A Week of Exchange: Ethics and Methods in Arctic Transformative Research (WEMA) III and DÁVGI final gathering

Research funders increasingly request collaboration with Indigenous partners, but non-Indigenous researchers lack co-productive engagement know-how, and Indigenous communities are overwhelmed by collaboration requests. The Week of Exchange merged WEMA III and the DÁVGI final gathering to tackle fundamental questions to prevent co-creation and co-production from becoming hollow concepts. Questions included:

• How can meaningful communication and equitable research relationships be built across knowledge systems and academic disciplines?
• How does academia need to change to recognize different ways of knowing and communicating?
• How can Indigenous data sovereignty be ensured to enable just and meaningful communication?
• How can research support Indigenous language revitalization and cultural resurgence?
• What is the role of communication beyond texts and words in research?
• How can we foster collaborative and co-productive/co-creative research approaches without overburdening Indigenous communities?
• Who ultimately defines “good communication,” and how can we ensure that Indigenous communities can evaluate if research communication is successful?
• How can Indigenous-led research be sustainably financially supported outside of academia?

The Week of Exchange encouraged multi-sensory practices of learning, sharing, (re-) connecting, and communicating with humans and other-than-humans, such as handicraft, artistic performances, storytelling, movement, and silence.

Additional partners also contributed to this project. For more details on this project and their involvement, please visit the links provided.