This project held a workshop on the topic of research processes and their relationships to indigenous communities in Western Alaska.  The workshop brought together key indigenous voices from Western and Northern Alaska who have been highly involved with research.  The workshop's goal was to create a dialogue on the nature, concerns, and possible futures related to the relationships between research processes and indigenous communities.  Workshop attendees discussed the 'landscape' of interactions between research processes and indigenous communities; indigenous concerns, perspectives and needs regarding research; ways forward for research and indigenous communities; and a specific discussion of ship-based research. 

There were a number of considerations which cut across the themes discussed in the workshop, including the following.  There were indications that there are substantial needs and desires for changes in research processes to the end of improving relationships between research and indigenous communities. Participants accorded a primacy to concerns about subsistence and natural resources, including in the context of the world of research.  Participants noted the numerous and complex binds which indigenous people are put into as regards to their engagement with research.  The complex interconnections between research and deeper concerns related to power imbalances, cross-cultural differences, and a history of colonialism were discussed.  A desire was noted for greater involvement of indigenous people and their knowledge throughout the entire research process, in many ways and at many levels.  Additionally, a desire was expressed for greater oversight of research, including at local and regional levels, as well as by funders. 

The topic of research as an object of discussion, inquiry, and consideration has become a commonplace in western Alaska communities.  Research activities, which span across the disciplines, have become a regular occurrence in northern indigenous community life, a major factor influencing policy and management affecting these communities, and a source of various community impacts.  Research in western Alaska with community effects has increased dramatically in recent years.  This workshop helped to provide a fora to discuss and understand research from perspectives which have been highly under-examined in the past.  Additionally, there appears to be a growing need for a systematic and holistic study of the relationships between research and indigenous communities.  This workshop helped lay a strong foundation for such a broader project, an anthropology of northern research. 

This workshop helped to lay out the cultural, political, knowledge-related, and structural bases for research that has human impacts in western Alaska.  Further, the workshop helped to provide valuable insights at junctures of culture, knowledge, scientific practice, and management/regulation.  Additionally, this project built off of a variety of existing bodies of knowledge and literature, including studies examining how to interface forms of indigenous knowledge and western science, critical examinations of research ethics and gatekeeping, and the application of new frameworks for research to create more equitable science.  It is hoped that the insights derived from this workshop will help, among other things, to critically examine scientific assumptions involved in research processes, to expand conceptualizations of human impacts from research, and to change thinking about research to include the perspectives of all involved in and impacted by it.

Last Modified: 05/19/2017
Modified by: Julie M Raymond-Yakoubian