Learning from Indigenous Ways of Knowing
Learning #1: Don’t Call it “Indigenous Quantitative Methods”
A few months ago I set out to create a research brief of Indigenous Quantitative Methodologies. I wanted to start a survey of just some of the existing ways that Indigenous cultures around the world create knowledge and solve problems with data.
I had a few eye-opening experiences working with Indigenous researchers and felt that many of the techniques, systems, and approaches that were being used would have a revolutionary equity impacts on some of the “western” (for want of a much better term) or “what-you-get-taught-at-university” approaches that I am an expert in.
As soon as I started talking to Indigenous colleagues I saw my first mistake: calling it an “Indigenous Quantitative Methods Survey”. Quantitative vs Qualitative already accepts a structure of knowing inextricably rooted in white, western, academic systems. Even ‘methods’ can allude to a type of science purposely isolated from feelings, history, context, and a holistic view of society and nature that simply does not apply to many Indigenous ways of knowing. So, I’m ditching the “Quantitative Methods Survey” title.