Kaandossiwin

How We Come to Know

Kathleen Absolon (Minogiizhigokwe)

Indigenous methodologies have been silenced and obscured by the Western scientific means of knowledge production. In a challenge to this colonialist rejection of Indigenous knowledge, Anishinaabe researcher Kathleen Absolon examines the academic work of fourteen Indigenous scholars who utilize Indigenous worldviews in their search for knowing. Through an examination not only of their work but also of their experience in producing that work, Kaandossiwin describes how Indigenous researchers re-theorize and re-create methodologies. Understanding Indigenous methodologies as guided by Indigenous paradigms, worldviews, principles, processes and contexts, Absolon argues that they are wholistic, relational, inter-relational and interdependent with Indigenous philosophies, beliefs and ways of life. In exploring the ways Indigenous researchers use Indigenous methodologies within mainstream academia, Kaandossiwin renders these methods visible and helps to guard other ways of knowing from colonial repression.

Contents

• Part 1 – Preparing & Gathering
• Re-searching
• Indigenous Re-search
• Part 2 – The Berries I Picked
• Introducing the Re-searchers and Their Search
• Wholistic Worldviews and Methodologies
• Roots: Paradigms, Worldviews and Principles
• The Centre Flower: Self as Central
• The Leaves: The Journey
• An Organic Process
• The Stem: Backbone and Supports
• The Petals: Diverse Methodologies
• Indigenous Thesis Research in the Academy
• Winding Down the Search
• References

About the Author

Kathleen E. Absolon is Anishinaabekwe from Flying Post First Nation and teaches wholistic knowledges in the Aboriginal Field of Study, Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University.