Horsethief, Christopher

Technology has drawn our world closer, giving us tools to share words, texts, pictures and messages with little or no effort. However this unprecedented reach can also allow us to overstep, overshare and overwhelm—especially when the existing practices tend to be viewed as proper, institutional and official. Indigenous speech communities have a strong history of contributing data to Western research efforts, though these projects generally refine research data in Western/non-Indigenous terms. That is to say the units of analysis are increasingly specific with respect to Western frameworks. However, this can be problematic for Indigenous knowledge holders seeking to refine Indigenous Revitalization tools. The Ktunaxa Nation has engaged in a new approach to research that focuses on refining data from both Western and Indigenous perspectives. The Ktunaxa Nation Council’s Elders Working Group has participated in two recent Federal research grants as vehicles to exchange scientific concepts between Western and Ktunaxa social and health sciences frameworks, with the goal of increasing the specificity of data for both groups. This “collaboratively rational” coevolution offers benefits for both Western and Indigenous partners. For Western researchers the relationship provides network stability in the face of increasingly diverse Western researchers and limited Indigenous resource experts. For the Ktunaxa Nation the approach has reified new understandings about Truth and Reconciliation and inclusion of Indigenous nuance in scientific conversation.