Bridging Parallel Rows: Epistemic Difference and Relational Accountability in Cross-Cultural Research

Abstract

To what extent are non-Indigenous researchers invited to engage the knowledges of Indigenous peoples? For those working within a western paradigm, what is an ethical approach to traditional knowledge (TK) research? While these questions are not openly addressed in the burgeoning literature on TK, scholarship on Indigenous research methodologies provides guidance. Reflexive self-study -what Margaret Kovach calls researcher preparation -subtends an ethical approach. It makes relational, contextual, and mutually beneficial research possible. In my work on contested fisheries knowledge and decision-making systems in Ontario, Canada, a treaty perspective orients my mixed methodological approach. It reflects my relationships to Indigenous lands, peoples, and histories, and enables an ethical space of engagement through which relational accountability and respect for epistemic difference can be realized.

Using Indigenous and Western knowledge systems for environmental risk assessment

“…It was essential for those trained in WS to come into the partnership with self‐awareness of where their knowledge base came from, what it is rooted in and how that is fundamentally different from Indigenous epistemologies. Latulippe (2015) suggests that self‐reflection will help orient the researcher to better understand their foundation of knowledge and to be more open to and respectful of other knowledge systems.…”

Advancing Indigenous Research Sovereignty: Public Administration Trends and the Opportunity for Meaningful Conversations in Canadian Research Governance

“…." (cited in Hansen & Rossen 2017, p. 34) Several researchers have suggested the Two Row Wampum as a model for respectful Indigenous-settler relations (Kent, Loppie, Carriere, MacDonald, & Pauly, 2017;Latulippe, 2015;McGregor, 2009;Ransom & Ettenger, 2001). We advocate the use of the Kaswenta for framing the relationship between mainstream research governance and Indigenous research sovereignty, not because it represents a novel approach to Indigenous-settler relations, but because it is one of the best models that we have encountered for a culturally appropriate approach to respectful research relationships that include all of creation.…”

Fish–People–Place:Interweaving Knowledges to Elucidate Pacific Salmon Fate

“…They offer means to conceptualize and operationalize the cross-fertilization and coming together of distinct knowledge systems -epistemic pluralism (Carter 2017) through an Indigenous lens. Conceptual frameworks are reflective of the knowledge one 84 privileges (Kovach 2010) and their visualization can guide important research choices (Latulippe 2015). The subsequent four highly visual and conceptual frameworks (Figure 3-1; Table 3-1) exemplify that highly comparable approaches can arise across distinct and distant Indigenous cultures and suggest that these are likely but a small selection of a much larger number of Indigenous conceptualizations for promoting knowledge coexistence.…”

“…Significant strides have been made over the past decade in decolonizing research and methodologies (Wilson 2008;Smith 2012;Kealiikanakaoleohaililani & Giardina 2016;Held 2019) and in defining Indigenous worldviews as research method -as a defensible paradigm to guide scholarly inquiry (Kovach 2010;Latulippe 2015;McGregor et al 2018). Held (2019) brings together many of these and additional works as she defines an Indigenous research paradigm in terms of its own philosophical assumptions (i.e., ontology, epistemology, axiology, methodology) and in relation to other major paradigms that inform primarily social inquiry (i.e., positivist, postpositivist, constructivist, transformative, and pragmatic research paradigms).…”

“…Not only would it behoove fisheries scientists to use all and the best tools and knowledge available at this time of crisis, irrespective of their origin and the perceived objectivity and superiority of Western scientific approaches (TallBear 2014a), but this would importantly serve decolonial and reconciliatory efforts that help rectify uneven power relations, knowledge inequalities, and other racially-linked and unjust dynamics in fisheries(Latulippe 2015;Held 2019).Addressing this complexity and confronting existing problems, Etuaptmumk (Mi'kmaw for 'Two-Eyed Seeing') provides a conceptual framework for equitably embracing multiple perspectives within a system. Mi'kmaw Elder Albert Marshall defines Two-Eyed Seeing as "learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of mainstream knowledges and ways of knowing, and to use both these eyes together, for the benefit of all"(Bartlett et al 2012).…”