and resource flows of the surrounding environment. (Website)

A related site here. (A pdf powerpoint presentation: Developing Maori Urban Design Principles. )

Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD)

CIKOD is a non-governmental organization based in Ghana. Its main purpose is to develop methodologies for the strengthening of traditional authorities and civil society organizations to facilitate sustainable grassroots organizational development that gives voice to the poor and vulnerable rural families. CIKOD is partnering with a number of International Organizations including CARE International, Konrand-Adenauer-Stiftung and COMPAS International.  (Website)

Indigenous Worldviews, Knowledge, and Research: The Development of an Indigenous Research Paradigm

The article begins with an overview of worldviews and Indigenous knowledge before addressing how these perspectives have been blinded by Eurocentric thought and practices. These sections set the background for the focus of the article, namely the development of an Indigenous research paradigm. (PDF document)

A Native American Perspective  On Sustainable  Infrastructures

The European dream of conquering the wilderness, manicuring the forests, improving on nature, making the world look like England, and fulfilling the American dream of material possessions and white picket fences must be realigned. We must look at infrastructure within a larger context of long-term interwoven multi-species survival. (PDF document)

Indigenous Knowledge and  Development Monitor

Nuffic's Indigenous Knowledge Unit was responsible for maintaining this web site from 1992 until 2004. Nuffic has transferred its activities in the field of indigenous knowledge to a consortium of southern organizations. Management and maintenance of the web site is in the hands of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) of the Philippines. IIRR is a rural development organization with over 80 years of experience in rural development in Asia, Africa and Latin America. IK Monitor from 1993 to 2001.

Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Knowledge 

Indigenous knowledge takes many forms reflecting the culture andgeographic location as well as historic influences introduced from outside forces.Western scholars view indigenous knowledge through intellectual lenses withfrequently superficial interpretations of the actual content and meaning.Indigenous peoples and Western scholars have begun to practice collaborativesharing and knowledge negotiations. Participants learn from each other sharingknowledge that can be applied to human sustainability challenges. (This is a paper.)

Best Practices on Indigenous Knowledge

The Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education / Indigenous Knowledge (NUFFIC/IK-Unit)(1) in co-operation with UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations Programme (MOST) has established a Database of best practices on indigenous knowledge in 1999 which initially contained 27 best practices. 

Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development

The indigenous knowledge systems of the peoples of the South constitute the world largest reservoir of knowledege of the diverse species of plant and animal life on earth. For many centuries, their indigenous agricultural systems have utilized practices and techniques which embody, 
what one scientist has called «Principles of Permanence»- principles that permit continuous cropping all year around without the use of chemicals 
which degrade the environment. (PDF Document)

Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity: Global Commons or Regional Heritage? 

Ethnobiologists, economic botanists, and anthropologists work on the cusp of traditional and urban-industrial culture, recording indigenous knowledge accumulated over many generations, knowledge that is often the key to particular active ingredients within plants. In many cases, it can only be obtained from specialists (herbalists, diviners, beekeepers, master-fishermen) after the researcher has established credibility with the society and a position of trust with the specialist. But how far does this trust extend? 

Global Indigenous Knowledge Centres

ICIK identified the following Global IK Centers as having been active in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  We are in the process of trying to determine how many are still active and to locate additional information about them.  This page will be updated as new information is found. 

Plant Life and the Maya: Relationships and Conceptualisations

In the area in which anthropology and cultural geography intersect, much has been written regarding the relationship between indigenous populations and natural resource use. An interest in indigenous knowledge systems has grown not only among anthropologists, but ecologists as well. Connections have been drawn between sustainable consumption of resources and native populations.

Local Knowledge and Agricultural Sustainability: A Case Study of Pradhan Tribe in Adilabad District

The development of indigenous knowledge systems, including management of natural environment, has been a matter of survival to the people who generated these systems. With the rapid environmental, social, economic and political changes occurring in many areas inhabited by indigenous people, comes the danger that the indigenous knowledge they possess will be overwhelmed and lost forever. Tribals in developing societies have evolved location-specific knowledge gained through close interaction within natural and physical environments and cultural
adaptation, which are now recognized to be more eco-friendly and sustainable. Up to the 1980s, these tribal farmers were considered laggards. These days however, the increasing attention and scientific research have made it possible to recognize such farmers as innovators, based on their unique practices in the field of sustainable agriculture. (PDF Document)

Ethnobotany, Property and Biodiversity: Ethical Dimensions of Multi-institutional Interests

How should scientists contracted by pharmaceutical industries and government health agencies, operating within the framework of multiple ethical systems stemming from various institutions, approach partnerships with indigenous peoples whose ethos stems from entirely different histories and circumstances? To answer this question, it is imperative to assess the distinct ethical systems in operation.

Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP)

...committed to the cause of promoting and defending indigenous peoples' rights and human rights as a whole. It aims to strengthen the movements of indigenous peoples of Asia for recognition of their collective rights, and protection of traditional knowledge, bio-diversity and environment for sustainable and self-determined development. (Website)