A/HRC/51/28 Adivasi women manage community seed banks and their custodian role strengthens resilience to climate change by preserving threatened varieties of seeds.32 40. Among the Inga in Colombia, indigenous women’s knowledge has been vital for food security, sustainable agriculture and the health of their communities. Their role as seed custodians has earned them respect for nurturing and sustaining the family and community.33 The indigenous Kuna women of Panama are involved in rescuing and preserving native seeds threatened by climate disasters, rising sea levels and flooding and Maya women in Central America have developed methods to select maize varieties with high nutrient contents. 41. In the Arctic, indigenous peoples’ culinary traditions and food processing systems are based on seasonal cycles and with their rich knowledge, herders, hunters, fishers and gatherers have sustainably supported human and animal life over thousands of years. Saami women have developed sophisticated techniques of food preparation and conservation that promote food sovereignty while preserving their ecosystems. Saami reindeer herders’ knowledge illustrates the technology they have developed to secure the sustainable and safe consumption of reindeer meat. The correct use of salt and moisture is achieved by selecting specific plants and firewood that produce a dense white smoke. That penetrates the meat tissue without requiring very high temperatures and the combined antibacterial effects protect the meat from degradation.34 42. Around the world, indigenous women call for their inclusion and participation in research on natural resource management, seed conservation and pollination. When the authorities use technical terms, it often appears that they are referring to new discoveries, but for indigenous women such “discoveries” are often not new as they have been nurturing and developing that knowledge and those practices for thousands of years. If research is discussed and explained in more practical ways, then technical terms become more accessible for indigenous women who relate them to their daily practices and livelihoods.35 C. Health and medicine 43. Indigenous women have scientific knowledge of community health related to physical and mental well-being. That includes a significant body of robust knowledge of women’s sexual, reproductive and maternal health that they share to ensure continuation of their skills to future generations.36 Community members often prefer to seek advice from indigenous medical practitioners, who are held in high regard and trusted for their specialized knowledge and care. 44. In Guatemala, indigenous women have different medical specialties, including midwives who focus on the sexual and reproductive health of women; bone setters/chiropractors; and those who balance energies to heal minds and bodies. All specialties derive from indigenous cosmovision. Midwifery is essential to indigenous medicine and in many cases is the only option where there is little to no access to hospitals or medical personnel. Midwifery also provides a more comfortable environment for indigenous women, who receive services in their mother tongue. Indigenous women promote and defend scientific knowledge inherited from their ancestors, knowledge that has often been proven to work by academic institutions and the medical community. They ask that academics and others studying their knowledge help them to legitimize and vindicate their knowledge.37 32 33 34 35 36 37 10 See IFAD, The Traditional Knowledge Advantage: Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies (2016). See https://www.kfw-entwicklungsbank.de/Our-topics/Climate/REDD/Indigene-V%C3%B6lker. EALLU project, “Indigenous Youth, Arctic Change & Food Culture. Food, Knowledge and How We Have Thrived on the Margins (2017). Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Task Force on Indigenous and Local Knowledge Systems, Indigenous and Local Knowledge about Pollination and Pollinators Associated with Food Production. Outcomes from the Global Dialogue Workshop, (2014) p. 39. Submission by Government of Mexico, p. 3. Submission by National Movement of Midwives, Nim Alaxik, in Guatemala. See also A/HRC/39/17/Add.3.