Indigenous Ways Research Articles

Aulukluki neqkat: Centering care of salmon and relational research in Indigenous fisheries in the Kuskokwim River, Alaska

This Indigenous-led project aims to better understand historical and contemporary ways in which Alaska Native Peoples steward salmon and the values connected to salmon stewardship. Indigenous Peoples have stewarded Alaska lands and waters for thousands of years yet have been largely excluded from western science and management systems. In this project we utilize a participatory approach that allows for the equitable valuing of ideas and knowledges to document the breadth and depth of Yup’ik and Athabascan knowledge and governance systems in southwestern Alaska. We reshape research methodologies by centering Indigenous frameworks and research methodologies including circle dialogues and multi-generational interviews led by Indigenous scholars and students in their home communities and regions. In this paper, we share the Yup’ik and Athabascan values, knowledge, management, and governance mechanisms that can improve the long-term sustainability and equity of Alaska salmon systems. This research elevates the voices of Alaska Native salmon stewards and experts from the Kuskokwim Bay and the Kuskokwim River. We elaborate on five key themes that emerged from this research including: traditional Indigenous ways of life, Indigenous stewardship, self-determination, food and livelihood sovereignty, and ecosystem changes, and identify a more equitable and sustainable path forward for salmon and people in Alaska.

Decolonizing environmentalism: Addressing ecological and Indigenous colonization through arts-based communication

This article seeks to advance connecting the two societal priorities of environmental protection and what has been called ‘Indigenous reconciliation’ through arts-based communication (and particularly arts-based research), to help engage and inspire people towards sustaining a healthy planet and a just society. Through lenses of social justice, decolonizing critique and holistic environmental ideologies, this work explores theoretical and practical, real-world intersections of environmentalist, Indigenous and arts-based imperatives and ways of knowing. The goal is twofold: first, to seek to engage readers in viewing the colonization of the planet and its First Peoples as intimately related, and ultimately, to bring together diverse literatures to suggest ideas, language and a model to foster communication aimed at redressing both of those colonialist evils. To acknowledge this intersection of environmental and Indigenous approaches in arts-based settings, the term ‘environmental conciliation’ is proposed and defined as ‘environmental protection in ways that acknowledge, address, and aim to redress imbalances in power among Indigenous people and non-Indigenous settlers honestly, respectfully, openly, creatively and positively.

Conceptualising the relationships between food sovereignty, food security and oral health among global Indigenous Communities: a scoping review.

Invasive colonial influences and continuing neoliberal policies have a detrimental impact on Land, health, food and culture for Indigenous Communities. Food security and sovereignty have significant impacts on Indigenous well-being and, specifically, oral health. Aspects relating to food security, such as availability of nutritious foods, are a common risk factor of oral diseases. This scoping review aimed to collate existing evidence regarding the relationship between food sovereignty and/or food security and oral health for Indigenous Communities, globally. Four databases were searched using keywords related to 'Food security' or 'Food sovereignty,' 'Indigenous Peoples' and 'Oral health.' Duplicates were removed, and two independent reviewers screened the titles and abstracts to identify articles for full-text review. Extracted data were summarised narratively, presenting a conceptual model which illustrates the findings and relationships between food security and/or food sovereignty and oral health. The search identified 369 articles, with forty-one suitable for full-text review and a final nine that met inclusion criteria. The impact of food security and food sovereignty on oral health was discussed across different populations and sample sizes, ranging from eighteen Kichwa families in Brazil to 533 First Nations and Metis households in Canada. Pathways of influence between food sovereignty and/or food security are explored clinically, quantitatively and qualitatively across oral health outcomes, including early childhood caries, dental caries and oral health-related quality of life for Indigenous Communities. Innovative strategies underpinned by concepts of Indigenous food sovereignty are needed to promote oral health equity for Indigenous Communities. The nexus between oral health and Indigenous food sovereignty remains largely unexplored, but has immense potential for empowering Indigenous rights to self-determination of health that honour Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing.

User-Centered Design and Usability of a Culturally Adapted Virtual Survivorship Care App for Chinese Canadian Prostate Cancer Survivors: Qualitative Descriptive Study.

Cultural adaptations of digital health innovations are a growing field. However, digital health innovations can increase health inequities. While completing exploratory work for the cultural adaptation of the Ned Clinic virtual survivorship app, we identified structural considerations that provided a space to design digitally connected and collective care. This study used a community-based participatory research and user-centered design process to develop a cultural adaptation of the Ned Clinic app while designing to intervene in structural inequities. The design process included primary data collection and qualitative analysis to explore and distill design principles, an iterative design phase with a multidisciplinary team, and a final evaluation phase with participants throughout the design process as a form of member checking and validation. Participants indicated that they found the final adapted prototype to be acceptable, appropriate, and feasible for their use. The changes made to adapt the prototype were not specifically culturally Chinese. Instead, we identified ways to strengthen connections between the survivor and their providers; improve accessibility to resources; and honor participants' desires for relationality, accountability, and care. We grounded the use of user-centered design to develop a prototype design that supports the acts of caring through digital technology by identifying and designing to resist structures that create health inequities in the lives of this community of survivors. By designing for collective justice, we can provide accessible, feasible, and relational care with digital health through the application of Indigenous and Black feminist ways of being and knowing.

"Fuzzy Feet and The Skunk": Connecting Western and Indigenous Theories of Development and Learning Through Story

This article looks at how Indigenous and Western perspectives on learning and development are interwoven and come into dialogue with one another to create supportive and inclusive classrooms for Indigenous (and all) students. We use a storytelling methodology to address this focus and offer a holistic approach to our analysis. Specifically, we provide a fictional story followed by an in-depth analysis to tease out how Indigenous students continue to experience racism and colonialism in schools and what theories of learning and development may offer in addressing these challenges. This article offers insight about how both practising teachers and teacher educators can build upon the wisdom of Indigenous ways of learning and Western educational practices to re-imagine inclusive classrooms that can support Indigenous (and all) learners.

Addressing the need for Indigenous-specific PROMs and PREMS: A focus on methodology.

Differences in Indigenous worldviews, practices and values highlight the need for Indigenous-specific health quality indicators, such as patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs). The purpose of this paper is to present our methodology, as part of a larger study that sought to develop a framework for creating Indigenous-specific PROMs and PREMs. The research design was informed by Indigenous research methodology and a community-based participatory approach. It had three core components: (1) a literature exploration of existing Indigenous-specific PROMs and PREMs; (2) interviews with researchers with expertise in PROMs and PREMs developed for Indigenous populations and community leaders interested in using these Indigenous-informed evaluation tools; and (3) conversations with Indigenous community members about their experiences with health surveys. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim; transcripts were analyzed qualitatively using an inductive and deductive approach. Themes and sub-themes were identified to build a framework that honours Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing. Results were validated with select research participants and the Project Advisory Committee. Findings demonstrate how relationship building is the necessary starting point for engagement when developing survey instruments with Indigenous peoples. Engagement requires respectful collaboration through all stages of the project from determining what questions are asked to how the information will be collected, interpreted, and managed. A relational stance requires responsibility to Indigenous communities and peoples that goes beyond research carried out using a western scientific lens. It means ensuring that the project is beneficial to the community and framing questions based on Indigenous knowledge, worldviews, and community involvement. This study employed a collaborative, participatory qualitative approach to develop a framework for creating PROMs and PREMs with Indigenous peoples. The methods described offer concrete examples of strategies that can be employed to support relationship-building and collaboration when developing Indigenous-specific survey instruments.

Disrupting STEM Education by Braiding Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Environmental Education

Learning is inherently connected. It is time to disrupt traditional STEM education by meaningfully embracing multiple perspectives such as Indigenous and environmental education learning principles. Through my story as a white non-indigenous science teacher, we explore the importance of acknowledging one’s feelings, the power of storytelling, my journey educating myself and embracing multiple perspectives inside my teaching practice. Because Aboriginal Ways of Being state that the “the deepest learning takes place in lived experience” (BCTF, 2017), I share my process and reflections on designing and implementing a specific unit about clam gardens in a secondary science classroom.

Cultural patterns in nonverbal collaboration between pairs of Indigenous children and pairs of urban middle-class children in México

This study examines cultural patterns in nonverbal collaboration between pairs of Mexican children with varying familiarity with Indigenous ways of Learning by Observing and Pitching In (LOPI) and school-like middle-class ways of learning. Two-hundred-fourteen 8 to10 year old Mexican children from either an Indigenous town or an urban middle-class community in a nearby city played Chinese checkers in same-gendered pairs against another team (90 girls and 124 boys). The pairs were “not allowed” to talk or risk having their pieces moved backwards. Coders identified how children worked together and communicated in 5-s segments. Results indicate Indigenous children from families that were likely familiar with LOPI more commonly engaged in collaboration where they worked together seamlessly relying heavily on joint activity. The urban middle-class children whose families indicated no recent Indigenous history were more likely to collaborate less fluidly with large movements and actions seemingly intended to draw attention.

Ubuntu as a valued capability for university students in South Africa

Universities are often described as institutions that can promote the wellbeing of their local populations. This is because they are central for advancing human development aims which support the aspirations of students and the communities from which they come. Nevertheless, we know this potential can be constrained by historical processes of oppression and negation of indigenous ways of being and doing. Applying the Capabilities Approach and Human Development paradigm as a normative framework for the outcomes of university education in the South African context, we argue for a focus on the centrality of capabilities (real freedoms) in assessing how well universities are doing to support student wellbeing. We pay special attention to one capability which we see as architectonic for other freedoms, which is Ubuntu. While Ubuntu is generally understood as a moral philosophy, in this paper we articulate it as a valued capability in the space of higher education. We also argue that it is a capability that has transformative and decolonial potential that can enable universities to promote student wellbeing if the conditions to practice it are in place.
 Drawing from data collected through qualitative and participatory approaches in two longitudinal research projects that were carried out between 2016 and 2021 with undergraduate students in diverse universities in South Africa, we show that Ubuntu informs students’ conceptions of humanity and their aspirations for ‘a good life’ and that it can inform the vision of transformed and decolonised university spaces that reflect indigenous ways of being and indigenous ways of seeing the world.

Information as a relation: Defining Indigenous information literacy

Informed by relationality and reciprocity, Indigenous librarians who teach play a key role in creating learning opportunities for students to gain information literacy (IL) skills and become better users and creators of information. Through unstructured interviews with seven Indigenous librarians, we find that Indigenous identity and ways of knowing based on relationality and reciprocity are key components shaping the pedagogy of Indigenous librarians, as it informs the ways they enact accountability, build relationships, set boundaries, and practice care. Through this work, we offer a definition of Indigenous information literacy, which is the ability to use information and create or gain knowledge, while practicing the Indigenous concepts of relationality, reciprocity, and respect. This work lays the groundwork for further explorations of relationality, kinship, and Indigenous ways of knowing in information literacy and Indigenous librarianship.

Relational learning: Embedding Indigenous ways in whitestream social work

Social work globally acknowledges its need to decolonise its education to produce social workers who can work responsively alongside marginalised Indigenous peoples. Yet the problem is that universities have struggled to operationalise the integration of Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing into social work education. Uniquely, this study explored relationships that impact on the integration of Indigenous content for academics in social work education. A qualitative approach was used, interviewing both Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. The outcome of the study produced a relational model for academics that focuses upon six key relationships an academic has: to self; with students; to Indigenous knowledges, languages and cultures; with peers; with those in power and the whitestream; with elders, kaumatuas and Indigenous communities. With the goal of decolonising social work education, this relational model provides insight into different ways that an academic may develop and embed their integration of Indigenous content into their teaching. This study offers a relational model that could promote curriculum change in social work, as well as in other disciplines beyond Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand.

(Re)Entering Many Worlds: Teaching and Collaborating to Design the Pluriverse

In this article we share stories that are still developing out of our design studio. By designing for the pluriverse we were inspired to create alternative and future imaginaries to counter the humancentric one-world notion. Learning that there was not just one story, but instead the stories were infinite and eternal, we sought to counter the frictions of capitalism, colonialism, and extractivism that have shaped the world we now reside in. We explored this by examining how Indigenous ways of knowing, land connectivity, and decoloniality empower the poetics of experimentation and design. As instructors we share our journey with our students. Three stories by students highlight this journey into the pluriverse.

Indigenizing Sport Research: Analyzing Protective Factors of Exercising Sovereignty in North America

Indigenous Peoples have an inherent responsibility and right to “exercising” sovereignty—the practice of sport and physical activity in performance of our cultural, political, and spiritual citizenship. By exercising this inherent right and responsibility, sport has the power for communities to reenvision their futures. Sport and physical activity are highly regarded and practiced in multiple contexts within Indigenous communities. Utilizing Indigenous ways of knowing, practices of resurgence, Indigenous activism, and Indigenous responses to political and cultural injustices, we apply the five protective factors of “exercising” sovereignty, including community, relationality, strength, abundance, and resilience to analyze Indigenous sport research in North America.

University Land Grabs: Indigenous Dispossession and the Universities of Toronto and Manitoba

Whether leased or sold, Indigenous land provided the endowment capital for new universities in the nineteenth century. Many institutions of higher learning – including the universities of Toronto and Manitoba – began as large-scale landowners. By 1828, Toronto’s university still held more than two hundred thousand acres of land, an area larger than the present-day city of Toronto. The extent of university landholding in settler societies, however, has often been missed because the land parcels assigned to universities were both larger than, and distinct from, their campuses. This article accordingly examines how landholding undergirded Canadian universities’ development in the nineteenth century, taking the University of Toronto and the University of Manitoba as its focus. It argues that land was the essential ingredient in university building in both Ontario and Manitoba, linking these new universities’ establishment and subsequent wealth to Indigenous dispossession. Using Indigenous land to finance higher education was not unique to these universities nor to Canada. Yet, across settler societies, university landholding made institutions of higher education the beneficiaries of Indigenous removal and agents of colonization. In addition, once in operation, these new universities would also produce knowledge about land and its cultivation. Inspired by the growing field of European agricultural science, Canadian universities with land endowments professionalized the study of branches of knowledge like agriculture and engineering, displacing Indigenous ways of being and thinking about land. The effect of this knowledge valuation is still felt today. The products of university agricultural research – from nitrogen fertilizers to hybridized corn – profoundly transformed landscapes and altered local ecologies in line with settler knowledge systems and desires.

Seeking Critical Frameworks for Global Majority Theatre

Abstract: The essay advocates for expanding theater studies publications to more effectively engage with global majority epistemologies as core methodologies for analyzing theatrical phenomena. Academic theatre classes often incorporate performance studies paradigms, but most theater programs remain centered around practice-based exercises for acting, directing, designing, and producing Eurocentric theater. Global majority ways of telling stories are either not taught to students or are integrated into curricula in carefully measured doses as alternative approaches to art-making. This essay encourages twenty-first century scholars to more astutely respond to cultural productions based upon vernacular and indigenous ways of theatrical storytelling, arguing that a significant step would be to incorporate more indigenous languages, and perhaps have the journal publish in multiple languages (with translation) to expand the readership. However, even foregrounding text-based performance may be limiting. Many of the aesthetics that underly arts production in global majority cultures are constituted outside of text-based paradigms; they use symbol, myth, sound, gesture, dance language, and music as poetic containers for delivering their messages. They also build from local epistemologies connected to spirituality, religion, or alternative beliefs about the rationale and intention of performance. This essay calls for more time and space devoted to critical analysis of theatre created and performed outside of standard theatre venues, as well as a more nuanced discussion of complex ecosystems that support artistic innovation.

An interview with Dr Christine Ballengee-Morris

This interview transcription with Dr Christine Ballengee-Morris explores her journey in art education, beginning with her childhood experiences and leading to her distinguished career as an educator, mentor and advocate for integrated curriculum. The conversation touches on her early exposure to art through family traditions, her pivotal decision to transition from accounting to art education, and the influential figures and experiences that shaped her educational philosophy. Dr Ballengee-Morris reflects on her commitment to collaboration, storytelling and Indigenous ways of knowing, emphasizing the importance of relationships in the educational process. The interview also delves into her legacy, the meaningful mentorships she has experienced, and her encounters with Paulo Freire, providing insights into her teaching philosophy influenced by liberation pedagogy. The interview captures a narrative of passion, resilience and a commitment to transformative education.

A visionary platform for decolonization: The Red Deal.

In this study, we discuss the colonial project as an eliminatory structure of indigenous ways of knowing and doing that is built into Canadian social and health institutions. We elaborate on the role nursing plays in maintaining systemic racism, marginalization and discrimination of Indigenous Peoples. Based on historical practices and present-day circumstances, we argue that changing language in research and school curriculums turns decolonization into what Tuck and Yang call a 'metaphor'. Rather, we propose decolonization as a political project where nurses acknowledge their involvement in colonial harms and disrupt the assumptions that continue to shape how nurses interact with Indigenous people, including knowledge systems that perpetuate colonial interests and privilege. Decolonization requires nurses to understand the colonial practices that led to dispossession of land, erasure of knowledge, culture and identity, while upholding indigenous ways of knowing and doing in health, healing and living. As a political manifesto that liberates indigenous life from oppressive structures of colonialism and capitalism, The Red Deal is presented as a visionary platform for decolonization. The aim of this study is to articulate three dimensions of caretaking within The Red Deal as a framework to decolonize nursing knowledge development and practice. Based on the philosophical dimension embedded in The Red Deal that revoke norms and knowledge assumptions of capitalism that destroy indigenous ways of knowing and doing, we underscore an approach toward decolonizing nursing. Our approach rejects the apolitical nature of nursing as well as the unilateral western scientific knowledge approach to knowledge development and recognition. A critical emancipatory approach that addresses the socio-political and historical context of health care, recognizes dispossession of land and adopts a 'multilogical' vision of knowledge that gives space for representation and voice is needed for true decolonization of nursing.

Traditions and Myths of Kajang People in South Sulawesi

The research aimed to elaborate the myths following traditions in explicit connection with the Kajang indigenous people's dwellings and way of life. The existence of Kajang indigenous people was known for preserving their traditions with austerity. Clinging to their traditional belief system, Pasang ri Kajang was used to protect their sacred forest and natural environment. Some myths still seemed relevant and took part actively in their everyday lives. This was an empirical qualitative research, with the researcher directly visiting the location to experience the cultural situation and the people of Kajang. First-hand experience, photographing, hand sketching, interviews, and focus group discussions were employed to collect data. Analyzing the characteristics of the Kajang area from the maps, narrative analysis for the interview, focus group discussion, sketches, manual notes, photographs, and cross-analysis from literature studies resulted in the difference between inner and outer Kajang. It is found that eight practical conducts closely related to the myths are elaborated, such as oral communication, no electricity, no clay roof tile, no footwear, no colorful clothes, no decoration or modern material, orientation of buildings, and odd numbering and time calculation. Some limitations and suggestions are also presented.

Enhancement of scoping review methodology to reflect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing

ObjectiveThis paper argues for the enhancement of scoping review methods to incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing for more effective understandings of evidence of importance to Indigenous populations. MethodsScoping review methodology typically aims to understand existing evidence and support translation of evidence into practice. Levac and colleagues (2010) scoping review methodology stages: 1) Identify the research question; 2) Identify relevant studies; 3) Study selection; 4) Charting the data; 5) Collating, summarising, and reporting results; and 6) Consultation were considered from the perspective of Indigenous knowledges and adapted accordingly. ResultsAn enhanced method better aligns with Indigenous methodologies which are based on relationality, collaboration, partnership, reciprocity, and benefit. Consultation was redefined in this enhancement as partnership and integrated throughout scoping review stages, which are underpinned by key methodological principles. ConclusionsEnhancement of scoping review stages with Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing has the potential to strengthen the utility of scoping review methods to better meet the needs of and ensure relevance for Indigenous populations. Implications for public healthThese enhancements can increase the potential for knowledge translation and implementation of culturally relevant evidence-based approaches into practice for Indigenous populations and for other populations who experience health inequities.

Editorial: Reflections on the Inter-connectedness of All Beings

The Turtle Island Journal of Indigenous Health (TIJIH) began in an effort to prioritize Indigenous voices within western academic environments, which often serve to silence Indigenous ways of being and knowing. We have shared previously about these aims and we encourage you to look to these for more information (Monteith & Tan, 2020; Turtle Island Journal of Indigenous Health, 2020). Since the release of our second issue in 2021, our team has had considerable turnover as members move to continue important work in related areas. We feel immense joy for their contributions and continued relationships. We are also excited for the new faces that have joined our team and look to our community as we continue to build our vision of highlighting Indigenous perspectives and voices within academic peer-reviewed literature.