Indigenous Knowledge and Empowerment: Rural Development Examined from Within

The argument that rural development serving the needs of rural villagers in the third world should be based on indigenous knowedge is not new. In practice, however, development projects continue to be based on Anglo-European models. In this paper I examine what development anchored in indigenous knowledge and indigenous epistemology entails as seen from the perspective of an indigenous Pacific Islander. I show that the Kwara‘ae of Malaita, Solomon Islands, have a rich and complex conception, body of knowledge, and discourse about devel- opment, much of which precedes western contact. keywords: indigenous knowledge, indigenous epistemology, Kwara‘ae, modern- ization, rural development, Solomon Islands

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