Weaving Knowledge Systems Resource Materials

Indigenous research scholars navigate a complex landscape that is impacted by their relationships, as well as the roles and responsibilities that come with both their Indigenous and professional positionality. This article contemplates the passing of Indigenous knowledge through academic means by implementing self-reflection and story. Concluding that Indigenous research is for Indigenous community, this article explores questions such as What are the “Rules” to using Indigenous methodologies in research? How can we use Indigenous methodologies in research that reflect the nuance of our community identity? How can we reciprocate in the sharing of Indigenous knowledge? and finally, How can we share Indigenous knowledge in a way that maintains cultural protocol? The practical implications of this work include support for Indigenous methodologies and consider the tri-cultural context of the He Manawa Whenua Indigenous research community. Future work connected with the findings includes complicating the perceptions of research from both academic and Indigenous community perspectives. [From Author]

Applying Indigenous Research Methods focuses on the question of "How" Indigenous Research Methodologies (IRMs) can be used and taught across Indigenous studies and education.

In this collection, Indigenous scholars address the importance of IRMs in their own scholarship, while focusing conversations on the application with others. Each chapter is co-authored to model methods rooted in the sharing of stories to strengthen relationships, such as yarning, storywork, and others. The chapters offer a wealth of specific examples, as told by researchers about their research methods in conversation with other scholars, teachers, and community members.

Applying Indigenous Research Methods is an interdisciplinary showcase of the ways IRMs can enhance scholarship in fields including education, Indigenous studies, settler colonial studies, social work, qualitative methodologies, and beyond. [From Publisher]

The statement in the title, what if Indigenous Knowledge contradicts accepted scientific findings (Fowler, 2000), is an expression of the dilemma people who research Indigenous Knowledge think they find themselves in when they are confronted with different interpretations of what it means to be human, or, as I may summarize it, with different cultural interpretations of human existence. I sense a certain amount of fear in this statement, which, indeed, suggests an Indigenous interpretation that threatens the accepted scientific worldview. The question is, of course, who the accepting entity is and what the acceptance is measured on. The statement was made by an academic (PhD) executive of a diamond company who, responsible for inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge in the environmental assessment the company had to do before starting the mine, suspects contradictory interpretations on land use by the Indigenous people who occupy the land that should be developed by the company he represents. With this statement, he sets the stage for an analysis of research data on Indigenous Knowledge the company collected in order to follow recommendations of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (1996) that would dismiss the validity of the very subject, Indigenous Knowledge, that is to be integrated in environmental assessment done on Indigenous lands. [From Author]

Recent work in ethnographic and qualitative methods highlights the limitations of academic accounts of research interactions that aim for total objectivity and authority. Efforts to move beyond totalizing accounts of both the research experience and the investigator raise questions of how to engage with, make sense of, and (re)present embodied, sensual, visceral, and the ultimately placed qualities of collaborative research interactions. Our response to this set of questions entailed recognizing and respecting the knowledge and agency of the human and nonhuman actors involved in co-producing the research. In this paper, we analyze transcripts, research notes and conversations between non-Indigenous academics, Indigenous researchers, and Bawaka, northern Australia itself to explore storytelling as a collaborative, more-than-human methodology. We argue that in research, storytelling consists of verbal, visual, physical, and sensual elements that inform dynamic and ongoing dialogues between humans (academics/co-researchers/family members), and between humans and nonhumans (animals, water, wind). To move beyond the human/nonhuman binary in our storytelling, we look to Aboriginal Australian concepts of Country in which place is relationally defined and continually co-created by both human and nonhuman agents. Acknowledging and engaging with the embodied, more-than-human nature of research contributes to an enlarged understanding of how knowledge is co-produced, experienced, and storied. [From Author]

Children and youth comprise 40% of the Canadian Aboriginal population and experience gross inequities in health compared to their peers. Emerging data from health indicators (e.g., morbidity and mortality rates) provide some insights on the patterns of disease among children living off-reserve, based on population-level data. For example, infant mortality, obesity, diabetes, and depression rates are all much higher than among the general population. There is little evidence to guide the delivery and assess the impact of local-level health promotion and health care services for Aboriginal children and youth.

Self-report is the gold standard in health and well-being assessment for children over 5 years of age. However, we cannot assume that the content of self-report measures, developed for other cultures, is valid for Aboriginal children and youth.10 The purpose of
this research was to identify concepts of health and well-being, from the perspectives of Aboriginal children and youth, to form the basis of a new measure. [From Author]

Basque Country is known for its commitment to self-determination, language revitalisation, and cultural continuity. GIDA is the Basque word for guide. One of the key aims of GIDA is to share frameworks, tools, and processes to help guide the practice of Indigenous Data Sovereignty around the globe. [From Website]