There is increasing recognition of the importance of exploring Native Science and its significance to enrich and “broaden the contemporary concept of science to include other systems of knowledge that may be more attuned to complex interdependencies between human innovation and the social and natural environment” (Native American Academy, 2012). Using Indigenous Taiwan as a contextual site, this project presents indigenous knowledge systems from mountain to ocean which are embedded in a larger social and human contexts from various mountain tribes and offshore islands’ social-ecological systems. In Taiwan, there are around 140 small islands and more than 15 nations/tribes of Indigenous People. Facing the global environmental changes and impacts from fast changing modernity, they are rebuilding traditional knowledge systems that embody sophisticated scientific literacies. This project will also examine how the methodologies of “Future Earth” (2013), which aim to build on local knowledges to produce solution-oriented research by co-design and co-production can build capacity within local communities and stakeholder groups. Fieldwork was conducted by the co-authors and local intellectuals via in-depth interviews and documentary devices. Focusing on indigenous knowledge on sky, current, ocean, fish, forest, cultivation, boat building, nature hazard resilience, and land-ocean governance, the project also presents current efforts to reorienting knowledge and learning systems in formal and non-formal education for younger generations participating in a co-designed process to build pathways for a sustainable future.
October 7, 2020
Native Science
This project explores Indigenous knowledge systems in Taiwan as forms of Native Science, showing how mountain and island communities integrate ecological understanding with lived experience. It highlights collaborative efforts to document traditional knowledge of land, sea, and climate resilience as pathways toward more sustainable futures.