A wider policy context

UNESCO’s new publication and online resource, ‘Indigenous Knowledge, Ancestral Places: Navigating Change in UNESCO Designated Sites’, features 21 stories of Indigenous expertise, innovation, and creativity from territories around the globe. At the World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development, Mondiacult 2025, the side event to launch the report billed it as the organisation's ‘first comprehensive effort to show the deep linkages of culture and nature—a principle central to many Indigenous approaches to safeguarding natural and cultural resources.’ There is an important recognition amongst agroecologists, climate scientists and indigenous communities of the need to share and promote Indigenous knowledge systems and enable their integration into global policy, climate action, and cultural heritage and conservation efforts. The acknowledgement of indigenous knowledge systems is no doubt overdue.

Our intention: acknowledging and integrating indigenous knowledge

At the British Council, we are increasingly concerned with how to bridge different knowledge systems and how to find connections between them. We want our programmes, policy engagement and partnerships to be informed by insights from the diverse cultures of the communities where we work – and this means acknowledging that different cultures have different knowledge systems. Conventionally, this endeavour has often been understood/interpreted within a research context as ‘using a mixed methods approach’. Specifically, to answer a research question that requires both an understanding of trends, as well as the nuance of subjective lived experiences. However, increasingly we are thinking about how indigenous knowledge systems can inform and be in dialogue with other forms of knowledge, whether that’s knowledge generated through established Western academic disciplines, or through emerging disciplines such as creative/arts-based methodologies (such as this example of ‘practice as research’).

Research fellowships

One area that is deeply concerned with indigenous knowledge systems is climate resilience. We funded Early Career Research fellowships in 2023 related to the Ecologies in Place research cluster at Cambridge University. This partnership focused on sharing examples of climate action globally, drawing on local tacit knowledge and collective action. We also have two forthcoming early-career postdoctoral fellowships starting in January 2026, in partnership with the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh.

Dr. Dustin Lalkulhpuia (from Maharaja Bir Bikram College, Agartala), will be researching The Indigenous Thinks: Relational Sovereignty and Epistemic Interventions from Northeast India. The project addresses the marginalisation of Indigenous ways of knowing from global knowledge systems, with a focus on Northeast India, but also with a fascinating comparative dimension that will relate the study to indigenous concepts from Latin America. The project aims to explore how a more inclusive global knowledge base can support new ways of responding to urgent planetary challenges and build climate resilience.

The second fellowship has been awarded to a scholar and theatre practitioner from the Philippines, Dr Elsie Albis from Ateneo de Naga University. Elsie’s project is Translating The Tempest: Bikolisation of the Shakespearean Stage in the Philippines. Over the course of the fellowship, she will write her own theatre adaptation of The Tempest in the Bikol language, connecting the story to the local experiences and realities of climate change in the Bikol region. Once back in the Philippines, she will organise live readings and feedback on the script with community partners. Her ultimate hope is to stage the play in a public space.

The Kamiriithu Theatre Virtual Reconstruction, Kenya

These are some of the ways that the British Council contributes towards sharing, learning and valuing indigenous knowledge in relation to climate resilience. It's important to emphasise that many others are working in this area, from individuals, civil society groups, to larger multi-lateral organisations such as UNESCO.  It’s a root system forming around bridging knowledge systems for climate resilience. This was evident at one of the British Council convened side events at Mondiacult, which was concerned with unpacking the role of cultural heritage and digital technology in shaping responses to the climate emergency.

It was quite a panel, and it included the formidable Mutanu Kyany’a – Head of Programs and Outreach at African Digital Heritage. She was discussing the role that advancements in digital technology, alongside indigenous knowledge, can play in providing further opportunities for innovation and imagination. She discussed how technology should always come second, and be shaped by cultural heritage, through the case study of the Kamiriithu Theatre Virtual Reconstruction. The Kamiriithu theatre in Limuru, Kenya, was a site of decolonial resistance to British colonisation (and post-colonial corruption), built in 1976, but burnt down in 1983. Key to Mutanu’s argument is that using technology, such as 3d modelling in this instance, must be shaped by the people who will use it; ‘they must speak to futures they see themselves in’.

Other practitioners and academics are focused on improving food systems, and addressing climate change through indigenous knowledge, such as  Wairimu (Nimo) Muthike’s work, in Kenya. Through personal anecdotes, she emphasises the significance of rediscovering traditional foods like Nathi and learning from past agricultural practices. You can watch her TED talk in the references. My father (now deceased), who was one of the pioneers of Agroforestry, a forerunner to the discipline of agroecology, stated in the preface to his book, Tropical Agroforestry (1993), ‘We should always remember that people are the key elements in agroforestry. Being inclined towards biology, I can only refer to some of the socio-economic aspects in this book (and without claiming much authority).’ His last aside is an acknowledgement of the insights he learnt through his discussions with farmers in the 1950s-1990s.

I wish he had met and perhaps shared a meal with Wairimu and Mutanu, including Nathi – I think they would have had lots to talk about!

Future directions

Not only are the two IASH fellowships starting early next year, but our cultural heritage work continues to deliver insights at the cross-section of climate resilience and indigenous knowledge. Look out for the forthcoming Atlas for Cultural Policies in Ibero-America: Climate, Culture, and Heritage report, (to be launched in December). The report is intended to be a practical tool for authorities, institutions, professionals, and other stakeholders involved in policy design and development. It will examine public and government initiatives, funding, and trends in cultural heritage (both tangible and intangible) and climate change across Ibero-America countries, comparing how climate change and cultural policies vary and what factors lead to success or failure. You may also be interested in the recent Human-Nature: Relations, Resilience & Reciprocity report from Malaysia. This research centers artistic collaboration and community engagement, highlighting the role arts and culture can play in addressing climate adaptation. The programme fosters partnerships between communities, arts practitioners, scientists, and academia to embed arts and creative responses for climate adaptation. We are increasingly interested in learning more, and supporting initatives that foster the bridging between different knowledge systems towards concrete actions. Get in touch: researchglobal@britishcouncil.org.

Further resources

African Digital Heritage (2023) Kamiriithu Theatre: 3D Reconstruction. Accessed from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRtdYVFbX6Q

Collected reports, podcasts and blogs related to Mondiacult 2025: https://arts.britishcouncil.org/mondiacult-2025-collected-resources

Cultural Protection Fund projects (2025): https://cultural-protection-fund.britishcouncil.org/projects

Huxley PA (1980) Agroforestry - developing a new research discipline. In: Buck L (ed) Proceedings of the Kenya National Seminar on Agroforestry, 12–22 Nov 1980 ICRAF, University of Nairobi, Kenya. pp 55–68

Huxley PA (1999). Tropical agroforestry. Blackwell Science, Oxford.

McHattie, L-S., & Teo Boon Ting, W. (2025). Human-Nature: Relations, Resilience & Reciprocity. British Council. https://doi.org/10.57884/4SXZ-QR47

McKenna, F., Rivera-Carlisle, J., Foale, M. G., Gould, A., Rivera-Carlisle, P., Andrews, H., Grant, S., Hawcroft, A., Head, D. (2025). Digital Cultural Heritage: Imagination, innovation and opportunity. British Council. https://doi.org/10.57884/h3dv-7q98

Muthike, N. (2024). What Indigenous knowledge reveals about our food and agriculture. TedX Kitisuru (Oct 2024). Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RM5UmYJpWY&t=99s

van Noordwijk, M., Coe, R., Sinclair, F.L. et al. (2021) Climate change adaptation in and through agroforestry: four decades of research initiated by Peter Huxley. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 26, 18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-021-09954-5