Why indigenous knowledge needs to be part of localization efforts

You can’t have locally led development without it being grounded in the knowledge systems and worldviews of the people leading that development. That’s according to Rosemary “Ro” Hill, Ph.D., a consultant specializing in bringing indigenous and local knowledge into biodiversity and ecosystem assessments.

Hill explained that Indigenous people have a sense of responsibility to their ancestors and future generations, which significantly informs their development and way of life.

“They want to continue to develop because they have responsibilities to future generations … to know who they are, where their country is, or how to look after their country from the point of view of that traditional knowledge and culture,” she said.

However, the timelines of development projects often don’t match the natural rhythms and processes of the local communities they are intended to benefit. Hill believes that respecting the community's timing is the most significant change that can facilitate locally led development.

Indigenous peoples have their own ideas of the future and a completely different vision of how to go about restoration, Hill said, which is why she believes that “good development comes from empowering people with the tools to put their solutions into practice,” while remembering that “you are being given an opportunity to support on their process of recovery colonialism and development of their societies.”

In this process of building communities as agents of change in decolonizing society,

“they will need regional alliances and regional governance to bring people together to generate power with one another,” said Hill, highlighting how “you don't just need locally driven governance, you need multiscale governance where you are working at all those different levels.”

Speaking to Devex, Hill explained how local community leaders must be included in discussions, boards, and staff, to effect meaningful change, emphasizing the need for a balance between culturally and administratively driven governance to ensure strong knowledge systems.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you tell me about the role of generational and indigenous knowledge systems in effectively implementing locally led development?

I don't think you can have locally led development without it being based on the knowledge systems and worldviews of the people who are leading that development. Particularly when it comes to conservation and development, the main game is how you make decisions and who makes them.

An example from when I was much younger: I was at a meeting where there was a proposal to put a water line, and down a waterfall was the quickest way to put the pipe down. To do that, they'd have to dynamite the waterfall, which was a sacred site. The main traditional owner of that waterfall really wanted the water pipe, but someone else got up and said that it was connected to their sacred site up on the river. And then there was a whole discussion among meeting participants about things that are connected.

That decision-making process which is communal, discussing, fed back, and that involves processes and reflexivity — that's the real key to how local and Indigenous communities manage land and sea sustainably. Compared to our way of doing business, it's the governance knowledge, more than the knowledge of the territory, which is the great gift they bring to the world.

How can we start to integrate generational and traditional knowledge in localization efforts?

The communities and people themselves know how to do that. We don't have the knowledge, so we don't know how it fits into development. When Indigenous people are in charge of running protected areas you'll find they are really keen to get scientists in to help them set up monitoring programs, learn to use drones, and put together data systems.

It's not that local knowledge is everything. The thing that is everything is the agency of people. Recognizing that they have their own agency, they are truly human, they have their own plans and their own ideas of the future. Good development comes from empowering people with the tools to put their solutions into practice. You're not saying that everything local is wonderful — it has to be a discussion, an ongoing, respectful human process where you truly listen to the people. You are being given an opportunity to support their process of recovering colonialism and the development of their societies.

For development agencies and big international NGOs, there can be a real mismatch where they are looking to offer an incentive to communities for certain activities. The communities may      still be deeply involved in running their court case to establish their rights and interests and not ready for other activities. So if there was a greater understanding of the local context, from the community viewpoint, then donors could match with current needs — laying a strong foundation for future activities.

How can local knowledge be better embedded in and actively connected to policy and governance in a way that recognizes its value?

You have to get First Nations leaders and local community leaders in the room. They have to be on your boards, on your staff, and be part of the discussion. I think you can have cultural competency training and you could have policy change, but nothing really changes until the people are in the room. And then they have to be the right people, who are willing to see a way forward that benefits everyone involved. You cannot move to a decolonized world by action only on the Indigenous side, there has to be action on the non-Indigenous side. You need people who are committed to realizing that we're stuck here together, whether we like it or not and we've got to find a way that's mutually beneficial.

Anne Polina is an Aboriginal woman in Australia who is an amazing scholar. She has really emphasized how communities need to find that balance between culturally driven governance and administratively driven governance to keep the knowledge systems strong and alive. In many indigenous and local knowledge systems involving development, the cultural governance in the community is critical.

Can you speak to the link between the integration of generational and traditional knowledge and shifting power?

I see a lot of agency in the local communities with whom I work, so in some ways, it's not about shifting power. They already have power, the strategies, and the goals in place. If you look in Australia where I grew up, through all oppression, the Indigenous peoples kept alive their knowledge of who they were, who they descended from, where their country was, where the      sites on this country were that they're responsible for, what was the biota of those countries. It's through their millennia of development of their own stories, customary practices, and laws that they had the agency to keep that all alive. So they already have power in their own system.

In the Great Barrier Reef, people have been looking at features that can help save the reef and it's been a very technological lens, like breeding corals that are heat resistant and putting them in the reef, shading the reef, or having little robots go around and kill the things that are damaging the reef. The traditional owners have a completely different vision they say, “If we want to save the reef, we've got to get connections back to our culture and culture, we've got to go out there, we've got to talk to the animals, we've got to reestablish that traditional way of management.”

Part of the trick is not about shifting the power, it's about stopping the colonial process. It's about stopping coming in over the top and saying we've got the answers, we're going to give you some power now. Well, no — communities see:  “We've already got our own power and if you want to listen to us, you can help make that power stronger.” At the same time, I'm not saying that we don't have to shift power. Decolonization requires actions from both sides of the colonial frontier — the colonizers have to be prepared to relinquish some power in order to equalize the situation.

If we can do something from the point of view of development agencies, it's making that time agenda much more compatible with the rhythms and processes of the community. Consent can only happen within the rhythms, pace, and timing of the communities themselves, which often doesn't fit with a three-year timeline when the donor wants to have it by.

Dig into Roots of Change, a series examining the push toward locally led development.

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