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Sustainable education should include Indigenous knowledge

Nature Human Behaviour volume 9, pages 2415–2417 (2025)Cite this article

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Formal education systems rarely include the knowledge and skills of hunter-gatherer societies. This can lead to cultural erosion and knowledge decline. For education to be both high quality and sustainable, Indigenous knowledge should be recognized and valued.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Cultural Evolution Society Transformation Fund for supporting HG-Edu Consortium workshop where the ideas expressed in this Comment were advanced. This funding was made possible through a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. We note that the opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation. We would also like to acknowledge S.S., who passed away in November 2024. She contributed greatly to San educational issues in Botswana, and to the workshop described in this Comment.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Education, UiT: Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

    Jennifer Hays, Monika Abels, Attila Paksi & Sidsel Saugestad

  2. Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), University of Montpelier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France

    Edmond Dounias & Romain Duda

  3. Department of International Studies and Interpreting, Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University (Oslomet), Oslo, Norway

    Velina Ninkova & Olga Vanessa Bilek

  4. Lyceum of the Philippines University, Manila, Philippines

    Leonora H. Astete, Marilyn Ngales & Jennifer Tucpi

  5. The University of Yaounde II, Yaounde, Cameroon

    Patrice Bigombe Logo

  6. The University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana

    Maitseo Bolaane & Eureka Mokibelo

  7. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

    Adam Howell Boyette

  8. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

    Alyssa N. Crittenden

  9. Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala, India

    Vinod Challan

  10. Independent contractor and community activist, Gobabis, Namibia

    Frans Doeseb

  11. ǁAna-Djeh San Trust, Windhoek, Namibia

    Kileni Fernando

  12. The African School of Storytelling, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

    Jigar Ganatra

  13. Washington State University, Vancouver, WA, USA

    Barry Hewlett

  14. Kannur University, Kerala, India

    Seetha Kakkoth

  15. Haifa University, Haifa, Israel

    Noa Lavi

  16. Durham University, Durham, UK

    Sheina Lew-Levy

  17. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Butet Manurung

  18. Sokola Institute, Bekasi, Indonesia

    Butet Manurung & Fadilla Mutiarawati

  19. University of Oulu, Finland, Oulu, Finland

    Fadilla Mutiarawati

  20. Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Tomoe Noguchi & Akira Takada

  21. OrigiNations, Heidelberg, Germany

    Ernesto Noriega & Tatjana Puschkarsky

  22. Diponegoro University, Semarang, Indonesia

    Adi Prasetijo

Authors
  1. Jennifer Hays
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  2. Edmond Dounias
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  3. Velina Ninkova
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Consortia

The Research & Advocacy Group for Hunter Gatherer Education

  • Monika Abels
  • , Leonora H. Astete
  • , Patrice Bigombe Logo
  • , Olga Vanessa Bilek
  • , Maitseo Bolaane
  • , Adam Howell Boyette
  • , Alyssa N. Crittenden
  • , Vinod Challan
  • , Frans Doeseb
  • , Edmond Dounias
  • , Romain Duda
  • , Kileni Fernando
  • , Jigar Ganatra
  • , Jennifer Hays
  • , Barry Hewlett
  • , Seetha Kakkoth
  • , Noa Lavi
  • , Sheina Lew-Levy
  • , Butet Manurung
  • , Eureka Mokibelo
  • , Fadilla Mutiarawati
  • , Velina Ninkova
  • , Marilyn Ngales
  • , Tomoe Noguchi
  • , Ernesto Noriega
  • , Attila Paksi
  • , Adi Prasetijo
  • , Tatjana Puschkarsky
  • , Sidsel Saugestad
  • , Akira Takada
  •  & Jennifer Tucpi

Contributions

The members of the Research and Advocacy Group for Hunter Gatherer Education (HG-Edu) participated in a workshop in which the ideas advanced in this Comment were discussed, developed and confirmed. All have agreed to be listed as contributors.

Positionality statement. M.A. is originally from Germany, and is now based at the University of Tromsø. A.H.B. is originally from the USA, and is now based at the Max Planck Institute. V.C. is a Cholanaikkan community member. F.D. is a Juǀ’hoansi (San) community member. K.F. is a !Xun (San) community member. J.H. is originally from the USA, and is now based at the University of Tromsø. N.L. is originally from Israel and is affiliated with Haifa University, but based in Cambridge. B.M. is from Jambi, Indonesia, and is the founder of the Sokola Institute; she is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Amsterdam. F.M. is from Sumba, Indonesia, and is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Oulu. V.N. is originally from Bulgaria, and is now based at Oslo Metropolitan University. M.N. is a Kankanaey Igorot community member. E.N. is a Peruvian citizen, who is based in Heidelberg. S.S. passed away in November 2024. J.T. is a Tuwali Ifugao community member.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer Hays.

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Hays, J., Dounias, E., Ninkova, V. et al. Sustainable education should include Indigenous knowledge. Nat Hum Behav 9, 2415–2417 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02288-1

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