The Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) Arctic Futures 2050 Conference. Final Report

This métissage explores scholarly relations among local Indigenous communities, school districts, teacher-learners and Simon Fraser University’s graduate diploma program titled Indigenous Education: Education for Reconciliation. Through our collective attending to the role of Indigenous knowledge practices and making within transformative reconciliation, a powerful resurgence of Indigenous ways of knowing and being emerged. This resurgence came about through participatory pedagogies of making and through the sharing of Indigenous knowledges, cultural practices, ceremony and language revitalization. The focus on Indigenous knowledge practices, circle processes and artmaking, as well as Indigenous worldviews, knowledges and perspectives, provided an enactment of rigorous resurgence and transformative reconciliation (Ash et al., 2018). Opportunities to be involved in Indigenous making and land practice with Indigenous Knowledge Holders provided occasions for teacher-learners to embody and embed Indigenous pedagogies and “two-eyed seeing” (Bartlett et al., 2012) within their educational practice. Throughout the program, teacher-learners were invited into Indigenous making, creative and critical conversations, exploring circle pedagogies, participatory processes, place-based explorations and intercultural dialogues with Indigenous Knowledge Holders and Elders. The teachers acknowledged and experienced Indigenous protocols and ceremonies, and they actively explored Indigenous teachings through Indigenous participatory pedagogies. An emphasis was placed on creating authentic Indigenous-learning pathways and to do so in relation to knowledge practices within a particular place, peoples and their unique cultural ecology. This Indigenous Métissage (Donald, 2012) weaves together narrative threads into a story of collaboration between teacher-learners and Knowledge Holders. They stand as a family stands, together to share and give witness to the profound learnings that have emerged from the journey.

I am grateful for the financial contributions provided by the Canadian Indigenous of Health Research (CIHR), Institute of Indigenous Peoples Health and Gender and Health, with First Nations Health Authority, the Canadian Nurses Foundation, and the University of Victoria.

In colonial nations such as Canada, there have been increasing requirements for governments to engage directly with Indigenous communities regarding their rights and interests in natural resource management generally, with specific focus on the role of Indigenous knowledge systems in harvest management decision-making (Tikina et al.2010). Canadian courts have repeatedly focused on two factors with extremely important consequences for the Nation-to-Nation relationships that exist between the Crown and the Indigenous communities: (1) Indigenous rights must be reconciled with other government responsibilities including justified infringements for the often ill-defined concept of ‘conservation’ (Crawford and Morito 1997; Ayers 2005; Nadasdy 2005), and (2) the ‘honour of the Crown’ must be maintained when consulting Indigenous communities, especially with regard to management decision-making about their natural resources (Morito 1999; Slattery 2005). Given the legal necessities for a Eurocentric government to engage in honorable and meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities about conservation ethics and natural resource management, it remains to be seen how these Indigenous-Western science cross-cultural consultations should be undertaken (Crawford et al.2010). The trend to date has largely been the domination of Western Science over Indigenous knowledge systems (in the sense described by Pentland 1995); circumstances in which Indigenous knowledge holders might be requested to provide information to scientists/managers who would evaluate it for reliability and utility before deciding whether to incorporate in a science-based management program (McGregor 2004; Clark and Slocombe 2009; Lyver et al.2009). Some scholars have suggested that conflict caused by this kind of cultural domination could be reduced if governments and Indigenous communities re-initiated their discussions with an examination of similarities and differences in principles regarding ‘conservation’ and ‘natural resource management’ (Ratner and Holen 2007; Ebbin 2011; Watson et al.2011). In this way, the communities could develop a structured and respectful dialogue about wild harvest management in the spirit of reconciliation and productive collaboration. There have been numerous attempts by Western scientists to reach internal consensus on general principles for natural resource management (Holt and Talbot 1978; Christensen et al.1996; Mangel et al.1996; Dale et al.2000), habitat management (Lindenmayer and Nix 1993; Botsford et al.2003; Naiman and Latterell 2005), harvest management (FSC 1996; Heissenbuttal 1996; Lauck et al.1998; Fowler 2003; FAO 2001; Gonzalez-Laxe 2005; Utne 2006; Shelton and Sinclair 2008; Francis et al.2007; MSC 2010) and biodiversity/endangered species management (Walters 1991; Tilman 1999; Ebbin 2011). Although the practice of ‘defining principles for resource management’ is not something that Indigenous societies typically engage in, there have been many attempts to survey and understand Indigenous values and social norms in this regard (Ratner and Holen 2007; Turner and Berkes 2006; Watson et al.2011). For example, Alcorn (1993) offered a general treatise on the relationship between Indigenous worldviews and the Western idea of ‘conservation.’ Berkes et al. (1998) explored fundamental properties of ecosystem-like concepts in Indigenous cultures. In the 2011 ‘Principles of Tsawalk,’ Umeek (E. Richard Atleo), a hereditary Nuu-Chah-Nulth chief, discussed his culture’s principles of Recognition, Consent, and Continuity and their important role in maintaining balance—in contrast to the global consequences of Western ‘sustainable’ development. Prober et al. (2011) characterized the principles of Australian Aboriginal ecological calendars and indicators and evaluated their possible interaction with Western social-ecological systems for natural resource management. Over the past decades, a growing body of community-based collaborative studies has provided more depth and insight into the structure and function of traditional Indigenous knowledge systems and their associated decision-making processes for harvest management (e.g., Feit 1986; Brightman 1993; Horstman and Wightman 2001; Ayers 2005; Castleden et al.2009; Lyver et al.2009; Moller et al.2009; Bilbao et al.2010). However, as Jones et al. (2010) caution, researchers must always be careful to consider Indigenous community-based value systems as spatially and temporally local expressions of their culture. Efforts to identify general Indigenous ‘principles’ of natural resource management must be tempered by conscious recognition that (1) ‘principles’ are social constructs which are deeply embedded in cultural and social norms that are typically complex and subtle to the outsider (Houde 2007; Peloquin and Berkes 2009), and (2) Indigenous cultures and worldviews are inherently more diverse than the relatively homogenous standards of Western science (although see a provoking challenge of this assumption about scientific homogeneity by Watson-Verran and Turnbull 1995). The goal of our investigation was to develop and demonstrate a process for engaging with Indigenous communities to inquire about the structure and function of social norms in their culture that could relate to Western ‘principles’ for natural, renewable resource management. In order to achieve this goal, we worked in partnership with a sponsoring Ojibway community on a case study to employ community-based, participatory research methods with traditional people who were most familiar with social norms for harvest management.

This chapter assesses the possibilities of bringing cultural festivals, particularly the Ndau Festival of the Arts into the lecture room with an intent to reclaim, repossess and reaffirm the local people's indigenous knowledge and make it part of curriculum for higher education in Zimbabwe. The chapter utilised the postcolonial lens and the phenomenological method, where participant observation, key informant interviews and review of related literature were adopted for data collection. The study revealed that it is, indeed, possible to have the lecture rooms graced by indigenous knowledge holders who can share immense indigenous knowledge but have never been in the corridors of higher institutions of teaching and learning. The chapter is a practical clarion response to the wide discourses of indigenizing higher education in Africa where academia and indigenous knowledge holders can share slots and notes in the teaching and learning processes of higher education.

Traditional knowledge about fire and its effects held by indigenous people, who are connected to specific landscapes, holds promise for informing contemporary fire and fuels management strategies and augmenting knowledge and information derived from western science. In practice, however, inadequate means to organize and communicate this traditional knowledge with scientists and managers can limit its consideration in decisions, requiring novel approaches to interdisciplinary and cross-cultural communication and collaboration. We propose that Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) is one platform for the assemblage and communication of traditional knowledge vital to fire and fuels management, while preserving linkages to broader cultural contexts. We provide summaries of four preliminary case studies in the Intermountain West of North America to illustrate different potential applications of a PGIS tool in this context and describe some remaining challenges. Management and Policy Implications: Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) can offer a powerful approach for enhancing current decisionmaking by allowing for the integration of traditional and scientific knowledge systems with spatial environmental data in an interactive participatory process. Integrated data sets can allow traditional and scientific knowledge experts to share, explore, manage, analyze, and interpret multidimensional data in a common spatial context to develop more informed management decisions. Such combined data sets could provide a more comprehensive assessment of fire-related ecological change than is currently used in decisionmaking and enhance inclusion of effects on local resource utility values and areas of cultural significance. The use of a PGIS interface creates opportunities for traditional knowledge holders to share information and potential prescriptions while maintaining confidentiality. Knowledge integration efforts using PGIS as an organizational tool would help to bridge the communication gap that commonly exists between scientists, managers, and traditional knowledge holders as ecosystems continue to be altered through processes of land management and climate change.

The use of climate services (CS) for the provisioning of climate information for informed decision-making on adaptation action has gained momentum. However, a comprehensive review of the literature to evaluate the lessons and experiences of CS implementation in the African agriculture sector is still lacking. Here, we present a systematic review (mapping) of 50 pieces of literature documenting lessons and experiences of CS adoption in the agriculture sector of 20 African countries. The qualitative analysis of the reviewed literature revealed: (1) CS implementation overwhelmingly relied on a participatory process through workshops and participatory scenario planning meetings to connect users with actors along the CS value chain of forecast production, translation, integration, and application. Additionally, innovations such as mobile phones and internet service are increasingly being integrated with CS to strengthen the relationship between CS providers and users. They are, however, mostly at the trial stage and tend to have a varying impact depending on available facilities and infrastructure in the community. (2) Although there is a growing recognition of the need for the integration of indigenous and scientific knowledge systems in the production of climate information, such integration is currently not happening. Rather, indigenous knowledge holders are engaged in a participatory process for insight on modalities of making scientific climate information locally relevant and acceptable. Given the aforementioned findings, we recommend further research on modalities for facilitating indigenous knowledge mainstreaming in climate information production, and investigation of options for using innovations (e.g., mobile) to enhance the interactions between CS users and CS providers. Such research will play a great role in scaling up the adoption of CS in the African agricultural sector.

Cognitive injustice, which nourishes and sustains current political, social and economic injustice, has been at the centre of the knowledge production enterprise since the colonisers embarked on their project of dispossession and plunder. In order to achieve global justice, the quest for epistemic justice needs to be brought to the centre of curriculum discourses. The postcolonial critique of the canonical corpus of Euro-Western knowledge demands a change in our locus of enunciation. We seized this zeitgeist to repaint the education curriculum canvass in science professional teacher development. We leveraged theoretical constructs from Southern theory, by adopting a decolonial epistemic perspective and privileging a dialogic dynamic. Six purposefully selected, practising science teachers, who were registered to study an Honours in Education module, were engaged to generate qualitative data to respond to the following question: How do science teachers leverage indigenous knowledge to address sustainable development goals? Teachers engaged in intercultural dialogue with indigenous knowledge holders to tap into a plurality of different knowledges. The indigenous knowledge holders who participated were interested in sustainable production/cultivation of items they had used in their practice. Teachers developed portfolios of evidence and participated in focus group interviews. They experienced moments of mourning, dreaming, rediscovery and recovery. This resonated with the same categories that were previously identified by Chilisa, as teachers deconstructed and reconstructed curriculum materials collaboratively with indigenous knowledge holders. The findings reveal that the teachers viewed an indigenous understanding of the world as crucial in the achievement of sustainable development goals. The monolithic, hegemonic Euro-Western thinking was decentred but not abandoned. Instead, teachers rendered it one part of the intercultural dialogue. The study demonstrated the potential for transforming the curriculum to become inclusive of Southern voices in the production of valuable, truthful, reliable knowledge about living together sustainably.

Malawi, like the majority of African countries, is experiencing land degradation as a result of climate change and unsustainable farming methods. Land degradation is a worldwide problem, but Africa is the worst affected, with 75% of arable land already degraded. Malawi is primarily an agricultural country, with 11 million people practicing small-scale subsistence farming. Given the hilly terrain, forests, and tough pastures, only one-third of the county is considered cultivable. However, agriculture accounts for 30% of Malawi’s GDP, exporting 80% of its agricultural produce. Small-scale farmers are essential producers, farming 5.3 million hectares of land and accounting for over 70% of Malawi’s food consumption. Unfortunately, as climate change and economic demands increase, so does land degradation. Even though indigenous knowledge has been used for generations to adapt to changing environments, there is an unmistakable distinction between scientific and indigenous knowledge, with scientific being seen as far superior. Several studies have revealed that depending entirely on one knowledge system is insufficient for effectively addressing environmental concerns. Thus, there is a need for more comparisons that allow for a complementary application of the two knowledge systems rather than their contradiction. In this work, we identify indigenous indicators of land degradation and land management practices utilized by Malawian farmers, and we investigate how indigenous and scientific knowledge systems might be combined to adapt and address the issue of land degradation swiftly. To do this, 100 semi-structured interviews were conducted with farmers in five villages. Atlas-ti software was used to do thematic content analysis on the dataset. Our findings show farmers’ coping techniques are still based on IK and motivated by experiential learning from earlier climatic crises. Though most farmers know scientific land management practices, current adaption strategies rely on expensive resources and are inappropriate for indigenous farmers. The study investigates various ways scientific and indigenous knowledge could be integrated to enhance climate change adaptation against land degradation. These encompass developing indigenous indicator baselines, including new measures for measuring soil fertility, and more effective and energy-efficient irrigation technologies.

ABSTRACTIn this study, Indigenous Knowledge Holders were gathered in a collaborative forum to discuss weather, in particular, Indigenous Science knowledge related to severe weather, climate change, and weather prediction methods. Weather forecasting methods that arose in discussion were further explored based on a framework of Bridging, Braiding, and Weaving knowledge systems. Numerous Indigenous Science‐based weather prediction methods were documented, with most lending themselves to follow‐up testing. The Knowledge Holders emphasized that Indigenous Science is an important component within the broader domain of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, with current and historic empirical and holistic insights into natural phenomena. There was consensus among the Knowledge Holders that Indigenous Science should not be perceived as subordinate to Western methodologies but instead viewed as a complementary and equivalent knowledge system. This paper underscores the importance of a co‐produced approach to research where Indigenous Knowledge Holders share their expertise to enrich and inform Western research design, including the interpretation of study results and the implementation of subsequent policy and decision‐making. We provide examples of Bridging, Braiding, and Weaving Indigenous Science using weather‐related phenomena, such as animal behavior, atmospheric patterns, and plant growth indicators, while also offering insights into the impacts of climate change and severe weather.

Knowledge co-production for Indigenous adaptation pathways: Transform post-colonial articulation complexes to empower local decision-making

Current views of sustainable development recognize the importance of accepting the Indigenous Knowledge (IK) of rural people. However, there is an increasing technological gap between Elder IK holders and the younger generation and a persistent incompatibility between IK and the values, logics and literacies embedded, and supported by ICT. Here, we present an evaluation of new technology that might bridge generations and preserve key elements of local IK in Namibia. We describe how we applied insights, generated by ethnographic, dialogical and participatory action research, in designing a structure in which users can store, organize and retrieve user-generated videos in ways that are compatible with their knowledge system. The structure embeds videos in a scenario-based 3D visualization of a rural village. It accounts for some of the ways this rural community manages information, socially, spatially and temporally and provides users with a recognizable 3D simulated environment in which to re-contextualize de-contextualized video clips. Our formative in situ evaluation of a prototype suggests the visualization is legible to community members, provokes participation in design discussions, offers opportunities for local appropriation and may facilitate knowledge sharing between IK holders and more youthful IK assimilators. Simultaneously differing interpretations of scenarios and modeled objects reveal the limitations of our modeling decisions and raises various questions regarding graphic design details and regional transferability.Keywords3D visualizationindigenous knowledgeruralAfricadesign

Indigenous Peoples, for decades, have advocated that their leadership and roles be elevated within national and multilateral environmental science assessments, such as the U.S. National Climate Assessment and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Historically, Indigenous Knowledge holders and Indigenous scientists have been largely excluded from meaningful participation in assessment processes. We argue that Indigenous Peoples, both as individuals and as self-governing societies, ought to be equal participants and leaders in environmental science assessments sponsored by nations, both unilaterally and multilaterally. Additionally, we argue that Indigenous Peoples should have the freedom and support to organize and publish their own environmental science assessments using methods that arise from their communities’ questions, knowledge systems, and social situations. Readers may be interested in these Handbook chapters as well: Jacalyn M. Beck, et al., “The Power of Value-Laden Framing: Examples from Wildlife Conservation Research”; Ahmad Elabbar, “Values and Assessment Reports on Climate Change”; Greg Lusk, “Philosophical Approaches to Values in Climate Science”; Daniel Steel, “Tragedy or Transition? How Science and Values Matter for Climate Change Frames.”

India is rich of traditional medicine knowledge. Due to inadequate protection on its traditional medicine knowledge, some of them have been illegally possessed or used by other countries, resulting in huge economic and cultural losses. In order to prevent such issues from happening, the Indian government has formulated a series of policies to protect and rationally develop traditional medicine knowledge, taken up many effective measures, such as collecting and archiving traditional medical knowledge, formulating laws and policies, establishing an administrative supervision system for traditional medicine knowledge, establish a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), as well as build a traditional medical knowledge registration and invention patent system. It also establishes an investment foundation, and conducts intellectual property culture building. At present, India has formed a relatively complete protection system for traditional medicine knowledge, which has achieved good results and gained recognition. To summarize the experience of traditional medicine knowledge protection in India can provide reference for China. Key words: Intellectual property; Medicine, traditional; India; Protection; Overview; Reference

Effective Stakeholder Engagement for Better Water and Energy Governance

A major challenge exists in gaining wider recognition for the important role that indigenous knowledge can play in research direction-setting and in developing and implementing natural resource management (NRM) strategies. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 highlighted the importance of indigenous knowledge in producing innovative strategies for sustainable resource management (Veitayaki 1997), the challenge since then has been in identifying pathways of integration for indigenous and scientific knowledge. Moller et al. (2009) document a research project in New Zealand, Kia Mau Te Tītī Mo Ake Tonu Atu (Keep the Tītī Forever), that works from within both the Rakiura Māori and scientific communities to incorporate diverse values to tītī management. They conclude that mātauranga and science have distinct epistemologies that should not be blended but rather should strengthen each other through dialogue. In this issue, several papers provide critique on these notions. Jacobson & Stephens (2009 this issue) argue that the scientific, indigenous and local knowledge traditions need to embrace, respect and value different epistemologies as pathways to pluralistic practice. Berkes (2009 this issue) contributes to the science versus traditional knowledge debate by suggesting a focus upon traditional knowledge as a process, rather than content, and calls for the co-production of knowledge through science and tradi-tional knowledge partnership and dialogue. Further, Agrawal (2009 this issue) locates these comments within a knowledge making context by articulating “indigenous knowledge is here to stay, even if what is represented is forever and always disappearing”. Our contribution to this discussion relates to research methodologies that explicitly embrace the co-production of knowledge. We present two research examples from Australia where the impetus is knowledge evolution and creation for cross-cultural NRM and governance. The methodologies practice multi-directional learning and mutual benefit for everyone involved. This approach promotes cross transfer of skills, for example, by generating or documenting scientifically valid information and strengthening indigenous knowledge and systems, with recognition of the value of indigenous knowledge and systems. Essential to these methodolo-gies is the creation of partnerships based on trust between co-researchers and genuine action research outcomes.