How can you incorporate indigenous knowledge into your product R&D process?

For me, considering my Taino and Zacatecas indigenous heritage adds a personal connection to this process. Understanding the context is essential. I have always started by researching my specific indigenous communities' histories, cultural nuances, values, and rights of the Taino and Zacatecas peoples. This deepened my appreciation of their unique perspectives and helped me avoid misunderstandings. Remember to seek prior informed consent from indigenous knowledge holders, drawing on heritage's insights to navigate this process thoughtfully. By doing so, you contribute to preserving and valuing indigenous wisdom in a culturally sensitive manner. This adds a meaningful layer to your journey of incorporating indigenous knowledge into R&D.

There are several key points that provide the foundation for any attempt to include indigenous knowledge in any project. - Indigenous peoples and communities are the complete and final authority on their own knowledge systems. - You cannot meaningfully include indigenous knowledge into a project as a component of it. Indigenous people need to be involved in the design of the entire project, from the very first inception. - Including indigenous knowledge only as a component of a piece of work, is not appropriate and subsumes that knowledge under the paradigm and worldview of the overall project. If Indigenous knowledge is important to your work, then rather than beginning by acquiring it, begin by strengthening it before taking from it

Incorporating indigenous knowledge into product research and development (R&D) processes involves a respectful and collaborative approach. 1. **Collaborative Research**: Foster collaborative research projects with indigenous communities, researchers, and stakeholders to co-create innovative solutions that draw on both traditional and modern knowledge systems. 2. **Long-term Partnerships**: Establish long-term partnerships and ongoing dialogue with indigenous communities to ensure continued engagement, mutual learning, and shared decision-making in the R&D process.

Very humanely. In such an engagement there is no indigenous Tribe and the other. Instead there are 2 human beings with common similarities and understanding for example, both are born naked, both will surely die, both suffer and both feel. Then is to listen. Why listen? We often try to approach unfamiliar scenarios through talking or dialogue about the issues we face. Yet talking truly requires listening. Before assuming to know, know nothing and listen to everyone with open ears. After listening ensure that whatever framework is built is truly a reflection of the whole. This part we call "love in action" or compassion. This is what in Ubuntu we consider "talking" under the big tree.

The difficulty is, if you start a relationship with indigenous communities for the purpose of gaining indigenous knowledge, then you haven't started a relationship, you have engaged in a transaction where you hope to exchange relational capital for that knowledge. If you want to build relationships with indigenous communities, start by contributing to them. Be of service to something important to that community that has no material or reputational benefit to you or your organisation. Relationships will manifest themselves if your contributions are meaningful and altruistic, and trust will be built. Conceptualizing this through Western thinking is problematic, as the relationship-building process is not formulaic.