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| Huia Pacey, former Institute intern and currently a college student explains new technologies being used at the Bad Lands Bombing Range in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. |
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| Kim TallBear, a senior researcher at the Institute. |
Wellington, Aotearoa, February 7, 2001. Mervyn Tano and Kimberly TallBear of the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management traveled to Wellington, New Zealand in early February to participate in the R&D Management Conference 2001: Leveraging Research and Technology.
This was the first time the R&D Conference was held in the Southern Hemisphere and the first time it included a panel on indigenous issues. The Institute is one of the few indigenous organizations working on science and technology issues. Institute staff are members of several scientific societies including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society for Testing and Materials, and the American Nuclear Society. Mr. Tano was on the advisory board of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and Technology. He and Ms. TallBear have also worked with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on environmental technology issues. Also on the panel was Ms. Huia Pacey, a native of New Zealand and a former Institute intern. Ms. Aroha Te Pareake Mead, a Senior Lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington and one of the conference organizers was aware of the Institute's work in science and technology policy and asked that the Institute participate in a panel "The Role of Research and Technology in Indigenous Peoples and Global Development."
"The purpose of the panel," said Tano, "was to explain the place of indigenous peoples in the world in terms of international law and national law in New Zealand and the United States and the implications for indigenous peoples' participation in science and technology policy."
Tano's presentation was "Helping Make Environmental Clean Up More Culturally Sensitive: The Tribal Decision Makers Environmental Remediation Technology Matrix." Tano said his paper discussed "creating a framework for tribes to assess emerging technologies based on unique tribal cultural, social, economic political and other interests and also using traditional concepts like 'Kaitiaki' guardianship or 'rahui' restrictions."
This matrix, Tano said, is one of the ways of accessing this wide array of tribal interests that is really much more expansive and culturally sensitive way of performing risk assessments.
Kim TallBear's paper, "The Tribal Specific Approach to Genetic Research and Technology" attempted to counter notions often presented in pan-indigenous advocacy that there is one appropriate and easily understood "indigenous" response to genetic research and technology. The presentation advocated a tribal-specific approach to evaluating research and technology development and suggested that NGOs involved in advocacy might provide topical education and networking opportunities for tribes. However, they should refrain from espousing a pan-indigenous approach that may undermine the application of specific tribal values and priorities to evaluating research and technology development.
Huia Pacey, addressed the issue of the Badlands Bombing Range in South Dakota and how the local tribe was a test bed for some emerging technology which helped them identify unexploded ordnance in fairly inaccessible places. In addition, this work trained tribal personnel in the use of magnetometers to locate unexploded ordnance.
All of the papers presented by Institute staff at the conference were developed with the support of the Center for Risk Excellence of the U.S. Department of Energy. They can be found on the Institute's website, www.iiirm.org.