Dr. Joe Gone – Considering Indigenous RM

In Dr. Joe Gone’s talk, he speaks about Castellano’s (2000) Indigenous Traditional Knowledges, including their characteristics: personal, oral, experiential, holistic, and narratively conveyed. Later in the talk he speaks about his key take-away ideas, mentioning that Indigenous RM adopted by and for Indigenous peoples are best characterized as Métis forms of inquiry (i.e., most of what we refer to as an Indigenous epistemology is mixed – Indigenous and Western). I’m aware of many examples of this, where the characteristics of traditional knowledges are honoured within a Western research paradigm. However, I struggle with the notion that most Indigenous RM would be characterized as mixed.

While I am still processing the questions and ideas he put forward, I like to return to our discussion about values in research with Sereana. No matter the methodology, we must honour our value system, that aligns with our world view. I believe this the most important thing to respect when conducting Indigenous research.