Indigenous Knowledge

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‘A giant human hashtag’: Learning and the #occupy movement
(2011) Hall, Budd L
How do forms of learning evolve in social movements? In this chapter, Dr. Budd L. Hall discusses the pedagogical significance of the ways in which learning takes place both within a movement and as a result of it. Taking the case of the Occupy Movement, which he considers one of the most important social movements of the twentieth and twenty first centuries in rich countries, Hall highlights the synchronised scale with which it aligned purpose and process. Viewing every participant as both a learner and a teacher, he reflects on how the organising structure of the movement differed from preceding movements against global capitalism. He discusses several defining characteristics of the movement, including collective thinking, direct democracy, decentralised leadership, and the creation of new forms of knowledge. Hall also emphasises the important role played by social media platforms as spaces of knowledge creation and dissemination. In developing his argument, he draws extensively on tweets shared under hashtags such as #Occupy, #OccupyMovement, and #OWS, among others. Through this exploration, Hall demonstrates how social movement learning holds transformative potential at both theoretical and practical levels, showing how the two remain in sustained dialogue within movements like Occupy.
Code of practice for the Tangata Whenua, community and voluntary sector reseach centre
(Tangata Whenua, Community and Voluntary Sector Research Centre, 2007-10-02)
This Code of Practice sets out principles and standards for undertaking ethical and participatory research with the Tangata Whenua, community, and voluntary sector in New Zealand. It gives consideration to achieving greater levels of community participation and self-determination in research processes, and throughout the whole life-cycle of research projects, from design and implementation to reporting and evaluation. Furthermore, it is about recognizing the need to address power imbalances and inequities, and upholding Indigenous Peoples and Tangata Whenua, their own knowledge and tikanga (Maori values) and their rights as communities and peoples, including their ability to make decisions about research, its analysis and reporting. It also includes principles of empowerment, governance, and accountability, reciprocal relations, sustainability, social justice, confidentiality, ownership, and ethical and moral responsibility. Overall, the code focuses on research partnerships in which communities make decisions and are active participants, as well as benefitting directly from research, and in which research processes adopt rights-based approaches that are strengths-focused and contribute to community wellbeing.
Community engagement as a way forward for sustainable rural societies
(UNESCO Chair, 2017-09-22) Singh, Wafa; Tandon, Rajesh
With over 70% of the Indian population residing in villages, it can be said that it is the 'villages, where the heart of India resides. Despite such a large rural population, the unsustainable socio-economic conditions plaguing our rural societies, even after 70 years of independence, is nothing short of a distress situation. This calls for immediate actions for improving rural conditions, and for this to happen, higher education, historically recognized as 'public institutions', needs to step in. With the sea of knowledge and resources at its disposal, it can ably pursue the agenda of sustainable development of rural societies. One of the potent tools for making this happen is community engagement. The core purpose of such engagement is to serve mutual interests of universities and communities alike. In practice, this can be executed in several ways such as engaged scholarship practices like service-learning, community based participatory research etc., with the initiatives focused on specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the rural context. This paper makes the case for such engagement for ensuring the creation of sustainable and self-reliant rural societies.
Early childhood care and development programs as hook and hub for community development: Promising practices in first nations
(University of Victoria, 2004) Ball, Jessica
This report traces a year-long investigation into how Lil'wat Nation, Tl'azt'en Nation, and six First Nations of the Treaty 8 Tribal Association built their capacity to deliver early childhood care and development programs rooted in their own cultures and languages. Working with the University of Victoria's School of Child and Youth Care, these communities trained members through a two-year post-secondary program and went on to establish child-care and Aboriginal Head Start services on reserve. Four years after training ended, nearly all graduates were working in their home communities, and every program had grown, with waitlists and plans for expansion. The report follows what made these transitions succeed, from community-driven training design to long-term investment and strong governance. It also outlines the "hook and hub" model, where childcare draws families in and then connects them to wider health, cultural, and social supports, offering promising practices for other Indigenous communities pursuing similar goals.
Education for women's empowerment
(ASPBAE, 1996) Batliwala, Srilatha
Education for Women’s Empowerment reflects on education as a means to challenge gender inequality and advance women’s empowerment. The paper states that women’s empowerment requires overcoming social, economic, political, and cultural relations and structures that undermine women. Education for literacy, basic and women’s rights, self-reliance, citizenship, reproductive health, critical thinking, and self-determination are presented as pivotal forces for social change. The paper is a call for decentralizing and democratizing education, engaging women and their communities, integrating traditional knowledge, gender-responsive curricula, and training materials, and enhancing the role of NGOs and civil society in education. It also calls for advocacy, networking, monitoring, and evaluation, and participatory approaches to research, as well as strategies for policy implementation at various levels. To advance women’s empowerment, the paper suggests that education can contribute to enhancing women’s participation, voice, resources, and control and promote gender justice and social change.
Fathering in the shadows: Indigenous fathers and Canada's colonial legacies
(Sage, 2009-07) Ball, Jessica
A study of Canadian Indigenous fathers' involvement conceptualized a temporal horizon within which to situate challenges and opportunities for caring for children following decades of colonial interventions that have diminished men's roles. Through five community-university partnerships, conversational interviews were held with eighty First Nations and Métis fathers in British Columbia, Canada. Using a grounded theory approach, a conceptual model was constructed identifying six key ecological and psychological factors that combine to account for Indigenous men's experiences of fatherhood: personal wellness, learning fathering, socioeconomic inclusion, social support, legislative and policy support, and cultural continuity. Indigenous fathers' accounts bring into focus systemic barriers to positive fathers' involvement, including socioeconomic exclusion due to failures of the educational system, ongoing colonization through Canada's Indian Act, and mother-centrism in parenting programs and child welfare practices. Policy and program reforms are suggested to increase Indigenous fathers' positive and sustained engagement with their children.
Guidelines for ethical research in Australian indigenous studies
(Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), 2012)
The AIATSIS Guidelines for Ethical Research in Australian Indigenous Studies offer a set of rules for carrying out research in and about Indigenous peoples of Australia. According to the guidelines, the diversity, rights, perspectives and self-determination of Indigenous peoples, as well as the protection of cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions and intellectual property of Indigenous peoples should be recognised. Moreover, the guidelines state that Indigenous knowledge, practices and innovations should be acknowledged throughout the process of research. Finally, consultation, negotiation and free, prior and informed consent are set as basic principles of research, meaning that Indigenous peoples should be engaged in the process of research as equals. Consultation, common understanding, cultural appropriateness of research methodology and agreements about ownership, access, publication and research results are highlighted by the guidelines.
Indigenous people and perspectives in Latin American
(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) and Unversity of Victoria, 2016) Haffenden, Johanna Andrea
The review examines CBR in Latin America regarding indigenous people and indigenous perspectives around the core themes of democracy, water governance and sustainability. In Latin America as a result of decades of continuous political activity and in the name of democracy indigenous populations have been recognised with an active political role without having to abandon their cultural identity (Korovkin, 2001) to the point that it has also become a tool of power to change existing structures. In addition, it is argued that the current political participation of indigenous peoples in Latin American constitutes the development of postliberal citizens (Jorge Hernandez Díaz, 2010). Within this context CBR involving indigenous people and indigenous perspectives in Latin America frequently refers to the idea of recovering indigenous identities and discourses that intend to subvert systems that still serve privileged and white social classes over indigenous people. It is in this context that CBR, encompassed by universities and intellectuals committed to alter the current dynamics, develops and shapes social initiatives. Within the CBR framework indigenous peoples are visible actors who possess perspectives that are part of a culture that can offer solutions to environmental issues created by the ‘other.
Indigenous perspectives on open science and the decolonization of knowledge
(UNESCO Chair, 2022-05-11) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh
This policy brief on Indigenous Perspectives on Open Science and the Decolonization of Knowledge is a contribution to WHEC 22 theme three on Inclusion on Higher Education. It is the product of The World Virtual Indigenous Circle on Open Science and the Decolonization of Knowledge which took place on November 12, 2020. It was organized by the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, co-hosted by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO and the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium, and the format was designed by Lorna Wanósts'a7 Williams. The Circle featured nearly 20 Indigenous speakers and attracted some 300 registrants from around the world. Its purpose was to inform UNESCO's drafting of a recommendation on open science and, in turn, to ensure Indigenous knowledge is incorporated respectfully and with integrity to help reshape how higher education institutions recognize and use it. The aim of this brief is to share our recommendations on the next of many steps toward ensuring that Indigenous knowledge is better recognized worldwide, so it can guide individuals and institutions in higher education, in research, and in protecting the Earth.
“Knowledge was always systematized”: Community-based participatory research case studies focused on understanding community and/or indigenous knowledge used to address climate change issues and develop climate resiliency
(UNESCO Chair, 2025-02-24) DECODE
Land and people No. 3, July-September 1988
(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1988-09) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
This report covers the third issue of Land and People, a PRIA newsletter on land ownership and alienation, published between July and September 1988. It opens with the Supreme Court's August 1988 ruling ordering the closure of limestone mines in the Doon Valley after nearly three decades of local resistance. It examines India's National Water Policy, questioning whether its emphasis on river-basin planning and large-scale groundwater recharge benefits marginal farmers or reinforces their exclusion. The focus article revisits land reform four decades after independence, highlighting the gap between legal provisions and the land held by small and tenant farmers. A review of Vijay Paranjpye's study of the Tehri Dam questions official estimates of economic returns, displacement, and ecological risks. It also reports on protests against the Narmada Valley Project in Bombay, a fast at the Sardar Sarovar dam site, and a march in North Bihar over recurring floods and drinking water scarcity. It concludes with a letter from Thailand's Project for Ecological Recovery on the shelving of the Nam Choan dam following sustained cross-border solidarity, and a report on the first International Rivers Network conference in San Francisco.
Local knowledge, social movements and participatory research: Indian perspectives
(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2021-11-30) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
Policies and practises affecting Aboriginal fathers' involvement with their children
(Thompson Educational Publishing Inc., 2006) Ball, Jessica; George, Ron
This paper, by Jessica Ball and Ron George, is based on interviews with eighty First Nations and Métis fathers in British Columbia about how government policy and everyday institutional practice shape their involvement with their children. Many fathers described coming to fatherhood slowly, after years shaped by residential schools, forced relocation, and child welfare removals that broke the passing down of parenting knowledge between generations. The paper outlines recurring barriers: confusion around paternity registration, parenting programs built around mothers, custody decisions that favour mothers by default, and a maze of overlapping federal, provincial, and First Nations jurisdictions; all made harder by poverty. It ends with a set of recommendations, including acting on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report, simplifying paternity registration, funding Aboriginal-led child welfare and father-support programs, and helping fathers pass on cultural knowledge to their children. The fathers' own words run through the paper, holding both the weight of being excluded and a quiet hope of being recognized as capable and needed.
Report of the international workshop PRA, literacy and empowerment: The reflect method
(1994) Actionaid Bangladesh; Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE)
The report discusses participatory research and its use in communities through PAR, PRA, and the reflect method. The report emphasizes that communities should not be passive providers of knowledge for research but active participants in diagnosing problems, sharing their knowledge, and finding solutions to these problems. The report provides many examples of participatory research from Caribbean, Africa, South Asia, Latin America, Canada, Indigenous knowledge, adult literacy, empowerment, and social change. The report also recognizes some of the challenges that participatory research faces, such as ensuring rigorous research, combining the expertise of professionals and community members, and applying research findings to actual action. Overall, the report shows that participatory research is used to make research more relevant to the communities in which it is conducted.
Rural technology and collective analysis: Improving water supplies and sanitation
(1979) Jackson, Ted
The late 70s witnessed the problem of the insufficient supply of water and sanitation in rural areas become a serious threat to health and everyday living. Set in this period, this paper aims to demonstrate the way in which the described issue integrated into the life of the villages and towns. In this way, the research was concentrated on the implementation of technologies and the ideas behind them and the reactions of people who were a part of the process. This paper, therefore, tries to demonstrate the importance of such projects in context of changing people’s perceptions and building awareness, rather than focusing on the scale of the innovation itself. The research, thus, raises more questions than it answers, leaving the reader amazed by the ability of one idea to change the lives of thousands of people but at the same time skeptical about the potential role of similar movements in other contexts.
University-community partnerships: Connecting for change
(The Community-University Exposition 2008, 2008)
With many of the social, environmental, health and economic issues facing us today we need research that engages those who are working on the front lines. Issues in Victoria, such as homelessness or climate change, are best understood and acted upon when those working to find solutions are driving the research.
Zapatistas in Chiapas
(1984-03-23) Tandon, Rajesh
At a moment when Mexico was entering a new era of economic liberalisation under NAFTA, an unexpected uprising in Chiapas reshaped debates on democracy, land, and indigenous rights. This paper examines the Zapatista movement within the longer history of indigenous struggle while drawing attention to its distinctive way of combining traditional claims with new tools of communication and solidarity. The research also considers how the movement’s vision travelled beyond Chiapas, raising questions about development, autonomy, and cultural survival. In doing so, it argues for seeing the Zapatistas not only as a regional rebellion but as a reminder that struggles over dignity and self-determination can unsettle dominant ideas of governance in ways that remain unresolved.