Indigenous knowledge, skills and action: Indigenous women’s learning in the Peruvian Amazon

Abstract

Drawing on long term ethnographic research in the SE Peruvian Amazon this article asks what kinds and forms of learning do indigenous women value, how are the knowledge and skills they value changing over time and what is the nature of their agency in the face of the discrimination and prejudice that permeate their lives. Harakmbut women's lives have been transformed over the past 40 years in the wake of neoliberal globalisation, rapacious exploitative economic practices and unregulated illegal gold mining. Within this context three types of learning emerge as important: learning about indigenous cosmology and way of life; experiential learning through engagement with an expanding capitalist society; and learning through training and capacity building for participation, voice and rights-based advocacy. The article argues that all three types of learning give meaning to Harakmbut women's lives, their relationship to their history and their views of the world.

Situating climate change adaptation within plural worlds: The role of Indigenous and local knowledge in Pentecost Island, Vanuatu

“…Wild taro ( Alocasia macrrohizo ) is another crop that participants spoke about being about being capable of surviving “extreme weather and climatic events” so long as the correct techniques are practised. These include removing the “young middle part of the young leaves of the taro to disturb its growth” and the “tube[r] part of the taro [then] gets [the] nutrients (water) from the soil … and … keeps the taro for more than a year” (ALD1, 2018). Such climate sensitive gardening techniques helps to ensure that NP communities are able to maintain high levels of food security despite variable and sometimes extreme environmental conditions.…”

“…From the outset the research project set out to investigate ILK of all genders in NP as previous studies made us aware that different genders hold specific types of ILK within Indigenous societies and different responsibilities for NRM, DRR, and adaptation (Aikman, 2019;Leonard et al, 2013;Ohmagari and Berkes, 1997). In addition, we noted that the vast majority of studies into ILK in the Pacific either failed to explicitly mention the gender of research participants or noted that few or no women were interviewed as part of their studies (Nalau et al, 2019;Walshe and Nunn, 2012).…”

“…ILK includes people's information about their local environments, how they perceive and respond to environmental risks, their ways of life, and what people considered to be acceptable (or unacceptable) behaviours in any given circumstances (Berkes, 2012). ILK is, as Berkes and numerous other scholars previously observed, highly dynamic and derived from the accumulation of collective past experiences of a particular group of people about their local environments and their relationships between environments, living things (including people), and phenomena (biophysical and metaphysical) (Aikman, 2019;Leonard et al, 2013;Nalau et al, 2019). A specific attribute of groups with historical continuity of occupation and resource use in a particular area and environment, which includes non-Indigenous peoples, ILK is collectively held and local-scale rather than western scientific knowledges universally applicable and global-scale (Murray et al, 2006;Neis, 1992).…”

“…As these and countless other studies attest (Aikman, 2019;Leonard et al, 2013), ILK is distinguishable from hegemonic Western knowledges because it promotes a view of humans as part of the world, wherein "epistemology and being in the ecology of life and an ethico-political prioritisation of the collective" (Robertson, 2017: 185). Yet, the majority of the existing scholarship about Indigenous adaptation almost exclusively focuses on ILK as a collection of environmental information and practises that Indigenous peoples use (or historically used) to monitor, plan for, and respond to variable and changing environmental conditions.…”

Indigenous Environmental Justice within Marine Ecosystems: A Systematic Review of the Literature on Indigenous Peoples’ Involvement in Marine Governance and Management

“…These studies draw on broader literatures on Indigenous knowledge (IK), legal rights (including self-determination), and customary approaches [35,[39][40][41][42]. Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is a complex and highly dynamic nested knowledge system (consisting of informationpractices-values) held by particular Indigenous groups with historical continuity of occupation and use of natural resources [43][44][45][46][47]. IK is held collectively and transmitted from one generation to the next and adjusted to fit changing conditions.…”