Anticipatory co-governance for human rights to sciences across knowledge systems

Figures & data

Figure 1. Encounters across diverse knowledge systems with sciences embedded in them. Adapted from Tengo et al. 2014.⁸²

A diagram showing different strands of knowledge, including local, Western and Indigenous knowledge.

Table 1. Negative impacts of scientific practices on the human rights of Indigenous peoples, with current ways forward to redress this legacy.

UNDRIP clauses and negative impacts of scientific practices (UNDRIP clauses)	Specific example	Ways forward
Rights to life free of violence (Article 7). Living Indigenous peoples captured and exhibited in zoos	Head of the New York Zoological Society arranged for a Congolese Indigenous person to be displayed at Bronx Zoo in 1906. Similar examples from numerous countries^83	Zoos and scientific societies examine their history to enable truth-telling^84 and work with the relevant Indigenous peoples to negotiate redress and reparation
Protection from the removal of human remains (Article 7, 11). Burial sites robbed of human remains for scientific collections	The National Museum of Australia holds the remains of more than 700 Indigenous people, most returned from overseas scientific collections^85	Repatriate remains to communities where possible; collaborate with Indigenous people to establish appropriate resting places where repatriation is impossible^86
Protection from removal of cultural objects without Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) (Article 11)	British Museum holds an extraordinary collection of objects taken from Australian Indigenous Peoples without FPIC.^87 Vast collections of Indigenous artefacts are held in museums across the world.	Repatriate cultural objects,^88 link artefacts to Indigenous people where return is not possible,^89 supporting Indigenous-led cultural heritage research and curation^90
Protection from the removal of fossils (Article 11).Archaeological sites robbed, local communities/scientists excluded from studying them through cultural/structural discrimination	Publications on Jurassic–Cretaceous fossils from NE Brazil over the last three decades include several studies based on fossils illegally reposited in foreign collections, particularly in Germany and Japan^91	Keep fossils in the country/places of origin, acknowledge history, equitable, reciprocal partnerships that develop in-country expertise, participatory and Indigenous-led research, FPIC processes^92
Rights to traditional medicines and control of knowledge (Articles 24, 31). Knowledge of medicinal plants recorded by scientists who then have ownership	Aztec/Mayan knowledge of plants recorded by colonial scientists; publications (Codex) largely destroyed and remaining ones held in overseas collections^93	Collaboration to return knowledge to communities^94; legal changes to recognise the prior ownership by Indigenous peoples of their Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP); application of the Nagoya Protocol going forward
Right to control and develop manifestations of their sciences (Article 31). ‘Parachute science’ removes control of Indigenous peoples’ sciences	‘Parachute science’ occurs when scientists from non-local agencies conduct research or deploy programmes and fail to invest in, fully partner with, or recognise local governance, capacity, expertise, and social structures^95	Decolonise science through supporting Indigenous-led initiatives, mutually beneficial partnerships and knowledge co-production^96

Table 2. Examples of beneficial use by Indigenous people of Western science-derived technologies and key mechanisms for benefits.

Western science-derived technology	Example of beneficial use by Indigenous peoples	Key mechanisms
Aerial drones	Used in monitoring biocultural landscape of in northern Australia’s Kakadu National Park	Co-developed protocols^97
Digital and online technologies for Indigenous languages	Review highlighting numerous Indigenous-led online sites and Indigenous coders working on language revitalisation	Indigenous socio-technological self-determination, Indigenous content creators, developers, and visionaries are becoming increasingly visible and influential^98
Epidemiology using quantitative and statistical methods to document health concerns	Epidemiology for and by Indigenous people is an emerging field globally	Indigenous methodologies, Indigenous-centred courses, linkages with communities, countering racialised stereotypes, critical lens on colonial practices^99
Big data (largely digital data sets held by governments/international organisations) and open data (free public access)	The Global Indigenous Data Alliance highlights how Indigenous data sovereignty can support Native Nation rebuilding (https://www.gida-global.org/)	CARE principles – collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility and ethics – sit alongside the FAIR principles – findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable^100
Adaptation to climate change impacts	Co-production between local Arrente people of central Australia and scientists of knowledge about climate change, including a presentation in Arrente language	Respectful partnerships, cultural governance, Indigenous connection to traditional territories, a relationship with the nation-state that empower local decision-making, not central control^101