The Give Away Spirit: Reaching a Shared Vision of Ethical Indigenous Research Relationships

Abstract

This paper discusses the dilemma that emerges when codified protocols taken from dominant research paradigms are applied to research in Indigenous communities. We examine the underlying beliefs and assumptions of research paradigms, both Western and Indigenous, and explore how this incompatibility can be reconciled. We seek to reframe paradigmatic structures to reflect the values and beliefs of Indigenous peoples so that the Indian/non-Indian divide is bridged with a culturally responsive research paradigm. This process raises a number of ethical issues related to voice and privilege that we believe have to be resolved in order to be inclusive of multiple perspectives. Grande (2008) points out the problem of “nations [that] get trans- or (dis)figured when articulated through Western frames of knowing” (p. 234). It is this presence of intellectual colonialism that troubles us as educators and researchers as we struggle to maintain our commitment to promoting social justice and ethical interactions within the tribal and academic communities in which we work.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 24 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.