Epistemic Reclamation of Indigenous Local Wisdom as a Counter-Narrative to Anthropocentrism in Planetary Crisis Governance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.67429/ytbgjg13Abstract
The escalating planetary crisis has exposed the epistemic limitations of environmental governance frameworks that remain anchored in anthropocentric assumptions. This study aims to conceptually reclaim indigenous local wisdom as an epistemic counter-narrative to anthropocentrism within planetary crisis governance, synthesizing three previously disconnected bodies of literature: critiques of anthropocentrism, scholarship on indigenous knowledge, and theories of epistemic reclamation and decolonial epistemology. Employing a library research (conceptual-philosophical) method, this study analyzes journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries through thematic mapping, comparative concept analysis, and dialectical argumentative synthesis. The results show that anthropocentrism persists in governance not as an explicit doctrine but as an unexamined epistemic default; indigenous knowledge is well documented as practically valuable yet under-theorized as epistemically authoritative; and epistemic reclamation theory supplies the missing mechanism for repositioning such knowledge from supplementary content into a legitimate counter-narrative. The central finding is that indigenous local wisdom should be understood not as an object awaiting integration but as a co-equal epistemic standpoint in planetary decision-making. This reframing carries significant implications for the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly climate action, life on land and below water, and sustainable communities, as procedural SDG achievement risks reproducing epistemic exclusion when indigenous knowledge is treated as consultative rather than constitutive of sustainability governance.
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