Indigenous Knowledge, Disability, and Ecological Wisdom
摘要
This chapter investigates the intricate interaction among the traditionally held knowledge systems of the Indigenous people, disabilities, and ecological wisdom in Oceania, while at the same time pointing out how the factors of colonialism, Western epistemology, and structural marginalization have affected the survival of the Indigenous PwD. It brings together interdisciplinary research, lived experiences, and regional case studies from the Pacific countries to criticize the main Western disability frameworks that ignore the Indigenous worldviews, which are based on interdependence, spirituality, relational identity, and connection to the land of the ancestors. It also points out that the Indigenous people's view of disability—that is, based on cultural belonging, social roles, kinship networks, and holistic well-being—is in sharp contrast with the biomedical and deficit models that have been imposed through colonial education, law, and medicine. The chapter also looks at the influence of climate variation on the Indigenous communities with disabilities and the risk of disasters that are heightened by the lack of traditional ecological knowledge, community-based support systems, and culturally grounded resilience strategies. Climate change and ecological loss, if not handled properly, would not only impede cultural continuity but also make Indigenous-led knowledge and governance structures, as well as disability-inclusive resilience systems, unavoidable pathways for rights, self-determination, and sustainable futures in the Pacific. The chapter ends with a strong call to decouple disability from the colonial past and the Western way of viewing things, by issuing a call to the Indigenous ways of knowing as the leaders of equitable and culturally sensitive responses to disability and disaster vulnerability in Oceania.