Volume 5, numéro 1, 2021 Special Issue: Indigenous Knowledges

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A brief introduction to “Indigenous Knowledges,” a special issue of KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies that includes sixteen contributions in diverse formats, including multimedia. In these editorial remarks, the editors reflect on the discussions that led to the special issue, their responsibility to honour the work of contributors from many different nations and communities, the ways that conventional forms of academic writing can be inhospitable to Indigenous knowledges, and conversation as methodology. This short introduction also links out to the recording of the virtual launch of “Indigenous Knowledges,” hosted and moderated by Shelagh Rogers and featuring editors Robert L. A. Hancock, Ry Moran, Carey Newman, and Andrea Walsh and contributors Jessie Loyer, Darrell Loyer, and Barry Pottle.

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The Cedar Project is an interdisciplinary, community-driven research project responding to the crises of HIV and Hepatitis C infection and contributing to the healing of young Indigenous people who use or have used drugs. We are a collective membership of Indigenous Elders, health/social service experts, researchers, and non-Indigenous allies. We situate our work in the context of strength, resilience, and rights to self-determination for Indigenous peoples while also acknowledging the ongoing impacts of historical, intergenerational, and current trauma, specifically those related to the child welfare systems. We provide epidemiological and qualitative evidence that reflects Indigenous perspectives of health and wellness. In this paper, we highlight over seventeen years of shared learnings on conducting research with Indigenous communities in a good way. Specifically, we elaborate on four key components of our unique project. First, our paradigm is to build on young Indigenous people's strengths while acknowledging grief and historical trauma. We recognize that Cedar participants are not statistics—they are relatives of Indigenous partners governing this study. Second, our processes are determined by Indigenous governance, led by Elders and rooted in cultural safety. Third, our research ethics are determined by terms of reference created by the Cedar Project Partnership and by embracing guidelines of TCPS and community-based research. Fourth, we are informed by multiple perspectives and research relationships between Elders, partners, students, academics, and research staff. Sharing our learnings with the larger research community can contribute to decolonizing research spaces by centering Indigenous knowledges and privileging Indigenous voice.

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This paper contributes to building respectful relationships between Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) peoples and Canada's cultural memory institutions, such as libraries, archives and museums, and applies to knowledge repositories that hold tangible and intangible traditional knowledge. The central goal of the paper is to advance understandings to allow cultural memory institutions to respect, affirm, and recognize Indigenous ownership of their traditional and living Indigenous knowledges and to respect the protocols for their use. This paper honours the spirit of reconciliation through the joint authorship of people from Indigenous, immigrant, and Canadian heritages. The authors outline the traditional and living importance of Indigenous knowledges; describe the legal framework in Canada, both as it establishes a system of enforceable copyright and as it recognizes Indigenous rights, self-determination, and the constitutional protections accorded to Indigenous peoples; and recommend an approach for cultural memory institutions to adopt and recognize Indigenous ownership of their knowledges, languages, cultures, and histories by developing protocols with each unique Indigenous nation.

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This essay discusses a wide range of media—including an 1853 Albion Cree Press, a Cree typewriter, and contemporary Indigenous artworks—to create a sense of the multiplicity of Indigenous technologies available for study today and the vastness of the visual record. While older art historical studies would be limited to so-called high art, namely paintings and sculpture, this essay takes an expansive approach to consider multiple examples of visual culture in the formation of Indigenous literacy traditions. The work considers the importance of birchbark biting and moss in the pictorial record, for example, as a form of Indigenous technology. This essay has also been inspired by recent conversations with my mom and colleagues in the discipline of contemporary art and for that I am thankful and try to reflect a more conversational approach to the media discussed herein as a methodology of upending binaries and tensions of spoken and unspoken and not-as-yet written stories. The research engages in visual analysis of Indigenous literary artifacts and images. By Indigenous literacies I mean the way Indigenous people have engaged and engage technologies and media to move ideas forward, to create art and culture. The essay takes a speculative approach, using some stories about artworks and narrative approaches to honor a history of Métis and Cree paths to knowledge that are based on storytelling rather than definitive histories. As a person of Métis ancestry on my maternal side, I write this essay not as a fluent Cree or Michif speaker, but as one who is in a life-long process of language learning. Analysis of visual imagery expands staid notions and simplistic understandings of Indigenous literacies as solely based on writing.

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This contribution addresses key issues around the application of Indigenous knowledge in contexts where such knowledge is neither generated nor held (academy, industry, governments, etc.). Effective models for the ethical incorporation of Indigenous knowledge into environmental governance in Canada have remained elusive despite decades of attempts. The predominant research paradigm of “incorporating” Indigenous knowledge into environmental governance is one of extraction by the external interests who seek to include specific aspects of such knowledge in their undertakings. This approach continues to fail because Indigenous knowledge exists as an integral component of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). It is often hollow and potentially damaging to consider any knowledge without understanding the societal systems and peoples that produced it. Indigenous knowledge is not just “knowledge” (a noun) but a way of life, something that must be lived (a verb) in order to be understood. Indigenous knowledge is inseparable from the people who hold and live this knowledge. Although government policy and legislation have evolved in attempts to treat Indigenous knowledge more holistically, the overriding paradigm of extraction remains essentially unchanged. Even the most recent frameworks will meet with limited success as a result. Appropriate and effective inclusion of Indigenous knowledge requires recognition of the systems that support it, which in turn necessitates support for Indigenous self-determination.

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Interview with Inuk artist Barry Pottle from Nunatsiavut in Labrador (Rigolet). Photographs are selected from ten years of photography based on his experiences and observations as an urban Inuk. This conversation provides insight into Pottle’s photographic practice, particularly the artist’s process of learning the art and technical processes of photography and why his photographs matter in the process of Canadians facing their complicities in Canada’s ongoing colonialism. Pottle’s practice produces unique knowledge about Inuit culture and history through his eyes as an urban Inuk photographer.

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In a kitchen table discussion, a Métis genealogist and his Cree-Métis librarian daughter talk about the ways Indigenous people navigate archives, oral history, and research; discuss the inaccuracies that exist in records relating to Indigenous people; and consider the ways that records can supplement oral history about Métis culture.

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This policy brief provides an overview of Indigenous knowledges for an arts organization on the Pacific West Coast in Canada. To orient readers, the brief is contextualized within the broader arc of the organizations' history of commitments to, departures from, and re-engagement with commitments to decolonization and decolonial practice. It provides a list of additional resources.

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As a member of the Tahltan Nation, I carried out research that centred on community experiences of language reclamation. The investigation focused on how language reclamation is connected to health and healing, as well as what has been done and what still needs to be done to revitalize and reclaim the Tahltan language. Language reclamation is the start of a process in which our people heal from the impacts of colonization and assimilation by reclaiming our language, culture, and identity, thereby allowing our voices to become stronger and healthier. From what was learned from community co-researchers, scholars who have worked with our communities, Indigenous community language revitalization experts, and international language revitalization scholars, I developed a Tāłtān Language Reclamation Framework focusing on governance; language programming; documentation; training and professional development; and resiliency, healing, and well-being. This report will discuss the ways in which this framework has been implemented in community over the last decade, highlighting examples such as the formation of a language governing body, Dah Dẕāhge Nodeside (Tahltan Language Reclamation Council); the implementation of language nests; the development of a Tāłtān language school K–8 curriculum; the creation of learning materials based on old and new recordings of first language speakers (e.g., digital apps and videos, websites, alphabet book, grammar resources); post-secondary fluency/proficiency community programming; and documentation training. Finally, we continue to focus on the relationship between language reclamation, intergenerational trauma, and healing, resiliency, and well-being. This will be done through community-based immersive programming that focuses on the nurturing of relationships with first language speakers in order to create not only learning resources, but safe and supportive environments for all speakersーlearners, second language speakers, silent speakers, and first language speakers.

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The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada called for increased access to archival material documenting the history of Residential Schools. What does this access and associated programming look like? How can archives approach sharing Residential School history in an ethical and culturally appropriate way? This project report provides examples of reciprocal approaches to archival work by drawing on a case study of the community-guided work undertaken by the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA) and the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre (SRSC).

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One of the core programming goals at Aanischaaukamikw Cree Cultural Institute is to rediscover, relearn, and reintroduce the traditions of our historic belongings through the display, study, and research of belongings currently cared for by museums outside our region. In 2017, we received funding from the Canada Council of the Arts for a multi-year research and knowledge creation project, "Rediscovering the Tradition of Painted Caribou Coats in Eeyou Istchee." Our project brought Eeyou knowledge together with surviving examples of painted caribou coats and accessories from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries usually referred to, and classified as, "Naskapi" by museums and "experts" outside our region.

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The sharing of existing linguistic resources through online platforms has become an increasingly important aspect in revitalization projects for Indigenous languages. This contribution addresses the urgency of such work through the lens of a partnership in support of one language, Haíɫzaqvḷa (Heiltsuk), a critically endangered Wakashan language spoken in and around the traditional Heiltsuk territory of Bella Bella, British Columbia. Alongside immediate community needs for language preservation and reclamation—informed and guided by Heiltsuk values and goals—lie important ethical and practical questions about how best to activate historic recordings of Elders and knowledge holders who have now passed. Our partnership was explicitly structured around the objective of helping to mobilize the large body of existing languagedocumentation and revitalization materials created in and by the community to support broader community access through digital technologies. Working within the fast-changing digital environment requires agility in order to respond to time-sensitive goals and the strategic needs of the community. Ensuring that such work is grounded in respectful collaboration requires ongoing care, consultation and consideration. The digital landscape is still a new and exciting space, and the opportunities to use online tools and technologies in service of language revitalization are ever increasing. We believe that the strategies, approaches and modest successes of the Heiltsuk Language and Culture Mobilization Partnership may be informative for other community-based language reclamation projects. We hope that outlining our experiences and being transparent about the challenges such partnerships face may help others engaged in this urgent and timely work.

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The Miiyupimatisiiun Research Data Archives Project (MRDAP) is a digitization and data transfer initiative between medical anthropologist Naomi Adelson and the Whapmagoostui First Nation (FN) in the territory of Eeyou Istchee (in northern Quebec). This report provides an overview of phase one of the MRDAP from three distinct perspectives: the researcher, the archivist, and the community. The authors discuss the history of the relationship between Adelson and the Whapmagoostui FN, the digitization process, and the work that is required to transfer the digitized materials to the community for access and safekeeping. The report also foregrounds how the project team is working to ensure that the community has full control over how the data is managed, stored, accessed, and preserved over the long term. The report provides a case study on how Indigenous data sovereignty is being negotiated in the context of one community.

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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.

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As a work in progress, the Tribesourcing Southwest Film Project seeks to decolonize midcentury US educational films about the Native peoples of the Southwestern United States by recording counter-narrations from cultural insiders. These films originate from the American Indian Film Gallery, a collection awarded to the University of Arizona (UA) in 2011. Made in the mid-twentieth century for the US K–12 educational and television markets, these 16 mm Kodachrome films reflect mainstream cultural attitudes of the day. The fully saturated-color visual narratives are for the most part quite remarkable, although the male "voice of God" narration often pronounces meaning that is inaccurate or disrespectful. At this historical distance, many of these films have come to be understood by both Native community insiders and outside scholars as documentation of cultural practices and lifeways—and, indeed, languages—that are receding as practitioners and speakers pass on. The Tribesourcingfilm.com project seeks to rebalance the historical record through collaborative digital intervention, intentionally shifting emphasis from external perceptions of Native peoples to the voices, knowledges, and languages of the peoples represented in the films by participatory recording of new narrations for the films. Native narrators record new narrations for the films, actively decolonizing this collection and performing information redress through the merger of vintage visuals and new audio.

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In this multimedia report we introduce our ongoing collaborative archival project to organize, describe, and provide access to digitized audio files from the long-running Indigenous radio broadcast called Smoke Signals, produced and hosted by Indigenous activists, community leaders, educators, and Elders Dan Smoke and Mary Lou Smoke.

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Background: Indigenous learners and community members are often excluded from online learning environments, as both consumers and producers of knowledge, resulting in an educational digital divide. Further, Indigenous knowledges represented through digital practices and online spaces risk misrepresentation and appropriation, which leads to stereotypes and deficit thinking about Indigenous people, their histories, and their current realities. There is a need for educational approaches that give space, voice, and agency to Indigenous people. Aim: This article is a reflection on a teaching enhancement project that weaved together local land-based learning, Indigenous storytelling, and digital media. Project Overview: Indigenous pre-service teachers created an open educational resource, the Grease Trail Digital Storytelling Project, to enhance the preservation and accessibility of Indigenous histories, stories, and memories embedded in local landscapes. Their approach to Indigenous digital storytelling uses the principles of respect, relevance, responsibility, and reciprocity to document and curate their digital storytelling practices and Indigenous knowledgetraditions. Discussion: The Grease Trail Digital Storytelling Project may serve as a helpful resource for those interested in learning how Indigenous digital storytelling could be approached for the preservation of Indigenous intellectual traditions that bring together land, story, and memory in online spaces and integrated as a tool for teaching and learning in school and community settings.