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From Cognitive Justice to Ethical Repair: Towards Climate Resilience through Indigenous and Gendered Knowledge Systems
Book online here: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/a1274b5a-caa3-40b9-9c9e-85736a0b06e2@cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91
Book in person below
The climate crisis is not only environmental – it is epistemic. It underscores the need to move beyond singular ways of knowing towards more plural and relational understandings of the Earth. This lecture traces a movement from cognitive justice – the right of multiple forms of knowledge to coexist, to ethical repair – the restoration of right relationship between knowledge systems, communities, and the Earth. Drawing on African Indigenous philosophies such as Ubuntu, and Sankofa, Rutendo Ngara considers how Indigenous and gendered epistemologies might guide more relational and regenerative approaches to socio-ecological restoration. She reflects on how perspectives rooted in the feminine principle can complement scientific and policy frameworks. The lecture suggests that climate resilience may depend on epistemic resilience – the willingness to listen across worlds, to acknowledge what has been severed, and to cultivate futures grounded in justice, balance, and care.
Speaker bio: Rutendo Lerato Ngara is an independent transdisciplinary scholar and Indigenous Knowledge Systems practitioner from Southern Africa whose work bridges science, healing, Indigenous cosmology, and ancestral wisdom. Initiated in multiple African traditions, she integrates academic degrees in electrical and biomedical engineering with experience spanning clinical engineering, healthcare technology management, socio-economic development, leadership, martial arts, and fashion design. Her transdisciplinary focus centres on bridging Western and Indigenous paradigms—particularly between medical knowledge systems, the economy, the environment, gender, and education. Moving fluidly between these worlds, her pedagogies are relational – rooted in the intelligence of land, river, ritual, and rhythm. As a speaker, thinker, and systems weaver, Rutendo advances coherence, interconnectedness, and regenerative futures shaped by memory, reverence, and return.
Date:
16 October 2025, 16:00
Venue:
Oxford Martin School, 34 Broad Street OX1 3BD
Venue Details:
Lecture Theatre
Speaker:
Rutendo Lerato Ngara (African Indigenous Knowledge Systems practitioner and transdisciplinary researcher)
Organising department:
Oxford Martin School
Organisers:
Elvina Crowe (Nature-based Solutions Initiative),
Lila Stewart-Roberts (Department of Biology),
Prof Nathalie Seddon (Director, Nature-based Solutions Initiative)
Organiser contact email address:
elvina.crowe@biology.ox.ac.uk
Booking required?:
Required
Booking url:
https://bookwhen.com/oxfordbiodiversitynetwork/e/ev-sh2m4-20251016160000
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Elvina Crowe
