Spaces of Knowing: Bodies, Tribal Knowledges, and Indigenous Methodologies

• In Event: The Role of the Body in Indigenous and Decolonizing Research Methodologies

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes
Through this paper, I wish to bring to the working table a perspective which centres and privileges Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous research methodologies. While I am mindful of the risks of bringing Indigenous knowledge systems into Western academic research spaces (Kovach, 2009, p. 12), I believe there is possibility for new dialogue and for the emergence of new research communities when we work beyond homogenous assumptions of bodies, minds, and methods.
This paper is a theoretical exploration of how these concerns – these questions of colonized and decolonizing bodies - might be situated within an Indigenous research framework such that knowledge flows from an Indigenous epistemology and does not naively or carelessly perpetuate Western binaries. How do we situate these issues? What might be some of the processes and the content? Or do we – should we – even try? How might it be possible to ‘keep it whole’ while considering questions of the body and embodiment?

2. Perspectives or theoretical framework
3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Indigenous methodologies are similar to, but also distinct from, other forms of qualitative inquiry. Similar to other qualitative forms, Indigenous methodology is comprised of “both a knowledge belief system (encompassing ontology and epistemology) and the actual methods.” (Kovach, 2009, p. 25). Indigenous methodologies value both process and content similar to other qualitative inquiries such as feminist methodologies and participatory action research (PAR). However, tribal epistemologies provide a unique epistemological framework making Indigenous methodologies distinct from Western qualitative approaches. Where can we locate this conversation so as not to become trapped in homogenizing binaries of body, of mind, and of methods?

4. Data sources, evidence, object, or materials
This is a conversation enriched through an understanding that there are common and enduring beliefs held amongst Indigenous people that support our understanding of one another. (Little Bear, 2000: 79). What are the shared and the distinguishing tribal ways of knowing that will guide research processes concerned with supporting a decolonizing lens without creating a methodological quagmire?

5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
“Progress is dependent upon decolonizing colonial spaces” (Kovach, 2009, p. 74). Indigenous knowledges, tribal knowledges, and Indigenous research methodologies together with a decolonizing lens reveal Canada’s colonial history – a history that the non-Indigenous majority are adept at forgetting and thus complicit in maintaining its reproduction (Kovach, p. 75-6). Critically interrogating what dominant society and universities deem counts and does not count as knowledge reveals how Indigenous knowledges have been marginalized and fragmented. (p. 79). As both Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and researchers, we have an obligation to explore and to challenge the ideologies that limit us.
References
Kovach, M. (2009). Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Little Bear, L. (2000). Jagged worldviews colliding. In M. Battiste (Ed.), Reclaiming Indigenous voice and vision (pp.77-85). Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: UBC Press.

Author

• Margaret Elizabeth Kovach, University of Saskatchewan