Conference set on issues of indigenous peoples
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writer
More than 1,000 people from 71 countries will attend "Building Bridges with Traditional Knowledge II," a conference May 28-June 2 in Honolulu that will bring indigenous people together with scientists, planners, government officials and students to share knowledge and build connections, the second of its kind in four years.
From Madagascar, Nat Quansah, recipient of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, will talk about the health-care system and a rural clinic he runs. From Indonesia, Andreas Embe will speak of his native Tado culture, the first time he's traveled outside his country, and the first exposure of the Tado culture to an international audience. From the United States, Leon Secatero, a Navajo spiritual elder, will speak of his work promoting indigenous tribal sovereignty. Three hundred Hawai'i people will participate.
'Building Bridges with Traditional Knowledge II'
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An international conference on issues involving indigenous peoples, conservation, sustainable development and ethnoscience.
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May 28-June 2, Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel.
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Daily registration, $100; full registration $290 for the public, $230 for cultural representatives, $230 for students.
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956-6738 or e-mail bbt2@hawaii.edu
Participants will be able to choose from sessions dealing with intellectual property rights, traditional knowledge and its relationship to business, indigenous perspectives on ethnobiological research, patenting traditional knowledge, and more.
"Out of the first summit in 1997 in Florida, three Native American companies were started," said Markus Faigle, summit organizer. They each market herbs used in traditional medicines. Additionally, a variety of projects were launched, including a reforestation project in Mexico. And many students were inspired to enter graduate school to study traditional knowledge systems.
Mike Wysong is one. After attending the first summit in Florida as a University of Florida undergraduate, he decided on graduate studies in ethnobotany at the University of Hawai'i. "Because of the conference," said Wysong, "I made a lot of contacts and got to see what world ethnobotany was all about."
