Reconciling Science Laboratories and Indigenous Community-Based Research

Indigenous people have been exploited as research subjects, giving Indigenous communities good reason to distrust researcher scientists. In academia, procedures are routinely applied across classrooms and labs without a critical examination of whether they are culturally appropriate. The conduct of scientific research relies on the practices of past scientists, most of whom were non-Indigenous adults who have received very little education on Indigenous history, and the role of Western science in historical injustices. The current state of laboratory work, therefore, remains largely culturally exclusive of Indigenous peoples, as their ways of knowing differ from Western methods of research and reporting. As such, university-level scientific training fails to acknowledge and respect the cultural significance of objects, samples, and knowledges that originate from Indigenous peoples and communities.

While I was conducting my undergraduate honours research in molecular biology, the time I spent in the research laboratory was isolating, onerous and exhausting. While the theory behind my project was fascinating, when I presented the culmination of my research to my peers and faculty, only a handful of people in the crowd had a clue what I was talking about. This purely empirical research left me feeling disconnected from myself, my loved ones and from meaningful work. In stark contrast to this experience, is my time working with Dr. Johnson, who has brought me into her community-based research. I am now in Sociology because of my relationship with her, and a desire to reconcile my place as a settler and a scientist with Indigenous Knowledges. I am exploring how lab work can be done with relationality as the guiding principle to allow for ethical and culturally appropriate laboratory research in connection with Indigenous communities. Connectedness with ourselves, each other, and the land grounds us in reality, and should guide scientific inquiry.