Indigenous Research and Academic Freedom: A View from Political Scientists

Abstract

Over the last several decades, scholars working on Indigenous topics have faced increasing pressure to engage in research that promotes social justice and results in formal partnerships with Indigenous communities. In this article, we argue that non-community-based research, in which the researcher exercises academic autonomy over the project, still has a role to play in Indigenous-focused research, depending on the research question, topic, and situation at hand. We explore this argument from the perspective of political scientists who study Indigenous-settler political relations in Canada.

Research Methodology and Community Participation: A Decade of Indigenous Social Science Research in Canada

“…among many Indigenous communities or researchers, such as that most research in their communities is led by non-Indigenous researchers (e.g., Ball and Janyst 2008:34) and that Indigenous researchers tend to prefer emancipatory and participatory research methods (Ball and Janyst 2008:43;Rigney 1999). Our findings also indicate the limits of research policies prompting a turn toward CBPR in research with Indigenous peoples (Alcantara, Lalonde, and Wilson 2017) and rather show that most peer-reviewed social science research articles involving Indigenous research participants fail to go beyond the minimum levels of consultation and participation required by policy and contrary to several articles (3, 18, 19, 23, and 31) of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples (United Nations General Assembly 2007).…”

“…Some scholars also argue that with appropriate practices, non-CBPR can also be compatible with the four R's of Indigenous research (Alcantara, Lalonde, and Wilson 2017). 2009:118-19; Smithers Graeme and Mandawe 2017). In general, "conversational and story-telling approaches," which are more consistent with the relational worldview that undergirds many Indigenous epistemologies, tend to be preferred (Ball and Janyst 2008:43;Christensen 2012;Drawson et al 2017).…”

Diversifying Methodologies: A Haudenosaunee/Settler Approach for Measuring Indigenous-Local Intergovernmental Success

“…It is conceivable for one person to do the ethnography and have knowledge of the appropriate literatures but, given the complexity and diversity of Indigenous political principles within and among First Nations, there are advantages to a team-based interdisciplinary approach. Similarly, while it may be possible to obtain the required data for analysis through interviewing at a distance, longer-term ethnographic engagement offers a richer analysis and recognition of a given community's multivocality (Alcantara et al, 2017).…”

Living stories through a sweet grass porcupine quill box methodology:

“…Yet PAR has also been criticized as granting approval to Indigenous people to participate in another form of a Westernized based methodology that lacks full immersion with Indigenous ways of knowing and being (Zavala, 2013). As well, community based participatory research was not founded upon Indigenous or tribal knowledge, relationality and its extension to the relationship with the land (Alcantara, Lalonde, & Wilson, 2017;Kovach, 2010). The quill box methodology prioritizes relationality, the supportive relationships between people who survive kidney health issues through their connectedness with their ways of being and spirituality.…”