Conduct of Traditional Knowledge Research

Conduct of Traditional Knowledge Research — A Reference Guide

Foreword

Let us be clear from the outset that with traditional knowledge “the knowing is in the doing.”  This is the essential character of aboriginal traditional knowledge.  A reference guide on the conduct of research into traditional knowledge is at the same time a guide on the conduct of research into traditional land and resource use by aboriginal people.
Understood in this way, traditional knowledge studies in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region are not new.  Indeed, this research could be viewed in modern terms as supporting the 1977 Inuvialuit land claim proposal – Inuvialuit Nunangat - that ultimately evolved into the 1984 Inuvialuit Final Agreement.  For many years since, traditional knowledge studies have been conducted for a variety of purposes by governments, aboriginal authorities, wildlife management organizations and by industry and academic institutions.  These studies are driven by legal requirements and policy and planning objectives to give full consideration and weight to Inuvialuit knowledge in wildlife conservation management, harvest management, environmental impact assessment, and land and resource management decisions. 

In some cases, they have been informed by a growing literature on how to conduct traditional knowledge studies.  Terry Tobias’s Living Proof: The Essential Data-Collection Guide for Indigenous Use-And- Occupancy Map Surveys is clearly a seminal work in this regard.

and evaluating requirements for traditional knowledge across northern Canada, and, the second, general guidelines for the use of traditional knowledge in environmental impact assessment and application in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region.

This report is different and much needed.  As a reference document, it provides detailed technical guidance and, importantly, supporting rationale for best practices that should be fully considered by anyone contemplating, undertaking and applying traditional knowledge research on the Yukon North Slope.  Its intended audience is traditional knowledge researchers and those organizations – government agencies, co-management bodies, environmental assessment boards, aboriginal authorities and industry – that require and work with traditional knowledge.
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Peter Armitage and Stephen Kilburn are practicing social scientists – a somewhat neglected group of scientists – in the area of traditional knowledge research in Canada. They are researchers who care passionately about the quality of the methods they and others employ in the documentation and study of indigenous traditional knowledge.
The Wildlife Management Advisory Council (North Slope) had the good fortune to work with Peter and Stephen in the preparation of a major report documenting Inuvialuit traditional knowledge about nanuq - polar bears. It was published earlier this year.  Over the course of this project, the Council learned a great deal about what makes for sound design, conduct and documentation in traditional knowledge research.  At the conclusion of the project, the Council asked Peter and Stephen to provide their views on these matters.  This report is the result of that request.

There is much in this report to think about, especially since it also benefits from the contributions of other social scientists working in the area of applied traditional knowledge research.

This report is timely.  As traditional knowledge research has become more broadly accepted and conducted, the quality of the research has often been wanting.  For holders of traditional knowledge who have participated in good faith in these projects, flawed and unsound methods amount to a breach of trust.  They can also be expensive mistakes, especially when their findings are easily challenged and dismissed.

Traditional knowledge research is coming under greater scrutiny by traditional knowledge holders and by any institution or group that seriously evaluates and tests the body of information and evidence that it works with.  When the findings of biological, ecological and climate change research, for example, don’t agree with those of traditional knowledge research, it is reasonable to expect that the transparency, rigor and integrity of the research methods are an area of immediate interest and concern.  Traditional knowledge research, like other fields of research, should not enjoy a “free ride” when it comes to soundness of its methods and practices.

This reference guide to the conduct of traditional knowledge research addresses this challenge. For those who are seriously committed to evolving best practices in traditional knowledge research, it is essential reading.

Lindsay Staples
Chair Wildlife Management Advisory Council (North Slope)

http://www.wmacns.ca/pdfs/401_ConductOfTraditionalKnowledge_Sept14_fnl_WEB.pdf

Piro International : Definition of Tangible Cultural Heritage

Tangible Cultural Heritage

Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artefacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations.  

Tangible heritage includes buildings and historic places, monuments, artifacts, etc., which are considered worthy of preservation for the future.  These include objects significant to the archaeology, architecture, science or technology of a specific culture.  

Objects are important to the study of human history because they provide a concrete basis for ideas, and can validate them.  Their preservation demonstrates recognition of the necessity of the past and of the things that tell its story.  Preserved objects also validate memories; and the actuality of the object, as opposed to a reproduction or surrogate, draws people in and gives them a literal way of touching the past.  This unfortunately poses a danger as places and things are damaged by the hands of tourists, the light required to display them, and other risks of making an object known and available.  

The reality of this risk reinforces the fact that all artifacts are in a constant state of chemical transformation, so that what is considered to be preserved is actually changing – it is never as it once was. Similarly changing is the value each generation may place on the past and on the artifacts that link it to the past.

Role of UNESCO

UNESCO’s strategy focuses on:

• Least Developed Countries (LDC) and countries in emergency situations (post-conflict or post-natural disaster), particularly in Africa
• The museums and collections that best contribute to an integrated understanding of heritage and their potential contribution to the economic
• Social and human development of local communities and disadvantaged groups

This strategy is implemented through:

• Training activities involving simple and efficient techniques for safeguarding objects, with a special emphasis on the creation of pedagogical tools
• Museum development by strengthening professional networks and partnerships
• Improving educational content and access to knowledge through awareness-raising and educational activities
• Promoting the return, restitution, and improved access to cultural objects by means of awareness-raising and advisory activities and innovative partnerships
• Last but not least, through the joint implementation of normative and operational activities, particularly in regard to the fight against illicit trafficking and the protection of underwater heritage

Unesco

PIRO : Research Organisation Definition

Research organisation - Definition

"Research organisation means an entity, such as university or research institute, irrespective of its legal status (organised under public or private law) or way of financing, whose primary goal is to conduct fundamental research, industrial research or experimental development and to disseminate their results by way of teaching, publication or technology transfer; all profits are reinvested in these activities, the dissemination of their results or teaching; undertakings that can exert influence upon such an entity, in the quality of, for example, shareholders or members, shall enjoy no preferential access to the research capacities of such an entity or to the research results generated by it."
Source: 'Community framework for state aid for research and development and innovation' (2006/C 323/01).

Piro International : Definition of Intangible Cultural Heritage UNESCO

What is Intangible Cultural Heritage?

Resources

In the text of the Convention

1. Article 2 - Definitions

Meetings

1. 14/17-03-2001, Turin : International Round Table: Intangible Cultural Heritage, Working Definitions
2. 20/23-10-2004, Nara : International Conference on « The Safeguarding of Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage: Towards an Integrated Approach »

The term ‘cultural heritage’ has changed content considerably in recent decades, partially owing to the instruments developed by UNESCO. Cultural heritage does not end at monuments and collections of objects. It also includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts.

While fragile, intangible cultural heritage is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalization. An understanding of the intangible cultural heritage of different communities helps with intercultural dialogue, and encourages mutual respect for other ways of life.

The importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next. The social and economic value of this transmission of knowledge is relevant for minority groups and for mainstream social groups within a State, and is as important for developing States as for developed ones.

Aperçu

Infokit 2011 - “What is intangible cultural heritage?”

© UNESCO

Intangible cultural heritage is:

• Traditional, contemporary and living at the same time: intangible cultural heritage does not only represent inherited traditions from the past but also contemporary rural and urban practices in which diverse cultural groups take part;
• Inclusive: we may share expressions of intangible cultural heritage that are similar to those practised by others. Whether they are from the neighbouring village, from a city on the opposite side of the world, or have been adapted by peoples who have migrated and settled in a different region, they all are intangible cultural heritage: they have been passed from one generation to another, have evolved in response to their environments and they contribute to giving us a sense of identity and continuity, providing a link from our past, through the present, and into our future. Intangible cultural heritage does not give rise to questions of whether or not certain practices are specific to a culture. It contributes to social cohesion, encouraging a sense of identity and responsibility which helps individuals to feel part of one or different communities and to feel part of society at large;
• Representative: intangible cultural heritage is not merely valued as a cultural good, on a comparative basis, for its exclusivity or its exceptional value. It thrives on its basis in communities and depends on those whose knowledge of traditions, skills and customs are passed on to the rest of the community, from generation to generation, or to other communities;
• Community-based: intangible cultural heritage can only be heritage when it is recognized as such by the communities, groups or individuals that create, maintain and transmit it – without their recognition, nobody else can decide for them that a given expression or practice is their heritage

Unesco Organsation