BioEthics Breakfast Club - Indigenous Science and Research Methodologies

Join us for BioEthics Breakfast Club with Leke Hutchins, Kānaka Maoli and Krystal Tsosie, Diné Nation, SOLS. 

Indigenous peoples have always been scientists. Across disciplines, Indigenous onto-epistemologies have contributed to our global physical and biological understanding. Many researchers are looking to Traditional Ecological Knowledge or Indigenous Knowledge to provide solutions to climate change, ecosystem degradation, and biodiversity genomics. Attention to Indigenous data and digital sovereignty have advanced bioethics and have led to community-based research methodologies mobilizing equitable innovation across data-driven bioeconomies. Yet Indigenous science is often overshadowed and minimized by “Western” science. In May 2024, a U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine expert committee to recommend ways to combine Western and Indigenous approaches in research was aborted for being exclusionary and extractive. Efforts exist to syncretize Indigenous science and Indigenous research methodologies with “Western” science while also advancing equity, ethics, and respect in the domains of biology and biomedicine. How has syncretization added to foundational knowledge and methods to advance global understandings of health, medicine, and biology? What are emerging best practices for community-based research? What needs to change in major science institutions, such as NASEM, to improve cultural competency and encourage mutually beneficial syncretization?