Rewilding ‘knowledges’: blending science and indigenous knowledge systems

This chapter alerts rewilders to cultural and conceptual challenges attending attempts to amalgamate Western science with traditional Indigenous knowledge. Springing from the problematic identity of ‘rewilding’ for Europeanised culture, it reprises the violent colonial binary expressed by the two knowledges, while acknowledging the ecological precarity that urges their reconciliation. Exploring the cultural complexities of such reconciliation is crucial if ‘rewilding’ is to develop as a liminal, ‘blended’ practice. Four approaches to illuminating ‘rewilding’ are considered, beginning with the problematics of finding language to discuss ‘Indigenous knowledge’. Second, the lived experience of land-based practices, situated in a complex web of ecological activity, are considered, acknowledging that intergenerational transmission of knowledge is inseparable from the lived experience of active, functional, and local learning. Third, the chapter points to the importance of adequately engaging with Indigenous cosmologies as a fundamental part of culturally transmitted knowledge. Finally, it considers new cartographies to posit a posthuman intersectionality between Western ‘scientific’ and traditional ‘Indigenous’ knowledges as systemically interdependent. Only through exploring the philosophical and practical creation of such new socio-cultural landscapes can rewilders create successfully the innovative knowledge required for their work.