Taking a stance: Critical Indigenous Research Methodologies (CIRM)

[brillianz]

How can participatory mapping and critical cartography be improved?

Historically, Indigenous peoples have had a negative outlook towards mapping, research, and so-called academics hoping to lend their parochial worldview onto our communities. The knowledge base of the university, from its basis on Western epistemology and more recent neoliberal stances, has made it a talking point to benefit from the "good deeds" made onto the Indigenous people in their area. As Dr. Chambers' analysis rightly identifies, however, these practices often result in predatory practices that pose mapmakers and experts in GIS and GPS systems as the only ones who can "give voice to the voiceless." Beyond co-opting the source of these Indigenous knowledge systems, he also rightly identified that their position creates "a major issue with knowledge of commercial value" (Chambers 7).

As an alternative to this form of exploitation cloaked in research values, I propose a methodology for cartographers and active users of maps to use. This methodology, known as critical Indigenous research methodology (CIRM), makes use of four main concepts: relationality, responsibility, respect, and reciprocity. These "four R's" make use of traditional Indigenous worldviews to establish the community as the most important subject in the research, rather than profit or prestige. My advisor, Dr. McCarty in the department of education stresses this approach to be used in a horizontal relationship with all the communities that she works with. As a person who has viewed the impetus of profit across education through my previous employment in the charter school system, I believe that CIRM is a beneficial tool across disciplines. I envision this methodology being placed in practice in cartography as a tool in the beginning stages of research to work alongside, not for, communities that need the help most. It can also be used during the dissemination (sharing) stages of the research to agree how it is distributed and who can review the findings.