Decolonizing the Agenda: A Preliminary Critique of Non-Native Indigenous Research

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Based on more than 35 years of community work with Indigenous peoples, but as a non-Indigenouslinguistic and educational researcher myself, I ask in this paper what I believe to be some very crucialquestions about the ethical and moral2 responsibilities of non-Indigenous researchers and expertsdoing fieldwork with Indigenous peoples. These are deeply heartfelt and soul-searching questionswhich come from much refl ection and at times even trauma over what we can and should do whenworking with Indigenous peoples ‒ or even whether outsiders from fi rst world countries have the rightto embark on such endeavors.My own background is that of a working class white American who grew up in New York duringthe 1950s and 1960s ‒ a period of great activism which questioned the very foundations of a society wehad been taught to believe in, and sought to transform the racist and genocidal history that we werepart of. My work with indigenous peoples comes out of this history but is additionally informed by a moral conviction in the right of self determination for Indigenous peoples. As a non-Indigenous person, I canonly lend support. I cannot lead. But I also have the responsibility to be honest about my beliefs.I begin the paper with an introduction of the sociohistorical conditions of 19th century colonialism and howthis shaped academic research on Indigenous peoples. During this period, anthropologists and linguists beganto document the "primitive Other" as part of a project which became known as the science of race. Whileanthropological research supported colonization through ethnographic description, which portrayed Indigenouspeoples through the lens of eurocentric "civilization," linguists were largely responsible for documentingIndigenous languages, often for the purpose of translating the bible in support of the Christianizing mission3.Later they became occupied with cataloguing these same languages and cultures ‒ now mysteriously "dying4" ‒for the sake of academic and intellectual posterity.Following this sociohistorical critique, I look at how the legacy of researching the "Other" has continuedin academia and why Indigenous ways of knowing have been either ignored or denigrated through the useof the western "scientifi c" paradigm. Here, I argue that as outside researchers we must begin to seriouslyexplore how Indigenous science and ways of knowing can be privileged without being co-opted. Next, Icomment briefl y on some key ways in which we might begin to decolonize the agenda. I conclude the paperwith a discussion of what all of this might mean in terms of working toward a code of ethics for non-Nativeresearchers, which truly privileges Indigenous voices.
2012-03-31

Decolonizing the Agenda: A Preliminary Critique of Non-Native Indigenous Research

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