In the face of rapid urbanisation and modernisation, cities across the globe grapple with challenges such as environmental sustainability, social cohesion, and cultural preservation. Ancestral intelligence, a solution that harnesses the vast repository of Indigenous knowledge, insights, and lived experiences, offers a transformative approach to these pressing issues. By integrating ancestral intelligence into urban planning and development, cities can create more resilient, inclusive, and harmonious environments for all inhabitants.
Ancestral intelligence, sometimes referred to as Indigenous wisdom or traditional ecological knowledge, encompasses the collective understanding and practices of Indigenous communities honed over centuries. These insights range from sustainable agricultural methods and resource management techniques to community governance and social structures. By including Indigenous communities in decision-making processes and tapping into this rich heritage, urban planners and policymakers can devise strategies that are not only innovative but also deeply rooted in sustainable practices and cultural continuity.
The application of ancestral intelligence involves a multifaceted approach. Firstly, it requires collaborative efforts with indigenous communities, and the documentation and digitalisation of indigenous knowledge. This data is then analysed and integrated into modern urban planning frameworks using advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and geographic information systems (GIS). For instance, traditional water management practices can inform contemporary urban water systems, enhancing efficiency and sustainability. Similarly, indigenous land use patterns can guide the development of green spaces and urban agriculture, promoting biodiversity and food security.
As urban centres continue to expand, the need for sustainable and resilient infrastructure becomes essential. Ancestral intelligence offers time-tested solutions that align with modern sustainability goals, fostering environments that are not only ecologically sound but also culturally vibrant. By honouring and incorporating the wisdom of indigenous communities, cities can promote a sense of belonging and equity among diverse populations, enhancing social cohesion and well-being.
Moreover, ancestral intelligence represents a paradigm shift in how we approach urban development. It challenges the conventional top-down models of planning, advocating instead for a more inclusive and participatory process. This collaborative approach ensures that the voices of indigenous and local communities are heard and valued, leading to more democratic and effective urban governance. Ultimately, by embracing ancestral intelligence, cities can build a future that respects and learns from the past, creating a more balanced and harmonious urban landscape for generations to come.
Non-profit partnering with indigenous people to protect the Amazon using ethnographic mapping and technology.
Partners with marginalized communities to build technology (like Mapeo) that defends their rights and environment.
Consortium
A working group of Indigenous artists, scientists, and thinkers exploring AI from Indigenous perspectives.
Australia · Company
Consultancy combining Indigenous Knowledge Systems with digital design and technology.
Māori media organization developing natural language processing (NLP) and AI tools for indigenous languages.
Colombia · Nonprofit
Colombian NGO working with indigenous communities to govern the Amazon using traditional ecological knowledge.
Foundation working to secure Indigenous guardianship of vital ecosystems through policy and technology support.
Australia · Government Agency
Australia's national science agency, which has specific programs integrating Indigenous ecological knowledge with western science.
Indigenous-led organization in BC, Canada, advancing digital equity and Indigenous innovation.
Article
Indigenous Knowledge Integration for Coastal City ResilienceSustainability Directory · Sep 5, 2025
This scenario explores integrating ancient coastal wisdom with modern urban planning to fortify cities against climate shifts. It highlights how Indigenous knowledge systems, rooted in specific environments, offer crucial insights for ecological dynamics and sustainable resource management in coastal urban centers.
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Rethinking AI in research with ancestral wisdom for future generationsUNESCO · Oct 27, 2025
Highlights an open schooling project in the Amazon that links ancestral wisdom with AI tools to empower youth and address climate-driven crises like drought.
Paper
Bridging tradition and innovation: strengthening food system resilience through Indigenous Guardian partnerships and knowledge sharing in the Sierra Nevada and British ColumbiaFrontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Jun 11, 2025
Investigates how Indigenous Guardian partnerships utilize traditional knowledge to enhance food system resilience against climate impacts like wildfires and drought in North America.
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Reimagining, reclaiming, and reconnecting Indigenous voices in urbanism: a review of Indigenous approaches for urban ecological restorationNature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · May 28, 2025
Discusses the value of partnering with Indigenous People for urban ecological restoration, using examples from Aotearoa (New Zealand). It emphasizes the role of Indigenous communities in decision-making processes for nature and cities.
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The rise of AI urbanism in post-smart cities: A critical commentary on urban artificial intelligencejournals.sagepub.com
Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as an impactful feature of the life, planning and governance of 21st-century cities. Once confined to the realm of science fiction and small-scale technological experiments, AI is now all around us, in the shape of urban artificial intelligences including autonomous cars, robots, city brains and urban software agents. The aim of this article is to critically examine the nature of urbanism in the emergent age of AI. More specifically, we shed light on how urban AI is impacting the development of cities, and argue that an urbanism influenced by AI, which we term AI urbanism, differs in theory and practice from smart urbanism. In the future, the rise of a post-smart urbanism driven by AI has the potential to form autonomous cities that transcend, theoretically and empirically, traditional smart cities. The article compares common practices and understandings of smart urbanism with emerging forms of urban living, urban governance and urban planning influenced by AI. It critically discusses the limitations and potential pitfalls of AI urbanism and offers conceptual tools and a vocabulary to understand the urbanity of AI and its impact on present and future cities.
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Ancestral Computing for Sustainability: Centering Indigenous Epistemologies in Researching Computer Science Educationncbi.nlm.nih.gov
This article offers Ancestral Computing for Sustainability (ACS) to dismantle the logics of settler colonialism that affect accessibility, identities, and epistemologies of computer science education (CSE). ACS centers Indigenous epistemologies in researching CSE across four public universities in the United States. This paper describes Ancestral Computing for Sustainability and explores reflections of two students engaging as researchers in ACS inquiry. Drawing on Indigenous methodologies and Participatory Action Research, they share their reflections as co-researchers in ACS through storywork. These critical reflections include their relationship to computing, observations of the interdependent work within ACS, ethics and sustainability, and their experiences within the focus groups. The article ends with recommendations for furthering ACS as a decolonial approach that centers Indigenous epistemologies in CSE. Recommendations for CSE education include Ancestral Knowledge Systems and adding sustainability as a topic within computing education pathways and building student-faculty relationships based on trust is recommended to foster students’ academic and personal growth within CSE education and research.
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Why Development Projects Must Respect Indigenous Peoples, Ancestral Domains in Asiaintelligence.weforum.org
An often overlooked aspect of urban and regional development is the observance of traditional land laws of indigenous communities, who have long occupied parcels of land serving both as areas for living and to make a living. Long before the sprawl of built areas emanating from lowlands started to encroach toward the highlands and institutional policies on land management came to enforcement, indigenous communities have fully embracing land ownership rites and instruments that have been passed on from generation to generation.
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Social Value: How to be a good ancestor – report launchfutureoflondon.org.uk
What are the principles of good urban development that will leave a social value legacy for future generations? Join us for the launch of our new report to find out. As interest in social value in housing and regeneration becomes mainstream, our research project, Unlocking Social Value, was set up to help London residents and built environment practitioners work together to deliver real social impact.
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Power or Truth? The role of Ancestral Knowledge in contemporary intercultural transmission of Ethnomedicine among forest communities of Peruresearchgate.net
The material and Immaterial Heritage of Indigenous communities plays a central role when it comes to intercultural transmission of values and information challenging the education of a globalized world. Bridging gaps and finding common grounds are traditional practices in the intercultural communication mode of many forest cultures, ancestrally accustomed to transfer information across various cultural paradigms. Contemporary education is researching good practices oriented towards the development of critical thinking, solution designing and the ability focus on discussion as an effective participation tool in the process of learning. In this view, the wider the acceptance of a worldview, the better. At the same time Power from a single source distorts the Truth because it creates only one convincing story telling for everybody. Truth has scarce power to be popular per se because it relates to knowledge and transmission in an independent and unpopular way. On the contrary, the values of well being and good health are at the core of the educational process of indigenous communities. In Peru, the Muchik of Chaparrí and the asháninka of Mayantuyacu, experience as a community traditional and western medicine as an intertwined concept. The idea of Truth embedded in the landscape and its ancestral knowledge sets the base for a dialogue among communities fostering a new bicognitive methodology which proves effectiveness in the field. These practices identify and apply Sustainable Development Goal 3 Good health and Well being and 4 Quality education.
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Indigenous technologies "could change the way we design cities" says environmentalist Julia Watsondezeen.com
Indigenous communities are pioneers of technologies that offer solutions to climate change, according to designer and environmentalist Julia Watson. In her new book, LO–TEK Design by Radical Indigenism, Watson argues that tribal communities, seen by many as primitive, are highly advanced when it comes to creating systems in symbiosis with the natural world. "There are so many examples," she told Dezeen. "They have increased biodiversity, they're producing food, they're flood mitigating, they're resilient in terms of foreshore conditions, they're cleaning water, they're carbon sequestering." "They have all of the natural qualities that we're really interested in, in terms of ecosystem services, but they're completely constructed by man," she added.
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AuraCity | Ancestral Future Villageyoutube.com
We present this video with the intention of inspiring to organize a community-type society through new Habitat Service System.
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Ancestral Intelligence: The First A.I.linkedin.com
It’s the first AI: Ancestral Intelligence. And it can be a great equalizer.
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Artificial Intelligence vs. Ancestral Intelligenceipsau.com.au
Whilst attending IWI-Indigenous Women in Industry in Aotearoa (NZ) last week, I was fortunate to hear from a panel of trailblazers in the government and governance space, at Tūrangawaewae Marae (home of the Maori King movement). The panel included the powerhouse that is Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke. Hana represents Te Pāti Māori as a Member of Parliament in NZ, elected at the tender age of 21 in 2023. Many of you may have seen her powerful maiden speech to parliament …..if not, do yourself a favour and check it out.
