Feature

Indigenous Knowledge and Databases

How can traditional local knowledge be used in a geographic information system?

Melinda Laituri

Academics, scientific researchers and others have "discovered" that the knowledge which indigenous people hold about the places in which they live is important and valuable. Indigenous or local knowledge has received increasing attention in research and development projects as a potential basis for sustainable management strategies.

Along with the recognition and use of indigenous knowledge is the increasing use of GIS, or computerised geographic information systems. Spatial logic has become a significant part of the decision-making process. GIS has become an important analytical tool in research, government and industry for resource management, planning and conservation. However, utilising indigenous knowledge -- specifically information that is important to Maori needs for resource protection, conservation and economic development -- within a GIS has been limited.

In New Zealand and elsewhere, such as in the US, Australia and South America, efforts are underway to couple GIS and indigenous knowledge. The aim of such projects is threefold. Firstly, better access to alternative types of information will provide a better basis for informed management strategies. Secondly, use of such processes helps to ensure that local communities and their knowledge are part of the decision-making process. Thirdly, it helps to establish links between indigenous groups and governmental agencies.

What is GIS?

GIS is loosely defined as digital data about a place which is used to support spatial analysis. The GIS is made up of locational and descriptive data and stored in a database. It enables the user to overlay different types of information for analysis, for modelling and to create new types of information. For example, locations of hazardous waste sites can be overlain with census data to create a socio-economic profile of communities living near such land uses, or appropriate sites to expand forestry production can be identified by overlaying data about slope, soil, land use and infrastructure.

Generally, data used in a GIS for decision-making bodies has been restricted to existing information available from government agencies (such as census, land use, geology), maps and remotely sensed information. Industry has had the resources and means to use state-of-the-art technology to create new types of data, but the availability of GIS to community groups and non-governmental organisations has been limited. Costs for data collection, data input, hardware and software have prevented this technology from being adopted on a wide scale outside academia, government and industry.

What is Indigenous Knowledge?

Indigenous knowledge refers to the knowledge, practices and beliefs of indigenous peoples such as New Zealand Maori, Native Americans, Australian Aborigines and South American Indian tribes. It's sometimes referred to as traditional knowledge, local knowledge or ethnoscience. Examples of indigenous knowledge include identification of animal migratory routes, bird nesting, mating and fish spawning sites, local history, sacred sites, agriculture and aquaculture systems, and significant scenic sites.

This type of knowledge is embedded within a particular culture and is reflected in culturally specific living strategies. Much of this information is of a spatial nature -- it can be explicitly located and identified on the landscape. This makes it possible to use as a data layer within a GIS, offering the potential to enhance communication and present information from the perspective of the indigenous community.

Research is underway to identify methods of using indigenous knowledge within a GIS. Two projects now being conducted by Auckland University's Geography Department involve two very different applications: biological conservation and economic development. Similar datasets are being constructed for these projects, using existing governmental data and maps and remotely sensed imagery. The challenge is in combining indigenous knowledge with Western technology to devise alternative strategies that may be more efficient as well as being culturally sensitive.

The biological conservation project aims to identify the relationships between Western biogeographical concepts of communities, habitats, biomes and ecosystems, and related Maori concepts. Many Maori concepts are defined by the relationship with the land that Maori have. This relationship forms the basis of Maori cultural values that recognise the need to balance human need with the survival of a species or resource. Identifying how Maori express their relationship with the landscape and how they view Pakeha biological conservation strategies is an important component of the study.

The approach will look to describe the Maori concepts and names given to organisms or associations of organisms; map the location and extent of Maori biological units; and compare and contrast Maori and Western biogeographical patterns. The main purpose is to provide baseline data about a particular community to identify locations for development purposes.

Explicit community-derived information can assist in the planning process for development needs. This information can be of three types:

1) Sensitive cultural information

This covers such things as identification of sacred sites, waahi tapu, burial sites, historical sites. Due to the sensitive nature of this information, innovative methods need to be developed to ensure security and privacy. One mechanism is through the use of "silent files" as a means of maintaining secrecy concerning a site and providing a protective mechanism. A silent file is kept in confidence by the appropriate group, and land titles containing waahi tapu are marked in local authority plans whilst the exact location of the sites is concealed. Alternatively, the GIS could hold silent files using fuzzy boundaries. Including this information within a GIS would ensure that development did not occur in sensitive areas.

2) Management strategies

The Maori relationship with the land recognises and carefully circumscribes a range of human interventions with nature, based on concepts of tapu and rahui to preserve the local commons. Assuming that tapu and rahui are on-going processes independent of ownership, mapping these concepts and comparing land-use activity between Maori and Pakeha would provide a glimpse into the relationship between the two management strategies.

3) Sites of potential development

This data layer would capture the spatial perception the community holds regarding the potential of their area. What areas does the community consider developable? Do these areas coincide with areas that have been developed and areas about to be developed?

The recognition and acknowledgement of local knowledge within the realm of information technology is a promising avenue of empowerment in decision-making. Supporting the alternative knowledge systems of indigenous people may allow them to access foreign techniques as they choose. This is an essential caveat in the use of GIS by indigenous people -- that the GIS is used by them for their own needs.

Coupling GIS with indigenous knowledge poses a number of questions:

• must indigenous knowledge be "scientised" by Western researchers to be legitimate?
• is it appropriate for traditional knowledge to be extracted and used?
• what safeguards and assurances can be built into the research or development process to ensure that the introduction of new technology does not represent another form of domination or imperialism?

How these problems are assessed and solved demands careful consideration and communication, and the development of new methods of communicating and sharing knowledge.

One reason for blending indigenous and Western-based knowledge systems is to encourage participatory development and communication through knowledge-sharing. This establishes an ongoing relationship with long-term goals, rather than a single short-term project. As information is jointly constructed through use of such tools as GIS, all participants gain a vested interest and knowledge is recognised as evolving.

Melinda Laituri is in Auckland University's Department of Geography, Tamaki Campus.