scholarly journals A guiding model for decolonizing environmental science research and restoring relational accountability with Indigenous communities

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique David-Chavez
Keyword(s):  
Science Research ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Relational Accountability

In this body of work, I examine the process and methodologies applied in scientific research by, on, and with Indigenous communities with an emphasis on diverse ways of knowing in environmental sciences, natural resources, and climate research. Effectively addressing complex social-ecological issues faced within our current and future generations, such as extreme climate variability and environmental justice, will require all relevant sources of knowledge and data, including those held by historically marginalized communities who remain close to the land. Indigenous knowledge systems, informed through generations of careful observation of dynamics of environmental changes are recognized as critical resources for understanding and addressing social-ecological concerns, yet many institutions and researchers have yet to directly address colonial-rooted legacies, including centuries of oppression, ethical violations, and lack of accountability towards the communities who maintain these knowledge systems. My dissertation research draws from theoretical developments in Indigenous methodologies, community-based participatory research, participatory action research, and constructivist grounded theory to enhance our contextual understanding regarding factors inhibiting or supporting diverse knowledge exchange in the sciences. Conceptual contributions include an evidence-based, practitioner-informed analytical framework that can be applied for guiding and evaluating responsible Indigenous community engagement across a wide range of research fields. Using this framework, I provide data findings from the first global systematic review assessing Indigenous community engagement in climate research studies, improving understanding of how research design connects to broader social outcomes for Indigenous communities. In this work I also provide conceptual contributions in the form of a working model for decolonizing community-based science research with Indigenous communities through a cross-disciplinary synthesis of codes of ethics, principles and methodologies for supporting Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination in research. My dissertation explores this model through the values of integrity, respect, humility, and reciprocity to shape intentional commitments and actionable methods that can be applied to raise ethical standards and long-term relational accountability within Indigenous lands and communitiesEmpirical contributions within my dissertation include a case study field-testing and grounding the working model for decolonizing science research through an Indigenous community-based climate study led by youth and elders within two rural agricultural communities in the mountainous central region Borikén (Puerto Rico). This case study highlights innovative participatory methods, resources, and lessons learned to inform processes for aligning cultural and academic institutional protocols for research integrity. My dissertation also explores benefits, barriers, and resources for Indigenous scholars and practitioners engaging Indigenous knowledge systems in their work and research through an in-depth regional case study in the Caribbean. Findings from this research enhance our understanding of how colonial legacies manifest as unique and complex challenges and identifies sources of capacity-building for overcoming these challenges, centering underrepresented narratives from those community members directly impacted by colonial histories. Together, these contributions shape our understanding of how every stage of research process itself, beyond solely the outputs, serve a critical role in decolonizing research and how researchers and institutions can adapt this process towards raising ethical standards in research.

scholarly journals Implementing Indigenous and Western Knowledge Systems (Part 2): “You Have to Take a Backseat” and Abandon the Arrogance of Expertise

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather E Castleden ◽  
Debbie Martin ◽  
Ashlee Cunsolo ◽  
Sherilee Harper ◽  
Catherine Hart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Water Research ◽  
Financial Investment ◽  
The Real ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Decolonizing Research

Despite innovative technological "solutions" to address ongoing water crises in Indigenous communities, significant disparities persist in Canada. Financial investment in infrastructure is necessary, but it is hardly sufficient to address the real problem: entrenched colonialism. One of the greatest challenges in decolonizing research is to prevent that research from reproducing the very categories it is seeking to critique and dismantle. We share findings from thematically-analyzed interviews with academic and community-based researchers who conducted water research with a stated intent to implement Western and Indigenous knowledge systems. Findings revealed that while there is co-learning, ontological and epistemological assumptions carried into these relationships often impede truly integrative practice. Respondents shared how they worked through these persistent barriers of a colonial system.

Indigenizing Participation for Sustainable Community-Based Development Programmes in Ghana

2020 ◽  
pp. 002190962097933
Author(s):  
Evans Sakyi Boadu ◽  
Isioma Ile ◽  
Madonna Yaa Oduro
Keyword(s):  
Community Development ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Process Analysis ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Local Participation ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems

The efficacy of indigenous knowledge and local participation has been argued to be some of the pathways to curbing the present indigenous community development impasse. Employing an in-depth qualitative research approach, 32 traditional and community development leaders as well as local government officials were interviewed to ascertain local the present community development paradigms and proposed future pathways. Drawing from local insights and a range of scholarly perspectives this paper assessed how meaningful indigenous knowledge systems and indigenous people can actively engage and sustain community-driven development programmes. Utilizing a process analysis, the paper, established that there is a disconnect between indigenous community knowledge systems, values, norms and other cultural realities and contemporary participatory community development approaches. It further illustrates, the absence of local participation in community development and proposed a framework for the integration of indigenous knowledge systems, institutions and other cultural realities in community-based development programmes to ensure development sustainability.

Learning From Place

2020 ◽  
pp. 264-286
Author(s):  
Kevin O'Connor ◽  
Gladys Sterenberg ◽  
Norman Vaughan
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Community Partners ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Teacher Education Pedagogy

This chapter investigates how teacher candidates' experiences in STEAM field studies with community partners can inform work in teacher education within an integrated practicum based on curriculum of place. The overall goal of the inquiry is to better understand and articulate the particular ways in which people value place-based knowledge. Through relationships with Indigenous communities, the team of educators has a deeply held conviction that sustained deliberations on the connections between Indigenous knowledge systems and place-based thinking can provide significant opportunities for reframing education. Learning from place emphasizes a relationship with the land, something deeply respected in Indigenous communities and something absent from much of place-based education. The research explores this tension as we come to a deeper and shared understanding of co-responsibility within Treaty 7 relationships. The project seeks to close this gap by considering varying perspectives of place as it informs STEAM teacher education pedagogy.

Survival of the Fittest Protection of Indigenous Knowledge

2022 ◽  
pp. 294-316
Author(s):  
Stewart Lee Kugara ◽  
Tsetselelani Decide Mdhluli ◽  
Pfarelo Eva Matshidze
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Qualitative Design ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Legal Methodology ◽  
Survival Of The Fittest

This chapter reflects on numerous protections that are available for indigenous knowledge from those who misappropriate it for personal aggrandizement without regard of the holders of the knowledge. The chapter is underpinned on the Afrocentricity and Sankofa theories. A socio-legal methodology was adopted to ground the work to enable students studying indigenous knowledge systems to have a foundation and be able to follow the interdisciplinarity in the writing. As such, a doctrinal approach and qualitative design were engaged to buttress the philosophical reasoning and capture the rich and unrecorded knowledge of inorganic intellectuals. The chapter's standpoint is that the protection of indigenous knowledge requires African-tailored legislation that resonates with indigenous communities' beliefs and are pragmatic yet innovative to bring benefit sharing. In pursuing this, a normative legal framework that could be utilised in the protection of indigenous knowledge is explored.

Guardians of the Forests: How Should an Indigenous Community in Eastern Bolivia Defend Their Land and Forests under Increasing Political and Economic Pressures?

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Yifan He ◽  
Juan Pablo Baldiviezo ◽  
Arun Agrawal ◽  
Vicente Candaguira ◽  
Ivette Perfecto
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Agricultural Commodity ◽  
Governance Capacity ◽  
The Government

Many indigenous communities across Latin America depend on forests for livelihood. In eastern Bolivia, indigenous communities face increasing challenges in forest management due to insecure land tenure, lack of capacity, and state policies that favor extractivism and export-oriented agriculture. This case study examines the dilemma of forest management in the Guarayos Indigenous Territory, with a particular focus on the influence of conflictive policies under Evo Morales administration. Using a combination of literature reviews, semi-structured interviews, and land use/land cover analysis, we investigated the drivers behind the challenges that the Guarayos indigenous community is facing in the forest and land governance and explore potential solutions. We found that deforestation within the Guarayos Indigenous Territory from 2000 to 2017 was primarily driven by agricultural commodity production. Despite its promises on protecting nature and the indigenous peoples, the government weakened the Guarayos indigenous people’s governance capacity through failure of forest law enforcement, prioritization of extractivism and export-oriented agriculture, and support for land titling of external entities. We presented these findings through a case narrative featuring the president of Guarayos indigenous government as the decision-maker. This case study provides an illustrative example of the challenges and management strategies in indigenous land and forest governance in the Latin American context. A Spanish version of this case study is available at https://www.learngala.com/cases/bolivia-forests-esp.

scholarly journals Resilience for Whom? A Case Study of Taiwan Indigenous People’s Struggle in the Pursuit of Social-Ecological Resilience

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsing-Sheng Tai
Keyword(s):  
Central Government ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ecological System ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Trade Offs

While the notion of social-ecological system resilience is widely accepted and applied, the issue of “resilience for whom” is clearly ignored. This phenomenon has also occurred in Taiwan. This article explores the roots of, and a possible solution to, this issue through a case study in the context of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. The Danungdafu area, the focal social-ecological system, was studied. Qualitative research methods and an action-oriented research approach were employed. For a long period, the central government shaped the political, economic, social, institutional, and ecological contexts; dominated resilience discourses and determined the problem-framing and problem-solving agenda; defined the scale and levels at which social-ecological system governance issues were addressed; and determined the knowledge system used to define and solve problems. After 2011, a new participatory governance regime emerged. Multiple stakeholders, including indigenous communities, began to contribute to resilience discourses and influenced governance and trade-offs among differing governance goals. However, under the established structures dominated by Han people, indigenous views, rights, and well-being continue to be ignored. Affirmative action is required to recognize and safeguard indigenous rights. A practical institutional pathway is available to facilitate the transformation from “resilience for mainstream society” to “resilience for indigenous people” in indigenous territories.

scholarly journals Traditional Indigenous Approaches to Healing and the modern welfare of Traditional Knowledge, Spirituality and Lands: A critical reflection on practices and policies taken from the Canadian Indigenous Example

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian A Robbins ◽  
Jonathan Dewar
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Traditional Knowledge ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Traditional Healing ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Spiritual Revitalization

Traditional Indigenous Approaches to Healing and the modern welfare of Traditional Knowledge, Spirituality and Lands: A critical reflection on practices and policies taken from the Canadian Indigenous Example In order for traditional knowledge to be maintained and to develop, it has to be practiced. Traditional healing provides a vehicle for this to occur. In Canada, the spiritual revitalization of Indigenous communities and individuals often involves the use numerous components of traditional healing. These elements are reflected most clearly at the grassroots level, however, current Indigenous programs delivered by Indigenous and governmental agencies have made some accommodating efforts as well. Perhaps most importantly, traditional knowledge and Indigenous spirituality hinges on the maintenance and renewal of relationships to the land. Indigenous land bases and the environment as a whole remain vitally important to the practice of traditional healing. A focus on Indigenous healing, when discussing Indigenous knowledge systems and spirituality, is paramount today due to the large scale suppression of Indigenous cultural expressions during the process of colonization. With respect to policy, there appears to be a historical progression of perception or attitude towards Indigenous traditional healing in Canada from one of disfavour to one favour. There are nevertheless continuing challenges for traditional healing. Mainstream perceptions and subsequent policy implementations sometimes still reflect attitudes that were formulated during the decline of traditional healing practice during colonization processes. As a consequence the ability for particular communities to maintain and use their specific understandings of Indigenous knowledge continues encounter obstacles. Indigenous Knowledge systems are living entities and not relics of the past. Today, these knowledge systems are still greatly being applied to help Indigenous communities and Indigenous people recover from intergenerational pain and suffering endured during the colonization process. Future policy development and implementation should aim to support Indigenous peoples and communities when they decide to learn about, maintain and build upon the knowledge amassed by their ancestors.

scholarly journals Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Conservation of Settled Territories in the Bolivian Amazon

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 6099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pérez ◽  
Smith
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Base Line ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Anthropogenic Land Use Change ◽  
Anthropogenic Land Use

Landscapes settled by indigenous communities represent nuanced inter-relationships between culture and environment, where balance is achieved through Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). Through IKS, native peoples worldwide live, farm, and consume resources in a manner that is responsive to natural systems and, as such, their lands present less deforestation and more sustainable production per capita than is exhibited by non-indigenous practices. In Bolivia, the Origin Farmer Indigenous Territory (TIOC) communities of Yaminahua-Machineri and Takana-Cavineño, located in the North Amazon, are facing external threats of non-indigenous anthropogenic land use change, such as road-building and industrial-scale resource extraction. In order to understand the potential environmental and cultural loss to these territories, the present work seeks to determine the present, base-line conservation state within these Bolivian communities, and forecast land use change and its consequences until the year 2030. This was undertaken using a three-stage protocol: (a) the TIOC communities’ current forest-based livelihoods, characteristics and management were determined using on-site observation techniques and extensive literature review; (b) the historical land use change (LUC) from natural vegetation to anthropogenic use was estimated using multitemporal satellite imagery; and, finally, (c) geographically explicit non-indigenous anthropogenic land-use change threat was extrapolated until 2030 using the GEOMOD modeler from the TerraSet software. Preliminary results show that both TIOCs case-sites are fairly conserved due to their forest dependence. However, deforestation and degradation could be evidenced, particularly within TIOC areas not officially recognized by the central government, due to pressures from surrounding, new non-indigenous settlements, road infrastructure, connection to markets, and the threat of the oil exploitation. Projected LUC suggest serious threats to the unrecognized TIOC areas if community governance is not reinforced, and if extractivist and non-indigenous development patterns continue to be promoted by state and central government.

Sustainability Concepts in Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Cultures

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Throsby ◽  
Ekaterina Petetskaya
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Torres Strait

Abstract:The concepts of sustainability, and of the more specific notion of sustainable development, have become entrenched in national and international policy making over the last half century. However, little attention has been paid to sustainability as it relates to indigenous communities. This article discusses sustainability concepts as understood in indigenous and non-indigenous societies, drawing a number of illustrations from the experiences and practices of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia. We point out that the two approaches to sustainability share many common concerns, although significant differences are evident. While the paradigm of sustainability can be seen as a universal concept that can be applied irrespective of social, political, or cultural context, it is argued that a fully realized model of sustainability for application in non-indigenous societies will only be possible if it acknowledges the importance of culture and incorporates the insights that have been accumulated over generations in indigenous knowledge systems.

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