CPC 511 : Research Paper : Cultural Aspects of Mourning

Researchers that only use academic markers of authority (peer review, academic credentials, etc.) to evaluate information will find a one-sided perspective because academic sources are most often written about Indigenous communities rather than by them. Reliance on academic authority effectively silences many of the voices of Indigenous people on their own culture. Under this colonialist construction of knowledge, interpretation of Indigenous cultures is denied to members of that culture and reserved for those with academic authority. As Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2012) so searingly recounts in the introduction to her book, the Western monopoly on interpretation is incredibly painful to Indigenous cultures:

"It galls us that Western researchers and intellectuals can assume to know all that is possible to know of us... It appalls us that the West can desire, extract, and claim ownership of our ways of knowing, our imagery, the things we create and produce, and then simultaneously reject the people who created and developed those ideas....”

Western systems of knowledge appropriate and at the same time devalue information created by Indigenous ways of knowing. When working with Indigenous Knowledge in an academic context, it is vital to respect Indigenous Knowledge's authority, agency, and voice. Do not treat Indigenous authorities as mere "informants," but rather as equals in the knowledge creation process.

It is vital for students and scholars to consider their practices of citing sources, as these practices are part of how we attribute knowledge and ideas. These practices reflect whose voices are heard and prioritized, what counts as "knowledge," and who can be creators and holders of knowledge. There is growing movement around citational justice or citation politics to #CiteIndigenousAuthors, a parallel to #CiteBlackWomen. For a list of readings and resources, please see this citation politics guide for First Nations and Indigenous Studies from the University of British Columbia: