Australian Seed Banks: moving toward seed and seed data collection practice in the context of Indigenous people, knowledge and traditions?

Abstract

This chapter draws on research addressing an identified need within Australian seed banks for guidance about institutional processes to effectively manage the risks surrounding Indigenous cultural knowledge and seeds. The chapter begins by describing seed bank performance as part of a social responsibility system, where there is a need for institutions to respectfully engage with communities, the people that make up those communities and the knowledge those people hold. The challenge introduced in the first part of the chapter is for governance arrangements to facilitate seed bank practitioners' appreciation of seeds and seed data as being socially grounded, linking Indigenous people, their traditions, knowledge and landscapes. This emphasises the cultural importance of knowledge linked with a biophysical seed sample. The potential erosion of traditional knowledge and cultural integrity associated with seed collection and banking processes prompts questions about developing governance arrangements within seed banks to create synergy rather than conflicts with Indigenous people about seeds and associated knowledge. The law has a part to play in facilitating the transmission of reliable information between parties involved in such transactions.