Indigenous Women: Knowledge holders and custodians of nature

Indigenous Women inhabit over 90 countries globally, playing vital roles in various domains such as food security, biodiversity, medicine, and the domestication of species. They serve as essential food providers, guardians of seeds, keepers of medicinal plants, and protectors of biodiversity. As custodians of traditional knowledge, they educate younger generations and are pivotal in safeguarding the cultural heritage, agricultural systems, and languages of Indigenous Peoples. Their deep-rooted connection to ancestral lands positions them as frontline defenders of Indigenous rights and environmental conservation.

Despite their significant contributions, Indigenous Women often remain overlooked in statistics, policy-making, and decision-making arenas, largely due to a lack of disaggregated data and ongoing discrimination that undermines their rights. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is actively collaborating with Indigenous Women and academic institutions to bridge this data gap and ensure their participation in decision-making processes. “At the heart of the strategy is making sure that they’re at the discussion table with policymakers so that their knowledge can positively influence local, national, and international spaces,” states Yon Fernandez-de-Larrinoa, Head of the FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit.

It’s about ensuring Indigenous Women are visible but also leveraging their crucial roles as knowledge holders. “Indigenous Women are already researchers. However, they must have access to opportunities to make their research and understanding of complex challenges published and shareable. Their knowledge must be recognised if we want to improve food security and nutrition for all,” says Mikaila Way, FAO Coordinator of the Indigenous Women research programme. 

In 2015, FAO partnered with Indigenous Women’s organizations globally to implement national and regional Indigenous Women Leadership Schools on Human Rights and Food Security – focused on priorities such as land tenure and Free, Prior and Informed Consent. With Indigenous organizations, FAO organized 13 leadership schools at national and regional level, training more than 300 Indigenous women. Many of these women are today involved in international negotiations and processes.

Because one powerful global call was to promote Indigenous Women’s academic research, FAO started a partnership with Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada to forge a dedicated Knowledge Makers Programme.

For a long time, Indigenous Peoples, especially women, were excluded from the world of academic research. “Research used to be done on us as Indigenous Peoples. Back then it was done for us. Then it was done with us, now it is being done by us,” says Rod McCormick, Director of the Indigenous Research Centre at TRU.

Through the Knowledge Makers Programme, FAO and TRU facilitated an international research cohort of Indigenous Women focused on Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and climate action. 21 Indigenous Women from 16 countries in the seven socio-cultural regions were selected. The result of their research work is gathered in a special volume of the Knowledge Makers Journal.

Rosa Marina Flores Cruz, a member of the Afro-Binniza Indigenous Peoples from Oaxaca, Mexico, focused her research on the proliferation of wind farms and the serious consequences they have on her community’s territory, despite claims that these advance “sustainable development”.

“Women were almost completely displaced from the agreements and signing of lease contracts with the wind energy companies. They were isolated from decision-making because very few had the status of being possessors of the land; persuasive efforts were instead focused on men. But in response, from the beginning we, Indigenous Women, have been involved in the defence of the territory,” says Flores Cruz.

Mariiam Tambieva of the Karachay and Balkar Indigenous People in Russia’s North Caucasus, draws attention to her People’s zero-waste lifestyles and traditional practices that were employed out of a respect for nature but are now being “re-discovered” under the drive for sustainability.

“Even though Karachays and Balkars never used the term ‘zero-waste’, we have lived according to this philosophy for centuries,” she says. They used all components of the animal from the meat, the bones and the offal to cook different food and preserves. As households are the main producers of food waste, she explains, turning to these practices could play a significant part in minimizing losses. “Practicing methods used in Indigenous Peoples’ communities can be easy; we only need to read and learn about them and share experiences,” concludes Tambieva.

As a Pollinator Specialist, Melanie M. Kirby, from the Tortugas Pueblo in New Mexico, United States of America, discusses “Re-Indigenization” and the importance of pollinator conservation in land stewardship. “Beekeeping connects us to our origins as fellow beings of light, as a part of this land, not separate from it,” she says. She explains that the term re-Indigenization refers to returning to practices with Indigenous Peoples roots, rediscovering our relationship with nature and the land. 

“Focusing on re-Indigenizing approaches to stewardship and conservation can help to amplify disenfranchised and marginalized knowledge systems that were developed through millennia,” Kirby states. In her work, Kirby refers to the concept of consilience, where the knowledge from different fields can be combined to create a unified understanding of the world.

FAO’s approach involves creating spaces where the complementary nature of Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and formal science can combine to confront some of the serious issues our planet faces, such as biodiversity loss and food insecurity.

Ensuring that Indigenous Women share their wisdom through academic research is central to leveraging their oral knowledge, which has been gathered over thousands of years in more than 5 000 Indigenous Peoples communities around the world. This knowledge can and should influence global discussions and offer solutions to today’s challenges.

Source: The FAO News And Media Office, Rome

– global bihari bureau