Developing a Collaborative Approach to Standpoint in Indigenous Australian Research

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (S1) ◽  
pp. 58-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Ulalka Tur ◽  
Faye Rosas Blanch ◽  
Christopher Wilson
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Indigenous Epistemologies ◽  
Contested Knowledge ◽  
Common Framework ◽  
Collective Process

AbstractThe notion of Indigenous epistemologies and “ways of knowing” continues to be undervalued within various academic disciplines, particularly those who continue to draw upon “scientific” approaches that colonise Indigenous peoples today. This paper will examine the politics of contested knowledge from the perspective of three Indigenous researchers who work within Yunggorendi First Nations Centre for Higher Education and Research at Flinders University in South Australia. In particular, the authors outline a collective process that has emerged from conversations regarding their research projects and responding to what Ladson-Billings and Donnor (2008, p. 371) refer to as the “call”. In developing an Indigenous standpoint specific to their own disciplines and their research context, the authors demonstrate how these collective conversations between each other and their communities in which they work have informed their research practices and provided a common framework which underpins their research methodologies.

Indigenous Studies in the United States and Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aubrey Jean Hanson ◽  
Sam McKegney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Indigenous Voices

Indigenous literary studies, as a field, is as diverse as Indigenous Peoples. Comprising study of texts by Indigenous authors, as well as literary study using Indigenous interpretive methods, Indigenous literary studies is centered on the significance of stories within Indigenous communities. Embodying continuity with traditional oral stories, expanding rapidly with growth in publishing, and traversing a wild range of generic innovation, Indigenous voices ring out powerfully across the literary landscape. Having always had a central place within Indigenous communities, where they are interwoven with the significance of people’s lives, Indigenous stories also gained more attention among non-Indigenous readers in the United States and Canada as the 20th century rolled into the 21st. As relationships between Indigenous Peoples (Native American, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) and non-Indigenous people continue to be a social, political, and cultural focus in these two nation-states, and as Indigenous Peoples continue to work for self-determination amid colonial systems and structures, literary art plays an important role in representing Indigenous realities and inspiring continuity and change. An educational dimension also exists for Indigenous literatures, in that they offer opportunities for non-Indigenous readerships—and, indeed, for readers from within Indigenous nations—to learn about Indigenous people and perspectives. Texts are crucially tied to contexts; therefore, engaging with Indigenous literatures requires readers to pursue and step into that beauty and complexity. Indigenous literatures are also impressive in their artistry; in conveying the brilliance of Indigenous Peoples; in expressing Indigenous voices and stories; in connecting pasts, presents, and futures; and in imagining better ways to enact relationality with other people and with other-than-human relatives. Indigenous literatures span diverse nations across vast territories and materialize in every genre. While critics new to the field may find it an adjustment to step into the responsibility—for instance, to land, community, and Peoplehood—that these literatures call for, the returns are great, as engaging with Indigenous literatures opens up space for relationship, self-reflexivity, and appreciation for exceptional literary artistry. Indigenous literatures invite readers and critics to center in Indigeneity, to build good relations, to engage beyond the text, and to attend to Indigenous storyways—ways of knowing, being, and doing through story.

scholarly journals "The Legacy Will Be the Change": Reconciling How We Live with and Relate to Water

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Lindsay Day ◽  
Ashlee Cunsolo ◽  
Heather Castleden ◽  
Alex Sawatzky ◽  
Debbie Martin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Indigenous Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Be The Change ◽  
Canada Data

Current challenges relating to water governance in Canada are motivating calls for approaches that implement Indigenous and Western knowledge systems together, as well as calls to form equitable partnerships with Indigenous Peoples grounded in respectful Nation-to-Nation relationships. By foregrounding the perspectives of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, this study explores the nature and dimensions of Indigenous ways of knowing around water and examines what the inclusion of Indigenous voices, lived experience, and knowledge mean for water policy and research. Data were collected during a National Water Gathering that brought together 32 Indigenous and non-Indigenous water experts, researchers, and knowledge holders from across Canada. Data were analyzed thematically through a collaborative podcasting methodology, which also contributed to an audio-documentary podcast (www.WaterDialogues.ca).

scholarly journals First Nations Children Count: Enveloping Quantitative Research in an Indigenous Envelope

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy Blackstock
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Practice Change ◽  
Indigenous Research ◽  
Rich Diversity

Indigenous peoples repeatedly call for disaggregated data describing their experience to inform socio-economic and political policy and practice change (United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 2003; UNICEF, 2003; Rae & the Sub Group on Indigenous Children and Youth, 2006). Although there has been significant discourse on the destructive historical role of western research with Indigenous communities (RCAP, 1996; Smith, 1999; Schnarch, 2004) and more recently on cultural adaptation of qualitative research methods (Smith, 1999; Bennet, 2004; Kovach, 2007), there has been very little discussion on how to envelope western quantitative social science research within Indigenous ways of knowing and being. This paper begins by outlining the broad goals of Indigenous research before focusing on how quantitative research is used, and represented, in the translation of Indigenous realities in child health and child welfare. Given the rich diversity of Indigenous peoples and their knowledges, this paper is only capable of what respected Indigenous academic Margo Greenwood (2007) would term “touching the mountaintops’ of complex and sacred ideas.

scholarly journals Songlines: Preserving cultural heritage through architecture

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sheldon Carr
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Landscape Features ◽  
Flinders Ranges ◽  
Mnemonic Devices ◽  
Dynamic Landscape ◽  
Tribal Region

<p>In indigenous Australian culture, the ‘Songlines’ represent the routes across the landscape followed by the original ‘creator-beings’ of the ‘Dreaming’. The ‘Songlines’ describe the locations of mountains, waterholes, ravines, and other landscape features that were ‘created’ by the movements and interactions of the creator-beings. Throughout Australia’s vast history, the indigenous peoples have recited the Songlines as oral narratives for the next generation, while also using the Songlines to navigate across vast tracts of wilderness. But with the departure of a disenfranchised younger generation of indigenous Australians to cities and government settlements, the Songlines are at risk of being forgotten.  Songlines are not merely navigation devices. They act as mnemonics that define cultural values, indigenous laws and ancestral heritage. Stories of the ‘Dreaming’ acknowledge the past, present and future. As such, they are capable of re-engaging Indigenous Australians with a sense of place, heritage,and values, that are so menaingful to there culture and religion.  The sites for this design-led investigation are located in Arkaroola Sanctuary, Vulkanatha /Gammon Ranges and Ikara-Flinders Ranges - located in South Australia. This vast expanse of land is associated with the indigenous people known as the Adnyamathanha. The principal aim of this investigation is to conceive a series of collaborative architectural shelters that are designed and positioned in ways that can help reawaken, expose, and define characteristics of ‘Songlines’ for future generations.  The architecture will act as a reminder of cultural values, while serving as a framing device to reveal the dynamic landscape features that form the Adnyamathanha’s traditional Songlines. This is to safeguard knowledge, and re-awaken awareness of ‘Songlines’ for younger indigenous peoples who have left their homeland and tribal region. The architectural shelters, as points of pause along the Songlines, act as mnemonic devices that help keep alive a vibrant and fundamental sense of cultural identity and place. The architectural interventions seek to diffuse boundaries between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous cultures – given the current integrated context of Australia.</p>

scholarly journals Songlines: Preserving cultural heritage through architecture

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sheldon Carr
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Landscape Features ◽  
Flinders Ranges ◽  
Mnemonic Devices ◽  
Dynamic Landscape ◽  
Tribal Region

<p>In indigenous Australian culture, the ‘Songlines’ represent the routes across the landscape followed by the original ‘creator-beings’ of the ‘Dreaming’. The ‘Songlines’ describe the locations of mountains, waterholes, ravines, and other landscape features that were ‘created’ by the movements and interactions of the creator-beings. Throughout Australia’s vast history, the indigenous peoples have recited the Songlines as oral narratives for the next generation, while also using the Songlines to navigate across vast tracts of wilderness. But with the departure of a disenfranchised younger generation of indigenous Australians to cities and government settlements, the Songlines are at risk of being forgotten.  Songlines are not merely navigation devices. They act as mnemonics that define cultural values, indigenous laws and ancestral heritage. Stories of the ‘Dreaming’ acknowledge the past, present and future. As such, they are capable of re-engaging Indigenous Australians with a sense of place, heritage,and values, that are so menaingful to there culture and religion.  The sites for this design-led investigation are located in Arkaroola Sanctuary, Vulkanatha /Gammon Ranges and Ikara-Flinders Ranges - located in South Australia. This vast expanse of land is associated with the indigenous people known as the Adnyamathanha. The principal aim of this investigation is to conceive a series of collaborative architectural shelters that are designed and positioned in ways that can help reawaken, expose, and define characteristics of ‘Songlines’ for future generations.  The architecture will act as a reminder of cultural values, while serving as a framing device to reveal the dynamic landscape features that form the Adnyamathanha’s traditional Songlines. This is to safeguard knowledge, and re-awaken awareness of ‘Songlines’ for younger indigenous peoples who have left their homeland and tribal region. The architectural shelters, as points of pause along the Songlines, act as mnemonic devices that help keep alive a vibrant and fundamental sense of cultural identity and place. The architectural interventions seek to diffuse boundaries between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous cultures – given the current integrated context of Australia.</p>

Marianne Nicolson’s Land-Based Knowledgescape Cliff Painting

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-143
Author(s):  
Amina Grunewald
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Indigenous Epistemologies ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Settler Societies ◽  
Tribal Lands

AbstractIndigenous epistemologies and ontologies are connected to tribal lands, resilience, and claims for sovereignty. These ways of knowing offer an indispensable resource for Indigenous communities in surviving and resisting assimilationist policies. Modes of Indigenous knowledge are not only discussed in academia and practiced in local spaces but are also integrated into artworks that promote public access to First Nations political agendas within settler nation states. Knowledgescapes can be created as conversive artscapes. They can be placed translocally but also re-integrated into First Nations lands. A reworking of the land as a tribally marked space can be traced in artworks that attack bio- and geopolitical manners of settler societies. The land-marker, place-maker, and artscape Cliff Painting (1998) by Marianne Nicolson shall serve as an exemplification of a specific knowledgescape – created for Indigenous audiences to support their claims, and for non-Indigenous audiences to open up a dialogue on colonial issues within a step-by-step decolonizing discourse.

scholarly journals Towards best-practice inclusion of cultural indicators in decision making by Indigenous peoples

2021 ◽  
pp. 117718012110156
Author(s):  
Te Kīpa Kēpa Brian Morgan ◽  
John Reid ◽  
Oliver Waiapu Timothy McMillan ◽  
Tanira Kingi ◽  
Te Taru White ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Indigenous Epistemologies ◽  
Scientific Paradigms ◽  
Made In

Acknowledgement that Indigenous Knowledge cannot be assimilated and readily generalised within reductionist scientific paradigms is emerging. The reluctance of Indigenous Peoples to adopt reductionist science-based interpretations is justified. Science that stops at the point where reality is universal excludes consideration of how outcomes are understood and experienced by more holistic epistemologies including those of Indigenous Peoples. Culturally derived ways of knowing are beyond the realm of reductionist science and require approaches to decision-making frameworks that are capable of including culturally specific knowledge. Cultural indicators are a geographically specific means of enabling measurement of a particular culture’s attributes; however, to be appropriately recognised, the method of inclusion is at least as important. Therefore, cultural indicators, their definition and their measurement are the sole prerogative of Indigenous Peoples, and how Indigenous epistemologies are effectively empowered in frameworks is critical, as decisions are no longer being made in purely Indigenous contexts.

scholarly journals Knowledge Pluralism in First Nations’ Salmon Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia A. Bingham ◽  
Saul Milne ◽  
Grant Murray ◽  
Terry Dorward
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Coho Salmon ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Resource Governance ◽  
Natural Resource Governance ◽  
Colonial Legacies ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Of Canada

There is growing interest in the “integration” of knowledge and values held by Indigenous peoples with Western science into natural resource governance and management. However, poorly conducted integration efforts can risk harming Indigenous communities and reifying colonial legacies. In this regard, dichotomous conceptualizations of Indigenous and scientific knowledges are problematic. In this research, we focus on the role of indigenous and scientific knowledges in the management of coho salmon (Oncorhyncus kisutch) on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia (BC) in a governance context featuring contested authority among First Nations (Indigenous peoples) and the government of Canada. We discuss an example from a particular Indigenous community, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations (TFN), that has worked with other management bodies to establish practices for the restoration, enhancement and harvest of cuẃit (coho). After outlining relevant Tla-o-qui-aht values, knowledges and decision-making processes, we consider the pluralistic approach to Indigenous and scientific knowledges in Tla-o-qui-aht management of cuẃit and show that pluralistic, co-constitutive, and multiplicative understandings of Indigenous and scientific ways of knowing may provide better grounding for addressing challenges in integration efforts. We also emphasize the importance of engagement with FN community liaisons and deferral to FN leadership to align management efforts with FN structures of knowledge production and governance, maintain ethical engagement, recognize Indigenous agency, and support effective conservation, and management efforts.

A Precarious Confluence: Neoliberalism, Race, and Water Insecurity

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mascarenhas
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
First Century ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Water Insecurity ◽  
The Core ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Racial Projects ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Cities

Three very different field sites—First Nations communities in Canada, water charities in the Global South, and the US cities of Flint and Detroit, Michigan—point to the increasing precariousness of water access for historically marginalized groups, including Indigenous peoples, African Americans, and people of color around the globe. This multi-sited ethnography underscores a common theme: power and racism lie deep in the core of today’s global water crisis. These cases reveal the concrete mechanisms, strategies, and interconnections that are galvanized by the economic, political, and racial projects of neoliberalism. In this sense neoliberalism is not only downsizing democracy but also creating both the material and ideological forces for a new form of discrimination in the provision of drinking water around the globe. These cases suggest that contemporary notions of environmental and social justice will largely hinge on how we come to think about water in the twenty-first century.

Juvenile Fiction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mavis Reimer ◽  
Clare Bradford ◽  
Heather Snell
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
British Literature ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Juvenile Fiction

This chapter focuses on the juvenile fiction of the British settler colonies to 1950, and considers how writers both take up forms familiar to them from British literature and revise these forms in the attempt to account for the specific geography, politics, and cultures of their places. It is during this time that the heroics associated with building the empire had taken hold of British cultural and literary imaginations. Repeatedly, the juvenile fiction of settler colonies returns to the question of the relations between settlers and Indigenous inhabitants—sometimes respecting the power of Indigenous knowledge and traditions; often expressing the conviction of natural British superiority to Indigenous ways of knowing and living; always revealing, whether overtly or covertly, the haunting of the stories of settler cultures by the displacement of Indigenous peoples on whose land those cultures are founded.

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