Global Indigenous Peoples News Bulletin #20 (September 2026)
This bulletin devoted to Global Indigenous Peoples News, part of the Glocal Exchange project of Weave News, seeks to highlight some of the current issues from Indigenous communities in different parts of the world. The focus of the bulletin is aligned with the overall purpose of the Glocal Exchange project, which examines globalization through its impact from the perspective of local communities. It also supports the Weave News mission to “investigate and report about contemporary issues that are either underreported by establishment and other corporate media or reported in a way that excludes essential context, perspectives, and voices.” These are “issues that have a strong justice component and that reveal connections across communities, borders, struggles, and experiences.”
Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property and AI
Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) rights are covered in the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which states that Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control and protect their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expression. “Writing about Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property requires consideration of protocols,” notes Dr Terri Janke, a Wuthathi, Yadhaigana and Meriam woman and a nationally and internationally recognized expert. “Yet, when AI is involved in producing an output, these protocols are compromised. AI outputs left unchecked can lead to cultural harm for Indigenous people.”
Dr. Terry Janke. (Photo: ABtjc, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Some of the problems with AI and its interactions with ICIP that Janke mentions are: cultural theft, cultural “flattening” or homogenization, and AI’s frequent amplification of dubious or biased source material. She offers a number of recommendations for writers when creating content involving Indigenous stories, knowledge, and cultural expression, including:
“Cultural Authority (Have the right First Nations people been consulted and given their prior and informed consent for this story or content?); Self-determination (Are Indigenous people involved in the decisions about the story being made public?); Interpretation (Is the story culturally accurate?); Cultural Integrity (Are cultures, languages, symbols, and practices depicted with integrity?); Attribution (Have the Indigenous people involved been properly attributed?); Secrecy and Privacy (Does the work avoid showing sacred, secret, or sensitive material?).”
The conclusion of the analysis is that there are “opportunities but also responsibilities” associated with AI use. Writers dealing with Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property,” Janke emphasizes, “need to respect ICIP protocols.”
In its flagship magazine UN Chronicle, the United Nations published an article titled “Counting (on) Indigenous Peoples: Data Sovereignty in the Age of AI.” The authors, Gio Lugo Miole and Jonghwi Park, call for recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ meaningful authority over how AI systems — their data, languages, knowledge or cultural materials — are developed and used. They further argue that Indigenous data sovereignty must be central to AI governance.
A participant attending the Dialogue on Financing of Indigenous Peoples’ Work and Participation Across Multilateral and Regional Systems, held during the twenty-fourth session of UNPFII, New York, 23 April 2025. (Photo: UN/Loey Felipe)
When it comes to scientific research and scholarly publishing, some Indigenous scholars have developed new guidelines to help ensure Indigenous peoples’ rights, knowledge and data sovereignty are respected. “The Guidelines for the Governance of Indigenous Peoples’ Data in Scholarly Publishing seek to apply the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance to academic publishing,” explains a September article from Native News Online. “CARE stands for collective benefit, authority to control data, responsibility and ethics. The guidelines are intended to help researchers, publishers and others working with Indigenous data do so in ways that support Indigenous peoples’ rights, interests, self-determination, collective benefit and well-being.”
Meanwhile, Creative Commons (CC) recently launched a new publication entitled “Guidance for Indigenous Collections and Indigenous Data: Recommendations from Creative Commons and Local Contexts.” The guidelines aim to support cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) in navigating the complex legal, ethical, and cultural issues regarding open access to Indigenous heritage and associated data:
“The purpose of this new Guidance is to advance practical understanding among cultural heritage practitioners of how open heritage interplays with the protection of Indigenous rights over their heritage and data. The guidance unpacks the key issues underlying equitable access to and reuse of Indigenous cultural heritage and maps out the practical steps institutions can take when engaging with Indigenous communities.”
Indigenous Knowledge
Recent developments in the international intellectual property landscape—the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, ongoing IGC negotiations, and discussions on access and benefit sharing and digital governance— make it necessary to examine their implications for traditional medicine. “As traditional medicine knowledge becomes increasingly digitized and utilized through research, artificial intelligence and innovation ecosystems,” writes the World Health Organization (WHO), “new policy questions arise regarding equitable benefit sharing, governance of traditional medicine data, and the recognition of Indigenous Peoples and local communities as rights holders in the stewardship and governance of their knowledge systems.”
In this context, the WHO launched the “WHO Global research priorities and agenda for traditional, complementary and integrative medicine 2025–2034,” which emphasizes that Indigenous Peoples and traditional knowledge holders must be genuine partners in research. “It calls for stronger protections for intellectual property, equitable benefit sharing and respect for cultural integrity,” the organization notes in a September update. “The report also highlights opportunities for traditional medicine research to contribute to emerging global challenges, including antimicrobial resistance, pandemic preparedness, healthy aging, climate change and the responsible use of artificial intelligence. It calls for governance frameworks that enable innovation while protecting traditional knowledge and data sovereignty.”
A group of traditional knowledge experts and healers from Guyana, Suriname and Brazil have launched Regional Traditional Knowledge and Healers Network at the Iwokrama Forest, the Amazon Conservation Team Guianas (ACT Guianas) and Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development (IICRCD). This is a regional networking platform that “supports the intergenerational transmission of traditional medicinal and healing knowledge, exchanges among healers and apprentices, traditional health clinics, medicinal-plant initiatives, and the protection of community-owned knowledge,” writes Denis Chabrol for Demerara Waves. “The ACT facilitates coordination, fundraising, and dialogue with governments and formal healthcare institutions, while ensuring that authority over traditional knowledge remains with the participating healers and communities.
Writing for Global Voices, Jeslyn Lemke reports that in Ghana, Indigenous plants offer an alternative to costly Western medicine. People in rural Ghana rely on traditional plant knowledge for accessibility, cost, and familiarity. The traditional medicine market in Ghana is thriving,” writes Lemke, “offering countless cures passed down by generations of Indigenous Ga and Twi tribes.” About 60 to 70 percent of the Ghanaian population depends on traditional medicine markets for their medical care, according to a 2023 study in Frontiers in Pharmacology.
