How we work together
Our Framework
This is a framework of how CO-CREATE works together. It includes four parts:
- Who we are – An overview of CO-CREATE and different aspects of working together.
- Mission Statement – What motivates us to work together, the issues we aim to address, and our approach to working together.
- Shared Aims – What we want to achieve internally and externally.
- Communication Protocols – How we agree to work together based on our values.
In 2020, our collaborative of Indigenous and non-indigenous partners formed organically to discuss, share, and reflect on experiences concerning research approaches in the Arctic. As we engaged in various discussions, we uncovered significant challenges concerning unequal, unproductive, and extractive research relationships. Over time, we formulated the need to better understand how to co-create research with Indigenous and non-indigenous partners, touch upon ethical concerns in these relations, and how to improve research approaches and data quality in Arctic research. Motivated by our discussions, we co-created some projects to address these challenges in a practical way.
Following a series of successful projects, we agreed to reflect internally on our co-creative methodologies to ensure we follow the just practices that we promote. To support all contributors’ fair influence in this process, we jointly wrote a proposal that secured a grant to collaborate effectively and explore co-creative methods. This project was named DÁVGI: Co-Creation for Biocultural Diversity in the Arctic and it helped create the time and space for us to reflect on and articulate ‘how we work together’.
At DÁVGI’s launch in Fall 2022, we hosted an internal workshop in Potsdam, Germany, to map out a strategy of how to equitably involve all CO-CREATE contributors throughout the project, taking different interests and individual capacities into consideration. DÁVGI also supported our Indigenous contributors’ workshop for reflecting on their experiences, challenges, and future opportunities in co-creating research and knowledge-making in Sápmi. Based on these discussions, we held another internal workshop in Vienna, Austria, to discuss our communication protocols, history, and future ambitions, further strengthening our relationships. Some methods we used during working sessions included having a mixed team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous session chairs, trust exercises, sensorial explorations and circletalking. All discussions were documented with contributors’ expressed consent.
After, we sorted ideas from our workshops into the first draft of our framework for working together. We also took inspiration from other communication frameworks (e.g., the First Alaskans Institute’s Dialogue Agreements). Then, we began a first iteration of review, which included time for personal reflections and virtual group meetings. A year after its beginning, DÁVGI supported a final working session in Oulu, Finland, allowing many of our international contributors to meet in person, and to talk through and edit these guidelines together. Finally, we did a last round of review, where contributors could offer any further revisions and give their approval to share this co-created work on our website.
We would like to acknowledge that this process was not an easy one and was marked by several challenges. While we share common aims, CO-CREATE encompasses a range of perspectives, understandings, motivations, and priorities, so it took time, patience, active listening, honesty, and trust to establish space and craft forms on communication together in which this diversity can thrive. As CO-CREATE is a non-funded side initiative for most of us, contributors often had to prioritize their main responsibilities. We also navigated time zone disparities and geographical distances, so finding a synchronous moment for everyone to contribute to the framework was a challenge. Consequently, our primary meeting space became the virtual world, supplemented by independent avenues to contribute to this framework. However, valuing time together in-person, we deliberately set aside time after our on-site collaborations to collectively reflect on our methods of working together. In the end, it took more than one year and dedicated time and resources to create this first version of the framework for how CO-CREATE works together.
After nearly three years of collaboration and this intentional process of relationship-building and working together, all contributors’ felt comfortable to share the following framework publicly. This framework represents the CO-CREATE’s understanding of how we work together based on our collaborations up until it was published in December 2023. We will continue to reflect on, revisit, and revise this framework as we continue to work together.
Who we are.
This section is an overview of CO-CREATE, including our partners, areas of interest, and different approaches to working together.
CO-CREATE* is a collaborative of Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors that aims to bridge different knowledge systems in the Arctic and circumpolar regions.
- We are a collaborative composed of Indigenous and non-indigenous partners engaged in Arctic research, action, and change.
- Partners collaborate on shared projects, while also pursuing separate research initiatives outside of the group. Our project teams may vary in contributor composition.
- We focus on collaboration and co-creation in the Arctic and circumpolar regions through our own engagement with each other, learning to listen and communicate in ways that are comfortable for all contributors.
- During our meetings, we don’t follow a strict agenda; instead, we use our time to share our work, propose new ideas, form project groups, and build relationships.
- With currently no core funding, we are capacity conscious and strive to support each other’s work, rather than adding responsibilities.
Mission Statement
Our mission statement is a description of what motivates us to work together, the issues we aim to address, and our co-creative approaches to working together to address those issues.
We desire to participate in research that benefits and derives from the knowledge and values of Arctic Indigenous communities and to be part of meaningful change to make this common practice.
We aim to bridge different knowledge systems, work together to create equitable research practices, share experiences, and learn from each other. We are motivated to work together to:
- Learn about what it means to be responsible and reciprocal and act upon it.
- Amplify existing Indigenous knowledges, societal values, methodologies, priorities, and research.
- Advocate for Indigenous agency, self-determination, and self-governance.
- Co-create decolonial research, methodologies, and questions.
- Promote institutional change for actors in the Arctic (e.g., research institutions, funding bodies, ministries, resource development companies, civil society actors).
- Recognize and value differences around the Arctic.
Communication Protocols
The following communication protocols guide how CO-CREATE agrees to work together and dialogue based on our values.
- Be a human first and a researcher second**. We will focus on getting to know each other as individuals, not just researchers, by learning about and respecting each other’s values, cultures, and ways of knowing.
- Strive for safer spaces. We will create safer spaces where challenging discussions can be had, and we will protect this space by asking clarifying questions and communicating with empathy, respect, understanding, and humility.
- Listen deeply. Careful listening to understand is important because of our cultural and linguistic differences.
- Follow Indigenous thought. We will engage in work that is:
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- Indigenous-led and directly benefits Indigenous people.
- Connected to generations – youth, elders, and those who came before us.
- Informed by the land, air, water, all living beings and local perspectives.
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- Be humble. We will approach others with humility and be open to learn from them.
- Be mindful of processes. We will place a strong emphasis on valuing and respecting the processes and relationships that underpin our work, rather than solely focusing on the end results.
- Honor Indigenous protocols and values. We are committed to respecting and incorporating Indigenous protocols and values into our interactions and practices.
- Respect seasons. We will respect different activities that happen in each season.
- Focus on group sustainability. We will foster sustainable collaboration by caring for each other’s wellbeing, being capacity conscious, and generating inspiring and motivating ideas that build our collective capacity.
- Use humour and kindness. Humor delivered with respect can foster mutual learning and understanding, and kindness creates an environment where mistakes are viewed as opportunities for growth.