Building Connections: Solidarity Across Indigenous, Decolonizing, and Affirming Research Paradigms Informing Caribbean Research

• In Event: Shifting Ground: Embracing the Power, Value, and Possibilities of Caribbean Research and Pedagogical Approaches

Abstract

Indigenous and decolonizing research methodologies have enabled a more accurate and trusted understanding of the lives, experiences and issues facing many groups who self-identify as indigenous or local, and who distinguish themselves from the portrayals dictated by Western epistemologies and ontologies. Historically, there has been a need to intentionally resist the long-standing influences of coloniality, which continues to (re) define culture, labour, intersubjectivity relations, and knowledge production beyond the limits of colonial administrations.
This presentation explores the opportunities for Caribbean research to connect with and be enriched by various indigenous, decolonizing and affirming research paradigms for addressing Caribbean social issues. By establishing the coloniality of knowledge as an ongoing consequence of colonisation worldwide, deep and meaningful connections can be found between methodologies and research strategies that affirm the ways of knowing of diverse, non-Western cultures (e.g. Liming and Ole Talk Methodology, Talanoa, African storytelling, Kaupapa Māori). This presentation establishes points of similarity and interconnectedness that can add value to Caribbean research strategies. Some common threads include a participatory and inclusive spaces that allows for the multidirectional sharing of knowledge, use of various forms of dialect and the value of humour and fluidity which shows the organic construction of information and ideas.
Building connections across these decolonizing and indigenous research paradigms allow us to draw on strengths and the successes presented in each when examining and even addressing the Caribbean context. Though diverse, the experiences of the region, especially as it pertains coloniality, bears close resemblance to other cultures that have strived to hold on to their own epistemological, ontological and axiological viewpoints.

Author

• Shakeisha Wilson-Scott, Knox Community College