Improving the relationships between Indigenous rights holders and researchers in the Arctic: an invitation for change in funding and collaboration

Abstract

Truly transdisciplinary approaches are needed to tackle the complex problems that the Arctic is facing at the moment. Collaboration between Indigenous rights holders and researchers through co-creative research approaches can result in high-quality research outcomes, but crucially also address colonial legacies and power imbalances, enhance mutual trust, and respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, to be successful, collaborative research projects have specific requirements regarding research designs, timeframes, and dissemination of results, which often do not fit into the frameworks of academic calendars and funding guidelines. Funding agencies in particular play an important role in enabling (or disabling) meaningful collaboration between Indigenous rights holders and researchers. There is an urgent need to re-think existing funding-structures. This article will propose a new paradigm for the financing of Arctic research, which centres around the inclusion of Indigenous partners, researchers, and institutions from the initial planning stages of funding programmes to the final stages of research projects. These findings and recommendations have been contextualized based on critical reflections of the co-authors, a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners, who have practiced their own collaborative work process, the challenges encountered, and lessons learned.

Focus on Arctic change: transdisciplinary research and communication

“…While Arctic research is increasingly inspired by Indigenous and collaborative approaches, Doering et al (2022) address the role of funding to meet the needs of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations as well as their non-Indigenous research allies. They develop a set of comprehensive recommendations that address all stages, from the pre-funding call stage to a responsibility and reflections stage at the end of each project.…”

“…Transdisciplinary approaches and co-creation of knowledge may provide effective means to adapt and respond to challenges resulting from rapidly changing climate. More transdisciplinary research and coproduction of knowledge can strengthen Indigenous and local research capacity in the Arctic and thereby better benefit both local societies and the scientific community (Doering et al 2022). It may also be fundamental for resilience-building, for example by focusing on understanding drivers of change that shape social-ecological systems (Galappaththi et al 2022).…”

“…This is acknowledged in the most recent IPCC report chapter on the polar regions, which concludes that the inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge in research and resource management not only supports climate resilience but can also contribute to overcoming colonialism in the Arctic (Constable et al 2022). However, such research may require new funding structures and mechanisms, which allow for long-term mutual relationship and capacity building as well as empowerment of Arctic communities (Doering et al 2022).…”

Codesigned Archaeological Research in the Alligator Rivers Region, Northern Territory, Australia

“…Despite the increasingly positive state of research in Mirarr kunred , barriers remain to sincerely advancing “Indigenous based research approaches for the benefit of Indigenous Peoples” (Doering et al 2022:2) and for First Nations’ peoples to engage with researchers on an equal footing. We describe some of these below with the hope that awareness will increase the generation of innovative solutions, focusing especially on some of the structural issues that we see could be addressed in the near future.…”

“…Putting aside the degree to which this is possible given the overt “Whiteness” (Mate and Ulm 2021) and inherent nature of the discipline, many local practitioners now routinely adopt a highly consultative approach to Indigenous-related research. Projects are often codesigned, and they increasingly aim to provide outcomes that will directly benefit Aboriginal 1 communities rather than merely generating new scientific knowledge, in a form of “archaeology as service.” Here, we outline ongoing developments with the aspiration of First Nations–led research while freely acknowledging that, for now, the development of accountable research practices is ongoing (after Fitzpatrick 2019, 2021; see also Doering et al 2022).…”