scholarly journals Decolonizing Healing Through Indigenous Ways of Knowing

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-134
Author(s):  
Miranda Field
Keyword(s):  
Healing Process ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Spiritual Healing ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The Past ◽  
Healing Journey ◽  
Strength Based ◽  
The Future ◽  
Indigenous Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Physical Recovery

AbstractThe field of psychology is embarking on a process to interrupt the historical, colonial cycle of harm and beginning to work with and alongside Indigenous communities to understand the healing journey. From an Indigenous lens, healing incorporates more than the physical recovery; physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing exists through learning, which occurs along the healing journey. This healing journey has no definite beginning or end, and as we begin to move away from pathologizing healing to a strength-based healing process, the focus shifts to relationships—relationships with self, community, more-than-human, and the land. This chapter proposes that to decolonize Western healing processes, as a field, we must acknowledge the coexistence of learning during the healing journey. Building healing capacity through learning elucidates the understanding of the past, the needs of the present, and lays foundations for the future to work towards restoring integrity and prompting balanced care.

scholarly journals If We Show Them Will They Come? Attitudes of Native American Youth Towards Higher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-105
Author(s):  
Emmerentine Oliphant ◽  
Sharon B. Templeman
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Native Community ◽  
Research Methodologies ◽  
General Validity ◽  
Native Canadian ◽  
Indigenous Ways Of Knowing

Indigenous health research should reflect the needs and benefits of the participants and their community as well as academic and practitioner interests. The research relationship can be viewed as co-constructed by researchers, participants, and communities, but this nature often goes unrecognized because it is confined by the limits of Western epistemology. Dominant Western knowledge systems assume an objective reality or truth that does not support multiple or subjective realities, especially knowledge in which culture or context is important, such as in Indigenous ways of knowing. Alternatives and critiques of the current academic system of research could come from Native conceptualizations and philosophies, such as Indigenous ways of knowing and Indigenous protocols, which are increasingly becoming more prominent both Native and non-Native societies. This paper contains a narrative account by an Indigenous researcher of her personal experience of the significant events of her doctoral research, which examined the narratives of Native Canadian counselors’ understanding of traditional and contemporary mental health and healing. As a result of this narrative, it is understood that research with Indigenous communities requires a different paradigm than has been historically offered by academic researchers. Research methodologies employed in Native contexts must come from Indigenous values and philosophies for a number of important reasons and with consequences that impact both the practice of research itself and the general validity of research results. In conclusion, Indigenous ways of knowing can form a new basis for understanding contemporary health research with Indigenous peoples and contribute to the evolution of Indigenous academics and research methodologies in both Western academic and Native community contexts.

scholarly journals Highlighting the potential of peer-led workshops in training early career researchers for conducting research with Indigenous communities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwyneth A. MacMillan ◽  
Marianne Falardeau ◽  
Catherine Girard ◽  
Sophie Dufour-Beauséjour ◽  
Justine Lacombe-Bergeron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Indigenous Representation ◽  
Indigenous Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Community Collaborative

For decades, Indigenous voices have called for research practices that are more collaborative and inclusive. At the same time, researchers are becoming aware of the importance of community-collaborative research. However, in Canada, many researchers receive little formal training on how to collaboratively conduct research with Indigenous communities. This is particularly problematic for early-career researchers (ECRs) whose fieldwork often involves interacting with communities. To address this lack of training, two peer-led workshops for Canadian ECRs were organized in 2016 and 2017 with the following objectives: (a) to cultivate awareness about Indigenous cultures, histories and languages; (b) to promote sharing of Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing; and (c) to foster approaches and explore tools for conducting community collaborative research. Here we present these peer-led Intercultural Indigenous Workshops and discuss workshop outcomes according to five themes: scope and interdisciplinarity, Indigenous representation, workshop environment, skillful moderation and workshop outcomes. We show that peer-led workshops are an effective way for ECRs to cultivate cultural awareness, learn about diverse ways of knowing, and share collaborative research tools and approaches. Developing this skill set is important for ECRs aiming to conduct community-collaborative research, however broader efforts are needed to shift toward more inclusive research paradigms in Canada.

Resisting the “Tyranny of an Expert”

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-60
Author(s):  
Jennifer Adele Morrison ◽  
Jeong-Hee Kim
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Faculty Mentor ◽  
Indigenous Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Community Engaged Scholarship

As more and more universities push for engaged scholarship following Boyer's mandate, it is paramount that faculty and graduate students consider what community-engaged scholarship means in general as well as what it means to develop as reflexive researchers who are fully-engaged partners in the research process, especially when working with Indigenous communities. The purpose of this chapter is to document how a graduate student works on her Bildung of becoming an engaged scholar, fostered by her faculty mentor. In so doing, the researchers aim to affirm Indigenous ways of knowing and researching and further question what it means to be a community-engaged scholar.

scholarly journals Biocultural Rights: A New Paradigm for Protecting Natural and Cultural Resources of Indigenous Communities

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cher Weixia Chen ◽  
Michael Gilmore
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Policy Trend

This article proposes a new concept of “biocultural rights” that justly reflects a broader intellectual and policy trend to holistically address the protection of Indigenous natural and cultural resources. The concept of biocultural rights combines nature with culture; takes into consideration the past, the present, and the future; and values “special” Indigenous elements that are indispensable to the diversity of our universe. It aims at protecting Indigenous resources holistically and more effectively.

scholarly journals Island cities: the case of Belfast, Northern Ireland

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-8
Author(s):  
Stephen A. Royle
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Contested Space ◽  
The Past ◽  
Belfast Agreement ◽  
The Future ◽  
Briefing Document

Abstract The paper considers Belfast as an ‘island city’ with reference to issues of identity and economy and especially in connection with a series of statements from the ‘Futures of Islands’ briefing document prepared for the IGU’s Commission on Islands meeting in Kraków in August 2014. Belfast as a contested space, a hybrid British/Irish city on the island of Ireland, exemplifies well how ‘understandings of the past condition the future’, whilst the Belfast Agreement which brought the Northern Ireland peace process to its culmination after decades of violence known as the ‘Troubles’ speaks to ‘island ways of knowing, of comprehending problems - and their solutions’. Finally, Belfast certainly demonstrates that ‘island peoples shape their contested futures’

scholarly journals Hear Our Languages, Hear Our Voices: Storywork as Theory and Praxis in Indigenous-Language Reclamation

Daedalus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 147 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa L. McCarty ◽  
Sheilah E. Nicholas ◽  
Kari A. B. Chew ◽  
Natalie G. Diaz ◽  
Wesley Y. Leonard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Abstract Entity ◽  
Hawaiian Language ◽  
Indigenous Ways Of Knowing

Storywork provides an epistemic, pedagogical, and methodological lens through which to examine Indigenous language reclamation in practice. We theorize the meaning of language reclamation in diverse Indigenous communities based on firsthand narratives of Chickasaw, Mojave, Miami, Hopi, Mohawk, Navajo, and Native Hawaiian language reclamation. Language reclamation is not about preserving the abstract entity “language,” but is rather about voice, which encapsulates personal and communal agency and the expression of Indigenous identities, belonging, and responsibility to self and community. Storywork – firsthand narratives through which language reclamation is simultaneously described and practiced – shows that language reclamation simultaneously refuses the dispossession of Indigenous ways of knowing and refuses past, present, and future generations in projects of cultural continuance. Centering Indigenous experiences sheds light on Indigenous community concerns and offers larger lessons on the role of language in well-being, sustainable diversity, and social justice.

scholarly journals On What Autoethnography Did in a Study on Student Voice Pedagogies: A Mapping of Returns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mairi McDermott
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Student Voice ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future

In this paper, I invite you into some considerations of what autoethnography might do in research, what it might teach us as researchers. In doing so, I return to an autoethnographic study I engaged in a few years ago which was contoured through the question: How do teachers experience student voice pedagogies? In that study, I experienced autoethnography as a creative methodology that allowed me to go back to two experiences I had with youth, or student voice projects. The paper embodies a return to the autoethnographic study of my doctoral research, which itself was a return to the previously experienced student voice projects; a return that is being propelled by my new position as a professor, supervising students in the mappings of their research landscapes. Returning, thus, becomes a central motif that invites dwelling in the simultaneity of pastpresentfuture – wherein the present is the folding in of the past and the future through attuning to embodied ways of knowing, sensing, being, and doing -- disrupting colonial epistemological legacies of progress and linearity found in conventional and taken-for-granted research practices. I ask, what does it mean to go back, in efforts oriented towards a future (such as social justice)? What might it mean to conceptualize time differently within our research, teaching, and learning? I argue that autoethnography, when engaged through an active nomadism, opens space for learning about our research practices, ourselves as researchers and pedagogues, as well as deeper understandings of our research topics.

scholarly journals How is the Medicine Wheel considered in therapeutic practice?

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 78-93
Author(s):  
Alexis Ford-Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Healing Process ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Medicine Wheel ◽  
Therapeutic Practice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Healing Journey ◽  
Indigenous Spirituality

This paper is a review of research in 2010 and then updated in 2019 which reflects the considerations given to the Medicine Wheel during an Indigenous person’s healing process. While at City University of Seattle in Edmonton, Alberta doing my Master’s in Psychology Counselling I was curious as a Gwich’in woman as to how Indigenous values, beliefs, and spirituality were and are being considered in therapeutic practice. The limited and now growing academic research over the past ten years speaks to integrating traditional Indigenous spirituality, such as the medicine wheel teachings into one’s healing journey. However it does not address any applications with respect to methodologies or practices — the medicine wheel is simply a concept. Through reconciliation many Canadians are learning how Indigenous people in Canada were denied their cultural practices and it is my intent to find a way for Indigenous people to introduce their own values and healing into what is defined as traditional therapeutic practices. My research I hope will open more doors to understanding how Indigenous people heal and grow over a lifetime and how that process continually shapes the person on their healing journey.

scholarly journals Highlighting the potential of peer-led workshops in training early-career researchers for conducting research with Indigenous communities

FACETS ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 275-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwyneth A. MacMillan ◽  
Marianne Falardeau ◽  
Catherine Girard ◽  
Sophie Dufour-Beauséjour ◽  
Justine Lacombe-Bergeron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Indigenous Representation ◽  
Key Skills ◽  
Indigenous Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Community Collaborative

For decades, Indigenous voices have called for more collaborative and inclusive research practices. Interest in community-collaborative research is consequently growing among university-based researchers in Canada. However, many researchers receive little formal training on how to collaboratively conduct research with Indigenous communities. This is particularly problematic for early-career researchers (ECRs) whose fieldwork often involves interacting with communities. To address this lack of training, two peer-led workshops for Canadian ECRs were organized in 2016 and 2017 with the following objectives: ( i) to cultivate awareness about Indigenous cultures, histories, and languages; ( ii) to promote sharing of Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing; and ( iii) to foster approaches and explore tools for conducting community-collaborative research. Here we present these peer-led Intercultural Indigenous Workshops and discuss workshop outcomes according to five themes: scope and interdisciplinarity, Indigenous representation, workshop environment, skillful moderation, and workshop outcomes. Although workshops cannot replace the invaluable experience gained through working directly with Indigenous communities, we show that peer-led workshops can be an effective way for ECRs to develop key skills for conducting meaningful collaborative research. Peer-led workshops are therefore an important but insufficient step toward more inclusive research paradigms in Canada.

scholarly journals More Than Personal Communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorisia MacLeod
Keyword(s):  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Project Report ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Indigenous Ways Of Knowing

In this project report, I introduce the citation templates for Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers that I created in partnership with the staff of the NorQuest Indigenous Student Centre. These citation templates have been adopted/linked to by twenty-five institutions across Canada and the United States. They represent an attempt to formalize something that Indigenous scholars have been doing for decades: fighting to find a better way to acknowledge our voices and knowledges within academia. I outline how the project was developed, highlighting the importance of stable, respectful relationships, before delving into some of the literature and personal experiences that provided the reasoning for why more culturally responsive citation is needed. Part of the background is acknowledging my own experiences as an Indigenous scholar, but I also draw on literature from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars to illustrate the interdisciplinary need for these templates. I provide in-depth explanations of each element in the new citation templates to explain the reasoning behind and/or importance of each element. For example, I outline why including the individual’s nation/community is important for breaking down the pan-Indigenous stereotype and helping scholars to recognize the variation of knowledge across the hundreds of unique Indigenous communities. While the main focus of this paper will be these specific citation templates, I hope that it will also empower, inspire, and provide a case study of how academia can make small changes to improve the respectful recognition of Indigenous knowledges and voices. Given the recent focus in educational institutions on being more inclusive of Indigenous ways of knowing, I think it is only right that we also look at reconsidering how we treat things like Indigenous oral knowledge in academia and whether there are systems in place that implicitly prioritize written knowledge over oral knowledge in a form of ongoing colonialism.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document