http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
weaving indigenous knowledges and engineering techniques to explore environmental impacts on a cancer cluster
The case study describes how collaborative mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) can enrich and inform an ethical Indigenous community-directed research agenda that is respectful of Indigenous and Western understandings of the environment and well-being.I am a white settler scientist, an uninvited guest in Ontario. A social media post in 2019 and friends in common connected me with a northern Ontario First Nation who live with industrial pollution and are experiencing a cluster of atypically young blood cancer cases. I pivoted from neuroscience to cancer to begin working with them.I began to visit the individuals in the community who initially invited me and was introduced to others, including their elected governance structures, employees providing services through the band office, Elders, and others in the community. My experience as an outsider who practices Indigenous research at the nexus of science, social science, and humanities from a large research institution enables collaborations with diverse teams to address a complex, interdisciplinary suite of issues.As an invited guest, I began to spend time in the First Nation working in a conversational research methodology: Listening at cafes, kitchen tables, community service offices, leadership spaces, and the community center to employees, advisors, and other community members. This research process of listening deeply is part of building and maintaining relationships across the community, especially with women and Elders. Sharing Circles were also used as a culturally suitable, relationally centred methodology grounded in First Nations ways of knowing and being for small groups to shape and inform the research agenda.
SAGE Research methods: diversifying and decolonizing research