The North-West University (NWU), in collaboration with the University of Venda (UNIVEN) and Indigenous Terrain, recently co-hosted an Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Webinar series.

This first collaborative student-organised online webinar took place on 15 June 2021. Indigenous Terrain is an NWU student-led non-profit organisation that strives to promote the use of indigenous knowledge and integrate it with modern knowledge.

The purpose of the webinar was to introduce innovation and social entrepreneurship through the experiences of IKS students and graduates who run their own businesses.

In his welcome address, the UNIVEN executive dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education, Prof Bongani Bantwini, said it was encouraging to see students taking entrepreneurship seriously.

He reminded them that unemployment statistics rose from 32,5 in the first quarter of 2021 to 32,6 recently, which is the highest unemployment rate since comparable data became available in 2008. “Of great concern is that the highest number of unemployed persons comprises young people who have degrees,” he said.

Professor Bantwini further motivated and congratulated students for being proactive and for introducing the collaborative webinar.

UNIVEN’s director for community engagement, Prof Vhonani Netshandama, emphasised that the power of collaborative innovation encourages students to share their ideas with their peers and tap into diverse insights and perspectives to co-create entrepreneurial ventures.

She said innovation is an interactive process in which different types of knowledge are combined, as defined by Lundvall 1985 and 1988. She familiarised the students with the “4Cs” of innovation, namely creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration and added that it should be embedded in their thoughts and actions.

Prof Netshandama stated that future IKS leaders should be educated to view the uncertainty of the unknowable future not as a problem to be solved, but rather as a reality to be embraced. “IKS students should stand their ground and interact with the knowledge users, producers, policymakers and indigenous knowledge holders. We need challenges and problems to be innovators.”

The acting director of the NWU’s IKS Centre, Dr Motheo Koitsiwe, indicated that the webinar shifted the mindset of thinking of IKS as only traditional medicine. He encouraged students to be proud of speaking in vernacular languages and to consider doing their dissertations in their vernacular to promote multidisciplinary indigenous knowledge.