Science, gender equality, and the inclusion and participation of indigenous peoples and especially indigenous women are vital for the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Indigenous women are food providers, custodians of seeds, keepers of medicinal plants, and guardians of biodiversity. The indigenous traditional knowledge they hold is key for nature- based solutions in the context of climate change and sustainable development. 

Over the past 15 years, the global community has made a lot of effort in inspiring and engaging women and girls in science, unfortunately, indigenous women continue to face inequalities, biases, and the systematic lack of respect for their individual and collective rights that places them in situations of vulnerability.

The empowerment of indigenous women is not only a central issue but also a necessary condition in order to achieve these goals. The ancestral knowledge they hold and the profound knowledge they have of their unique territories makes their contribution to science especially important. 

This wealth of knowledge may include the medicinal value and food use of plants, herbs, shrubs, and trees. Such knowledge is contemporary and dynamic evolving nowadays under constant pressures. indigenous women’s knowledge, activities and community roles are reliant on their relationship with Mother Earth, their territories, and natural resources. 

Today on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science we celebrate indigenous women and their knowledge, and we would like to highlight some indigenous women scientists and their achievements. This year’s celebration of the Day will address the theme “Women Scientists at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19”, a fight in which indigenous women have played a fundamental role. 

Camilla Brattland is an Indigenous Sámi social scientist with an interdisciplinary background from indigenous studies and marine resource management. She specializes in research on the participation of indigenous peoples in knowledge production and resource management in Arctic and northern areas, including governance of small-scale fisheries and reindeer husbandry as an associate professor at UiT – the Arctic University of Norway. Brattland teaches bachelor and master students of community and urban planning in the fields of mixed, quantitative methods and GIS (geographical information systems). 

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, she has developed digital teaching materials utilising statistical data on the development of the pandemic at the world country level and the municipal level for Norway to engage and motivate social science students to study real-world phenomena using quantitative and spatial data sets. The data sets, which were developed as part of a project lead by Brattland, span the period from the outbreak of the pandemic to November 2020, and for the Norwegian municipal level it also includes variables on fisheries and coastal communities. The national and country-level data sets are published in an open research data portal (The Stein Rokkan Research Group for Quantitative Social and Political Science (dataverse.no) where they are available to students and researchers alike, and form the basis for examples in a video series and for student exercises on the COVID-19 pandemic that have been put to use for around 200 students since the fall 2020 semester. Brattland and her team won the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences’ “Prize of Education 2020” for the project in December 2020. She continues to apply the teaching design in new courses and expanding upon the data sets as students engage in gathering statistics on the development of the COVID-19 pandemic as part of university courses and their own student projects.

“Indigenous women in science will utilize science to the benefit of indigenous communities & pass on scientific literacy to their children, thus contributing to the sustainability & literacy capacity of indigenous communities in general” - Camilla Brattland.

Guriwun Torres Zalabata is an indigenous woman and biologist from the Arhuaco People of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia.Torres Zalabata graduated from the National University of Colombia, later enrolling in a Master's Degree in Biology Sciences at the same university. After finishing university, she returned to her community to work with youth, women, and elders in environmental and ethnobotanical matters. She provides professional and technical support to the indigenous organization, fostering the Arhuaco's ethnoeducation through ethnobotanical research. She is currently conducting research, seeking sacred plants of high value for the Arhuaco's cosmovision with medical, spiritual, and nutritional properties. 

In response to COVID-19, she has promoted within their communities to revitalize their traditional practices resorting to natural medicine and sacred plants, strengthen the Arhuaco's food system, and boost the Arhuaco's cultural principles as the only avenue to ensure the survival of her people but also of humanity. 

“The value of our engagement in science lies in our crucial contribution generating new knowledge based on ancestral knowledge that responds to indigenous peoples' realities and interests. I believe this knowledge process forges a bridge of understanding between sicence and indigenous peoples' scientific views. My elders' teachings help me better understand modern societies’ science, enabling me to apply both approaches for my people's welfare. I believe our contribution to science enhances visibility, increasing our participation and leadership in decision-making processes” - Guriwun Torres Zalabata

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is an expert in the adaptation and mitigation of indigenous peoples to climate change. She is a member of the Mbororo pastoralist people in Chad and President of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT). Oumarou Ibrahim is an advocate for the greater inclusion of indigenous people and their knowledge and traditions in the global movement to fight the effects of climate change. Oumarou Ibrahim received the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award and was appointed as a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Advocate. She serves as a Member of the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues; Member of the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC); Member of the Advisory Committee to the Secretary-General’s 2019 Climate Action Summit; and Conservation International Senior Indigenous Fellow. In 2019, she was listed by Time Magazine as one of 15 women championing action on climate change. 

Hindou has also participated for over a decade in high-level international policy discussions advocating for environmental protection for indigenous peoples through the Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification Conventions. She co-chaired the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) and was a coordinator of the world indigenous peoples’ initiative and pavilion for COP21, COP22 and COP23. In 2016, she was selected to be the speaker representing civil society at the 2016 signing ceremony of the historic Paris Agreement.

Jane Lokomaikaʻikeakua Au is a Kānaka Maoli woman, raised on the shores of Māeaea, on the island of Oʻahu. She obtained her BA and MA in Religion at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where she focused on the ancestral Hawaiian belief system. In 2018 she successfully defended her Master’s thesis on Kanaloa, the principle oceanic deity in Hawaiʻi, using rarely accessed Hawaiian Language resources and materials. She currently works as the program director for ʻĀina Momona, a native Hawaiian nonprofit dedicated to achieving environmental health and sustainability through restoring social justice and de-occupying Hawaiian lands. Her goals are centered on food sovereignty and the revitalization of traditional Hawaiian food systems and natural resource management practices. Jane is currently the Pacific representative and vice co-Chair of the Facilitative Working Group of the Local Communities and Indigenous People's Platform under the UNFCCC.

“Having survived centuries in a sphere of systems meant for us to die in, indigenous women represent a power the world has yet to fully realize. The environmental & conservation movements of our time are but a drop of the ocean we have to offer.” - Jane Lokomaikaʻikeakua Au

Tania Eulalia Martinez-Cruz is an Ayuujk indigenous woman from Oaxaca, Mexico. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Greenwich, working on issues linked to public health, nutrition, women, and indigenous peoples and which are crucial issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

She holds a BSc in Irrigation engineering from Chapingo Autonomous University, Mexico where she addressed issues of water reuse in agriculture. In 2012 she became the first indigenous recipient of a Fulbright scholarship in Mexico and which lead her to pursue her MSc in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Arizona. Her MSc. Research focused on bioethanol production as a biofuel alternative using less water and arable land. She also holds a PhD in Social Science from Wageningen University where she focussed on politics of knowledge in technology driven interventions in Mexico. Since 2006, she has worked in international development. Currently she is part of the Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems coordinated by FAO. In 2020, she fulfilled a year of community service as the Secretary of the Women's Office in her hometown, Tamazulapam del Espiritu Santo and contributed to issues linked to the welfare of women in her community. This community service is an expression of the right to self-determination of her community that appoints representatives every year.

Tania also does advocacy work for the right to education of indigenous women and minority groups in STEM. In 2016, because of her academic trajectory and social commitment, she was awarded the National Youth Prize by the Mexican Government. 

“Indigenous women are keepers of undermined & ignored ancestral knowledge that can help us tackle global problems such as loss of biodiversity, public health, migration, and climate change. Researchers & scientists play a crucial role in conversations about global problems that we face today and their solutions. Unfortunately, the perspectives & voices of indigenous women are still systematically excluded from science, impoverishing our understanding of the world and contributing to inequality.” -  Tania Eulalia Martinez-Cruz

Read the Indigenous Women, Daughters’ of Mother Earth brochure: http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cb0719en

Follow the Global Campaign for the Empowerment of Indigenous Women for Zero Hunger: http://www.fao.org/indigenous-peoples/indigenous-women/en/