The Concept
Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) refers to the compendium of information, practices, and beliefs developed and passed from time immemorial by local societies. It is rooted in oral traditions, cultures, and eco-systems that define and reshape the vicissitudes of life. Besides being bodies of knowledge, IKS encompasses skills and philosophies that uphold communal histories and interactions. As a body of knowledge, IKS are visible in areas of medicine, agriculture, biodiversity, arts and crafts, and in resource management – a phenomenon that gives them a platform to dialogue with Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which preceded the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In turn, SDGs like IKS are tools of sustainable livelihoods, as society’s breaks down when their mechanisms of sustenance are not well defined. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) replaced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in September 2015 after the General Assembly of the United Nations embraced the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Like the SDGs, the MDGs, which emerged after a United Nations millennium summit in 2000, appear to resonate with IKS in all its 8 goals that sought to push the developmental agenda forward (United Nations 2015, Eilstrup-Sangiovanni & Hofmann 2020).
Despite being the knowledge that has unrelentingly sustained the indigenous peoples across the centuries, Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) are some of the most disregarded, side-lined, and stifled epistemological sources, particularly after the breakthroughs of the industrial revolution of the 18th century Europe. Besides the modern breakthroughs of science and technology, as reasons for the marginalisation of IKS, other factors include: westernisation, limited cases of IKS-related funded researches, power dynamics and status inversion, under representation of indigenous communities in decision making bodies, language and cultural barriers, intellectual property rights for indigenous knowledge concerns, limited training for indigenous societies, brutal suppressions of indigenous knowledge, socio-economic disadvantages of indigenous communities, disempowerment of indigenous peoples, limited support of indigenous initiatives, limited dialogue and collaboration with other forms of knowledge systems, and stigmatization of non-western forms of knowledge, among other concerns.
UNESCO and Indigenous Knowledge System
With IKS incorporating Indigenous Research Methods (IRM), oral histories, oral traditions, and oral research techniques across multidisciplinary divides, it has been utilised as a tool of broadening epistemological bases, as well as in decolonising knowledge across the globe (Chilisa 2012, Harvey, 2002). Critically important is the fact that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), recognises IKS as critical cog in promoting cosmological welfare. UNESCO promotes IKS’s inclusion in global climate science, indigenous education, and policy processes, and strives to promote indigenous peoples and the local communities. In turn, UNESCO is a specialised agency of the UN that promotes international cooperation in matters to do with culture, education, communication, and science to build global peace. Largely, IKS’s concerns are in tandem with sustainability quests.