About
2020-2024
Funded by the New Frontiers in Research Fund - Exploration (SSHRC, CIHR, & NSERC). The realist review is also supporting by funding from the SPOR Evidence Alliance.
In this project, we examine how Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is included and used in research to benefit Indigenous Peoples – particularly First Nations, Inuit, and Métis (FNIM) in Canada.
We are conducting an Indigenous realist review and in-depth case studies to:
Gather Evidence - Identify how and what kinds of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is incorporated into research, across disciplines.
Engage in Dialogue - Identify concerns, lessons learned, and successes that can be shared across disciplines to better understand how IK is valued, preserved, and protected in research contexts; and
Share & Transform - Showcase diverse and effective processes, approaches, and methods of IK sharing.
Background and Rationale
The tensions between valuing Indigenous Knowledges as valid science, wanting Indigenous Knowledges to be passed onto future generations, and protecting Indigenous Knowledges from exploitation in research contexts, have not been well explored. As more Indigenous scholars, communities, organizations, Elders, and Knowledge Guardians become involved in research for and by Indigenous people, the issue of what Indigenous Knowledges can be shared, by whom, and how – needs to be urgently addressed. This project will fill this knowledge gap.
Indigenous Knowledges have been mostly silenced, misrepresented, and devalued in Euro-western forms of research.
Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Guardians have expressed frustration with experiences of having their knowledge exploited, not treated with care or respect, and not used in a way that they thought it was intended.
Elders and Knowledge Guardians have expressed the need for Indigenous Knowledges to be kept alive for future generations, be included in research in a good way, and be protected from being exploited by people outside of the community.
We are drawing on past and present knowledge and relationships….thinking ahead seven generations, carving out a space for others coming behind us.
Want to correct past mistakes and assumptions about Indigenous Peoples.
Want to make space for Indigenous Knowledges and Indigenous research, the distinct bodies of knowledge & Indigenous Peoples, and respect self-determination.
Our Indigenous (home) communities motivate us to protect our Elders and Knowledge Guardians as well as protect communities from being further exploited and extracted from by non-Indigenous corporations & institutions.
Objectives
Share how Indigenous communities have used Indigenous Knowledge in research.
Change how Indigenous Knowledges are viewed and taught in non-Indigenous academic institutions, across disciplines.
Occupy space in Euro-Western academic spaces (e.g. universities, research institutions, published literature) to (re-)educate/train students, educators, and researchers on wise practices on how and why Indigenous Knowledges can(not) be included in research.
Transform how Indigenous Knowledges in research are reviewed and funded. Engage research funders about wise practices and how research applicants articulate how and why Indigenous Knowledge is used in research.
Show how local Indigenous languages, concepts, and world views within Indigenous research contexts have been included, and to what end.
Show and expose how literature reviews commodify, erase or prioritize particular knowledges.