Begin by opening your learning journal for this activity.

Describing the wisdom of indigenous people, the former Director General of UNESCO, Frederico Mayor, once said:

The indigenous people of the world possess an immense knowledge of their environments, based on centuries of living close to nature. Living in and from the richness and variety of complex ecosystems, they have an understanding of the properties of plants and animals, the functioning of ecosystems and the techniques for using and managing them that is particular and often detailed. In rural communities in developing countries, locally occurring species are relied on for many - sometimes all - foods, medicines, fuel, building materials and other products. Equally, people's knowledge and perceptions of the environment, and their relationships with it, are often important elements of cultural identity.

'What do we mean by indigenous knowledge?'

This question was explored at a workshop in Inuvik, Canada, by a group of Inuit people who agreed on a list of six principles:

	Our knowledge is practical common sense, based on teachings and experience passed on from generation to generation.
	Our knowledge is 'knowing the country'; it covers knowledge of the environment and the relationship between things.
	Our knowledge is holistic - it cannot be compartmentalised and cannot be separated from the people who hold it. It is rooted in the spiritual health, culture and language of the people. It is a way of life.
	Our knowledge is an authority system. It sets out the rules governing the use of resources - respect; an obligation to share. It is dynamic, cumulative and stable. It is truth.
	Our knowledge is a way of life - wisdom is using knowledge in good ways. It is using the heart and the head together. It comes from the spirit in order to survive.
	Our knowledge gives credibility to people.

Source: Adapted from Alan, R. Emery and Associates (1997) Guidelines for Environmental Assessments and Traditional Knowledge. A Report from the Centre for Traditional Knowledge of the World Council of Indigenous People, Ottawa, p. 3.

The world population of indigenous people is approximately 300 million, according to the International Labour Organisation. This includes around 5000 different groups, living in over seventy countries.

But, who are indigenous people? What characteristics do they share? It is difficult to answer this question because all indigenous groups are unique to the places where they live - and there are many different ways of defining 'indigenous people'. Here are two:

Definition 1 focuses on legal ideas.
Definition 2 focuses more on cultural ideas.

Q1: Read these two definitions and answer the following questions:

	Which definition do you prefer? Why?
	Why are 'legal' ideas in Definition 1 important?
	Which groups of people in your country could be classed as 'indigenous' according to this definition?
	Why are the 'subjective' ideas in Definition 2 important?
	Write your own working definition of 'indigenous people'.

Putting these ideas together, the United Nations has proposed the following definition:

Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems.

Source: Cited in Global Issues for the 90s, Centre for Teaching International Relations, University of Denver, 1993, pp. 86-97.