Indigenous Self-Determination: Indigenous Knowledge Systems as an Adaptive Tool for Resilience Among Migrant Women Entrepreneurs

The feminisation of the global migrant population has led to the number of migrant women in South Africa quadrupling to 1.8 million over the last 15 years. The mixed flow migration consists largely of mixed and irregular migrant women such as asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants, who enter the country illegally. Mixed and irregular migrant women are the most vulnerable to social disadvantage and economic exclusion and exploitation within South Africa’s formal economy. In response, migrant women engage in entrepreneurship within the informal sector, with some exploiting their indigenous knowledge to provide products and services such as traditional food,clothes and traditional healing services,respectively.

The study explores Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) as an adaptive tool for resilience by migrant women entrepreneurs within Cape Town’s informal sector. The study aims to provide insight into IKS as a resource base that can be utilised for inclusive social, and economic value creation and environmentally sustainable strategies while contributing to the informal economy. The research critiques myopic Western views of IKS as inferior knowledge of the cognitive other by positioning IKS as a dynamic and sophisticated system of knowledge and resource for achieving sustainable development goals. The study aims to examine the factors that strengthen and hinder IKS based migrant women entrepreneurship to empower migrant women who hold valuable Indigenous Knowledge but lack the knowledge of how to exploit it to respond to social and economic pressures and inform contextually rich policy making. Furthermore, the study advocates for enhanced social protection and integration,and promotes decolonial approaches that encourage Indigenous autonomy and self-determination.