Indigenous-Led Knowledges and Research

UTS supports the creation of a high-performing, talent-based research culture so that our people—academics and professional staff at UTS—are committed to enhancing the capacity for Indigenous researcher development in Indigenous-led, community-driven research that embraces Indigenous self-determination. This will ensure the commitment to the cultural continuity and empowerment of Indigenous Knowledges, protocols, practices and governance.

When non-Indigenous, respectfully engaged in research collaborations that advances Indigenous researchers and/or communities with research strategies that empower Indigenous Knowledges, sovereignties and self-determination.

Knowledge of:

  • Principles: Understanding Indigenous Research Ethics (e.g. AIATSIS, NHMRC, community protocols).
  • Contextual Diversities: Awareness of Indigenous communities and organisations; Traditional Custodians who may be connected to and impacted by the research and its outcomes.
  • Decolonisation: Understanding the interface/tensions between Western and Indigenous Knowledges; rejection of deficit discourses.
  • Governance Frameworks: Knowledge of, and commitment to, Indigenous Nation Building Frameworks, Indigenous Data Sovereignty Frameworks, Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual  Property Rights, CARE (collective, authority, responsibility, ethics) vs FAIR (findable, accessible, Interoperable, reusable) data governance approaches.
  • Empowerment: Awareness of and commitment to indigenist research principles, capacity development, co-research opportunities, cultural responsiveness and safety.
  • Knowledges: Engagement with extensive research foundations in Indigenous-led research, Indigenous standpoint/critical theories, Indigenous research methodologies, Interface/two- ways/third-space theories.
  • UTS Indigenous Strategies: Awareness of UTS centres of Indigenous research (e.g. Indigenous academics, industry, and HDR staff/students, Jumbunna House of Learning, Centre for  the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges).

Ability to:

  • Critique one’s own positioning within the Indigenous research setting.
  • Build trust and engagement working with Indigenous scholars and community representatives.
  • Respect Indigenous peoples and community standards, timeframes, and needs.
  • Commit to ongoing partnerships with Indigenous peoples and communities in a transparent manner.
  • Translate and return research data and outputs to Indigenous representatives and communities.
  • Ensure that research processes and outputs will not harm Indigenous peoples and communities.
  • Provide sustained professional development, Indigenous cultural competency and responsiveness across contexts (e.g. research, ethics, HDR supervision, community engagement).

Confidence to:

  • Understand Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and downing.
  • Move beyond the limitations and biases of ones’ own knowledge base.
  • Respect the commitment to the sovereign rights of Indigenous communities and peoples.
  • Commit to empowering Indigenous peoples and communities to overcome ongoing forces of colonial oppression (e.g. assimilation, racism, appropriation).
  • Recognise and support all staff to assist in resisting the colonial status quo across Indigenous communities.
  • Recognise that the racial stressors Indigenous peoples and communities are forced to endure are not isolated to colonial constructions of race.