The North-West University’s (NWU’s) Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Centre has partnered with the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) on a public awareness campaign on the Indigenous Knowledge Act and the Bio-cultural Protocol*.

This Indigenous Knowledge Act focuses on the protection, promotion, management and development of indigenous knowledge in the country, and the Bio-cultural Protocol (BCP) was developed by the DSI as a tool to enforce the act.  

The awareness campaign kicked off in the ZF Mgcaw Municipality in Upington on 30 October, with the Tshwane Municipality in Soshanguve next in line on 19 November.

 “In Upington we engaged with members of the Khoi and San communities, traditional leaders and other government department representatives who wanted to know more about the act,” said Mothusiotsile Maditsi, a PhD candidate at the IKS Centre.

In Soshanguve undergraduate and postgraduate students from the IKS Centre spoke to communities from Mabopane, Garankuwa, Wintervelt, Eersterust, Refilwe, Hammanskraal and Rethabiseng.

The IKS Centre also shared information on its BIKS degree to encourage young people to actively take part in the promotion and preservation of indigenous knowledge.

“The IKS Centre recognises the value of community engagement and is therefore driving several projects to create a socially just environment to benefit the university and the communities it serves,” added Mothusiotsile.

“This collaborative awareness roadshow will be taken to the other provinces to make communities aware of the Indigenous Knowledge Act and how it affects them as custodians of indigenous knowledge,” he added.

* A bio-cultural community protocol is a document that is developed after a community undertakes a consultative process to outline their core cultural and spiritual values and customary laws relating to their traditional knowledge and resources.

Various community members attended the Indigenous Knowledge Act awareness campaign in Upington.