Indigenous research - the gift is in the content and the process

Dilin Duwa's visiting scholar Dr Dara Kelly-Roy from Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business in Canada is addressing the Indigenous knowledge gap through her research.

Indigenous knowledge is a complex framework, relying on kinship and passed down through the generations. This framework has provided the structure regulating rights and responsibilities for First Peoples for thousands of years to each other and to the land.

A growing body of Indigenous scholars is addressing this knowledge gap through research methodologies that honour Indigenous ways of doing and being.

“Oral history is the central component of how I collect data,” says Dr Dara Kelly-Roy, Dilin Duwa’s visiting scholar. “It’s a way of thinking about the world and how knowledge is passed down through the generations.”

Hailing from the Stó:lō Coast Salish, Dr Dara Kelly-Roy has been researching and drawing on the Indigenous knowledge within her ancestry for over a decade and is a key faculty member working to Indigenise business education at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business in Canada.

The research method that Dr Kelly-Roy takes is informed by Coast Salish epistemology and emphasizes the richness and wealth of knowledge embedded in oral history.

“In the culture of my people, there are two concepts – Sqwélqwel and sxwoxwiyám. Sqwélqwel is oral histories of the recent past; Sxwoxwiyám is oral histories of the distant past. The oral tradition is the process by which oral history is transmitted,” explains Dr Kelly-Roy.

“Sxwoxwiyám, the stories of the ancient past help us to understand our responsibility to uphold Indigenous laws that come from the land."

This applies to land and water rights for example. Canadian Indigenous people have exercised fishing rights since the beginning of time.

However, this comes into conflict with federal governments who feel that it is their jurisdiction to manage the waters.

This interference has prevented Stó:lō people from exercising their fishing rights and living into their responsibilities and connection to land.

“Through Sxwoxwiyám which links us to the land through the generations, these stories help us to maintain a connection to ongoing responsibilities today.”

However, understanding the principles of Sqwélqwel and Sxwoxwiyám in research is not a straightforward process. Consent forms, as used by Western academic institutions, have little relevance to issues of accountability when layered alongside longstanding kinship relationships and responsibilities.

“To go into a community and ask people to sign a consent form as a researcher when you have deeper connections to them is meaningless. They are attuned to nuance and genealogy as the primary structures of accountability.”

Colonisation has also led to much of the knowledge being taken underground.

“I spend a lot of time understanding the kinship structures because not everyone has the right to know all things."

Some knowledge is protected within certain groups and not shared with outsiders because they have the genealogical rights to that knowledge.

“In my experience though, I was fortunate to interview Elders who were eager to share their insights with me because I represent the next generation seeking that old knowledge. They see that as their responsibility to pass it on, and I am honoured to be a custodian of this knowledge. This is what I mean when I say that the gift is in both the content and the process.”

Dr Kelly-Roy was recently awarded a Canada Research Chair, and a substantial grant to explore Indigenous economic wellbeing and freedom for the next 5-10 years.

“The idea of economic wellbeing comes from my interest in economic freedom and was sparked by Dr Mānuka Hēnare, a well-respected Māori historian and my former supervisor from Te Tai Tokerau, the far north of Aotearoa-New Zealand who moved into the next world in 2021. There is not a single day when I don’t hear his voice in my head as I’m thinking about the impact and relevance of my research for future generations.”

The idea is encapsulated by a quote by the 1998 Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, Amartya Sen whose work defines freedom as the ability “To live lives we value and have reason to value.”

“This is at the core of Indigenous economic freedom the way I see it. It focuses on people and places experiences at the centre of a valuable life.”

There are currently indices which seek to place a value on quality of life, for example in Wales, Scotland, Finland. But all these frameworks tend to be monocultural in their scope of indices and based on OECD templates.

“What constitutes a good life is something that many scholars are exploring across Canada and Turtle Island. But it begs the question of how current structures and institutions reflect Indigenous definitions of a good life. There is very little research from an Indigenous perspective. I want to focus on this and build the literature in this space.”

Dr Dara Kelly-Roy will be delivering a seminar on Indigenous Economic Wellbeing and Freedom on 6 May. The event is available in person and online. Register to attend here.

To find out more about the Indigenous business education and research, visit the Dilin Duwa Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership page.