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Indigenous knowledge is the ancestral knowledge that is transmitted from generation to generation. It includes spirituality, creativity, and technologies that do not harm the environment but are part of our survival, always in harmony with what surrounds human beings. Indigenous knowledge is then holistic: everything is connected. On the other hand, Western science is individualistic and has a tendency to fragment everything in order to simplify its understanding. It tends to view reality in an objective manner. This fragmentation has become the foundation of Western science. In societies characterized by modernization, Western science is viewed as superior to indigenous knowledge. Progress, influenced by Western thinking, often does not even recognize indigenous knowledge as such. Many forget where the medicines that form part of today's economic system come from. Those who have placed those medicines in the market do not even admit where their so called "discoveries" come from. Furthermore, they take away from those who helped them the products that form those medicines. Western science has turned to traditional knowledge in order to find new medicines, converting traditional knowledge into a lucrative business. Its application and the exploitation of its commercial value are subjects of concern as indigenous peoples, original possessors of this wisdom, are being the victims of "biopiracy" disguised under the term "bioprospecting". Bioprospecting is the search for medicinal values in biological species. The properties of these plants are then commercialized and people from different places can have access to the medicines being marketed. However, the problems that bioprospecting has provoked in the intellectual property rights' arena have made this enterprise to be better defined as "biopiracy". Biopiracy is the misappropriation of biological and intellectual resources by transnational corporations. Whenever someone finds a medicinal property in a plant, the plant can be privatized and commercialized. A monopoly over the plant is then created in order to generate money; money that does not benefit everyone equally and, ironically, those whom it benefits the least are those who originally made the discovery. When the properties of the plants are commercialized, anyone who has the economic resources can purchase the medicines. This restricts access to the people who originally used these resources; indigenous peoples who have to pay for a resource that was available to them. Many scientists go to indigenous communities in order to learn the healing methods employed by traditional knowledge holders. They then attribute to themselves indigenous peoples' knowledge; a knowledge that has participated since time immemorial in First Nations' communities. Today, many of the medicines that we find in pharmacies come from that ancestral wisdom that is viewed as inferior- one more contradiction of the individualistic system in which we participate. Intellectual Property Rights agreements were implemented in order to solve this situation. However, these agreements carry many contradictions as they protect those who patent the plant: people who are not the original inventors or discoverers of the plant's qualities. The person who uses traditional knowledge to commercialize his or her findings is making profit out of a finding made by others who are not being rewarded for their contributions. This also supposes that there is an owner of the discovery, while indigenous knowledge is collective and implies a fluidity of ideas, making it impossible to attribute it to a single person. Bioprospecting is then part of modernized colonization; money is above ethics while science continues to minimize the contributions made by traditional knowledge holders. Recognizing traditional knowledge as wisdom is important in order to consider sustainable development (satisfy the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations). The fact that scientists are using traditional knowledge suggests that, when taking the positive aspects of both, Western science and traditional knowledge can be complementary. It is necessary to recognize traditional knowledge as wisdom in order to make people more conscious regarding the necessity to respect nature. This would promote the compromise towards equality, the respect towards the environment, and the minimization of racism. Science needs to be replaced by the holistic nature of indigenous knowledge in order to understand how one's actions can affect everything and not only the parts that are being studied independently from what surrounds them. This will also restore balance between human beings and earth, harmony with the universe and nature. Cherie A. Beninger
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