Digitizing IKS: Epistemic complexity, datadiversity & cognitive justice*

Development and the Documentation of Indigenous Knowledge: Good Intentions in Bad Company?

“…There is on the one hand, a focus on knowledge management and tools for organising and managing indigenous knowledge without exploring and questioning definitions of indigenous knowledge, often hand-in-hand with normative definitions of the phenomenon (Ngulube 2002;Stevens 2008). On the other hand, and especially more recently, one finds a number of critical investigations concerning documentation of indigenous knowledge (Augusto 2008;Agrawal 2002).…”

“…Outside LIS, documentation of indigenous knowledge has been discussed in more nuanced ways, specifically in ways that take seriously the importance of the power/ knowledge link (Agrawal 2002(Agrawal , 2004Augusto 2008). For instance, one way of doing this is explored by Augusto (2008), who proposes to consider how electronic media may differ from colonial archives of objects.…”

“…For instance, one way of doing this is explored by Augusto (2008), who proposes to consider how electronic media may differ from colonial archives of objects. Augusto (2008) argues that electronic archives and databases make possible the re-contextualising of processes and practices in which objects of knowledge are imbedded.…”

“…For instance, one way of doing this is explored by Augusto (2008), who proposes to consider how electronic media may differ from colonial archives of objects. Augusto (2008) argues that electronic archives and databases make possible the re-contextualising of processes and practices in which objects of knowledge are imbedded. Accordingly, including the originators of indigenous knowledge in the process of collecting and documenting it provides a way to overcome cognitive injustice and epistemic inequalities (Augusto 2008).…”

“…Augusto (2008) argues that electronic archives and databases make possible the re-contextualising of processes and practices in which objects of knowledge are imbedded. Accordingly, including the originators of indigenous knowledge in the process of collecting and documenting it provides a way to overcome cognitive injustice and epistemic inequalities (Augusto 2008). Considering indigenous knowledge as dynamic and as part of local as well as global knowledge, and in turn knowledge as more than knowledge about substances and plants but also as processes surrounding the production and spread of knowledge, does prevent decontextualising indigenous knowledge (Augusto 2008).…”