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Description: Indigenous Peoples have protected and stewarded traditional knowledges since time immemorial. Traditional ecological knowledges (TEK) are a form of traditional knowledge that has been acquired over thousands of years by Indigenous Peoples. Traditional ecological knowledges encompass the on-going accumulation of Indigenous knowledge relating to Nature and embodies innately the interconnected relationships between humans and ecosystems. Some forms of Indigenous traditional medicine, as well as health and wellbeing knowledge, are also a form of TEK, with medicines often coming directly from the landscapes where Indigenous Peoples reside. Indigenous communities have historically relied on oral forms of knowledge transmission; however, over a number of decades, communities have put greater effort into recording their traditional ecological knowledge in varied formats (e.g., cassette tapes, etc.). Currently, Indigenous Peoples face many challenges in preserving and protecting their traditional ecological knowledges as a result of many complex factors. For example, many Indigenous communities may have repositories of TEK in older technology formats that may need to be converted to secure digital platforms to prevent loss of valuable data. This can require funding, capacity, and data sovereignty plans that can be difficult to mobilize within over-stretched communities. Regardless, there is a tremendous need to ensure the protection and preservation of traditional ecological knowledges currently housed within old technologies in many Indigenous communities. Special attention and focus are also needed to ensure Indigenous traditional medicine as well as health and wellbeing-related traditional ecological knowledges are also secured for generations to come. Yet, despite the importance of protecting and preserving health and wellbeing-related traditional ecological knowledges within communities, there is a lack of available Indigenous-led accessible resources on how communities may do this. With this, we sought to carry out a scoping review to identify available guidance documents for setting up TEK repositories within Indigenous communities with a special focus on traditional medicine-related TEK.
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