Selected Books & Articles
Research for social justice: a community-based approach by ISBN: 9781552668788
- “We’ve Been Researched to Death”: Exploring the Research Experiences of Urban Indigenous Peoples in Vancouver, Canadaby Goodman et. al. (2018). Community researchers facilitated talking circles to explore the research experiences of peers living in a highly-researched inner-city neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada.
Research Ethics by Nation
Protocols and Principles for Conducting Research in a Nuu-Chah-Nulth Context – Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council Research Ethics Committee. August 2008.
Research Principles and Protocols - Mi'kmaw Ethics Watch – Unama'ki College of Cape Breton University.
Six Nations Council Ethics Committee Protocol – The Six Nations Council.
Negotiating Research Relationships with Inuit Communities (Tapiriit Kanatami and the Nunavut Research Institute) - Overviews some community perceptions of research (lack of recognition and compensation, generalization and de-contextualization of local knowledge, etc) and provides recommendations to address these concerns.
Health Research & Indigenous Peoples
"... the term 'research' is inextricably linked to European imperialism and colonialism. The word itself, 'research', is probably one of the dirtiest words in the indigenous world's vocabulary.... The ways in which scientific research is implicated in the worst excesses of colonialism remains a powerful remembered history for many of the world's colonized peoples."
Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999), "Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples," pg. 1.
Inventing the Thrifty Gene by ISBN: 9780887559402Publication Date: 2021Though First Nations communities in Canada have historically lacked access to clean water, affordable food, and equitable healthcare, they have never lacked access to well-funded scientists seeking to study them. Inventing the Thrifty Gene exposes the exploitative nature of settler science with Indigenous subjects, the flawed scientific theories stemming from faulty assumptions of Indigenous decline and disappearance, as well as the severe inequities in Canadian healthcare that persist even today.
See also the Indigenous Research Methodologies research guide.
Research Ethics guidelines
- Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans -- Chapter 9: Research Involving the First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples of Canada (2022)This policy represents the ethical standards that all institutional researchers are expected to follow when conducting research involving Indigenous people.
- A Principled Approach to Research Conducted with Inuit, Métis, and First Nations People: Promoting Engagement Inspired by the CIHR Guidelines for Health Research Involving Aboriginal People (2007-2010)(2020) IIPJ. This paper asserts that the principles espoused in the CIHR Guidelines hold ongoing potential to guide health research with Indigenous people in ways that promote equitable research partnerships.
- Kwayask itôtamowin: Indigenous Research Ethics(2005). This paper is a comprehensive summary of a thorough literature review on Indigenous research ethics. It also describes a legal review and an Elders dialogue completed by the authors.
- Guidelines for Ethical Aboriginal Research(2011). Developed by members of the Aboriginal Health Research Review Committee in collaboration with Manitoulin First Nations leadership and community agencies.
- Ethical Guidelines for Aboriginal Research Elders and Healers RoundtableThis report describes ethical guidelines that were developed through community-based consultations.
Indigenous Research Methodologies
See the Indigenous Research Methodologies research guide.
- Indigenous Research Methodology ExamplesThe following is a list of example Indigenous methodologies. We recommend learning about the authors (identity) and where they are writing/speaking from (place) in relation to their chosen methodologies.
Data sovereignty & OCAP
- The First Nations Principles of OCAPThis page provides a brief introduction to OCAP.
- Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP) or Self-Determination Applied to Research(2005). This paper offers a detailed critique of the western approach to Aboriginal health research and explains why and how OCAP should be adopted by researchers.
- Toolbox of Research Principles in an Aboriginal Context: Ethics, Respect, Fairness, Reciprocity, Collaboration and CultureExplores the ethics of protecting material and immaterial cultural heritage and of open data. Provides tools to support First Nations and Inuit peoples and organizations. Also benefits researchers and students wishing to deepen their understanding of research in an Indigenous context.