NEȾOLṈEW̱ ‘one mind, one people’: Indigenous Language Research Network
Permanent URI for this community
Browse
Browsing NEȾOLṈEW̱ ‘one mind, one people’: Indigenous Language Research Network by Date Added
Now showing 1 - 20 of 66
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Indigenous communities and community-engaged research: Opportunities and challenges(Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching and Learning, 2016) McGregor, Catherine; McIvor, Onowa; Rosborough, PatriciaAs the inaugural issue of The Engaged Scholar Journal made apparent, while there is significant evidence that community-engaged scholarship has reached a critical mass in Canadian institutions, many important junctures still need to be explored. One such issue is the recognition of Indigenous community-engaged scholarship. Working from an appreciative stance, the three authors of this article explore how existing community-engaged scholarship theory intersects with their own experiences as academics—teasing out some of the potentialities and tensions that exist in the lived spaces where community-engagement thrives, amidst the boundaries of institutional tenure and promotion policies. The article also explores what kinds of practices or policies might be usefully considered by institutions, particularly around how to engage in more inclusive processes of scholarly recognition. We argue it is possible to embrace tools that create reciprocal, respectful and meaningful relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples who share deeply held beliefs in the power of research to alter lives and communities in powerful ways.Item Back to the Future: Recreating Natural Indigenous Language Learning Environments Through Language Nest Early Childhood Immersion Programs(The International Journal of Holistic Early Learning and Development, 2016) McIvor, Onowa; Parker, AlianaFor a language to have a stable future, children need to be learning it. Immersion for young children is the best method for rapid language regeneration as it can produce new proficient speakers within a few years. Although early childhood language immersion programs, commonly known as language nests, have been recognized internationally as the most successful means available today for language revitalization, this method is not yet well subscribed to in Indigenous Canada. This paper provides a picture of early childhood Indigenous immersion language programming and presents it as one viable solution to the challenge of Indigenous language loss in Canada. In addition, it is hoped that this paper can be a starting point for Indigenous community members interested in immersion early childhood approaches to their children’s health, identity development, and overall wellbeing.Item An exploration of the effects of mentor-apprentice programs on mentors' and apprentices' wellbeing(International Journal of Indigenous Health, 2017) Jenni, Barbara; Anisman, Adar; McIvor, Onowa; Jacobs, PeterIncreasingly, adult Indigenous language learners are being identified as the “missing generation” of learners who hold great potential to contribute to the revival of Indigenous languages by acting as the middle ground between Elders, children, and youth within their communities. Our research project NEȾOLṈEW̱ “one mind, one people” studied adult Indigenous language learning through the popular Mentor-Apprentice Program method. Over a 2-year period, our team conducted interviews and focus groups with participants involved in a Mentor-Apprentice type program in British Columbia, Canada. While our primary interest was to document the successes and challenges of the Mentor-Apprentice Program method for adult Indigenous language learning, we also included interview questions that gave participants an opportunity to share how participating in such a program affected them. During data analysis, we noticed repeating comments from participants about how their involvement with a Mentor-Apprentice Program impacted their own and their community’s wellbeing; 6 exploratory themes were identified. Although studies have reported protective effects of Indigenous language use on health, health-related outcomes of language revitalization efforts remain underexplored. In addition to discussing the exploratory themes that arose from the study, our paper also proposes that these themes can inform future research in investigating the links between language revitalization and wellbeing.Item Life and death of Canada’s founding languages (and not the two you think)(Transforming the Academy: Indigenous Education, Knowledges and Relations, 2013) Smith, Malinda S.; McIvor, OnowaItem The World Indigenous Research Alliance (WIRA): Mediating and mobilizing Indigenous Peoples’ educational knowledge and aspirations(Education Policy Analysis Archives, 2015) Whitinui, Paul; McIvor, Onowa; Robertson, Boni; Morcom, Lindsay; Cashman, Kimo; Arbon, VeronicaThere is an Indigenous resurgence in education occurring globally. For more than a century Euro-western approaches have controlled the provision and quality of education to, and for Indigenous peoples. The World Indigenous Research Alliance (WIRA) established in 2012, is a grass-roots movement of Indigenous scholars passionate about making a difference for Indigenous peoples and their education. WIRA is a service-oriented endeavor designed by Indigenous scholars working in mainstream institutions to support each other and to provide culturally safe spaces to share ideas. This paper highlights how WIRA came to be, and outlines the nature and scope of these shared endeavours. Strategically, WIRA operates under the mandate of the World Indigenous Nations Higher Educational Consortium (WINHEC) who regularly report to the General Assembly of the United Nations Indigenous Peoples Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) pertaining to Indigenous Peoples and their education (United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 2007). Indeed, this collaboration provides the opportunity to share best practices across respective countries, and to co-design interdisciplinary, dynamic and innovative educational research. Since the inception of WIRA, a number of research priorities have emerged alongside potential funding models we believe can assist our shared work moving forward. The launching of WIRA is timely, and sure to accelerate the goals envisaged by WINHEC, and Indigenous peoples aspirations in education more generally.Item "Culture" as HIV Prevention: Indigenous Youth Speak Up!(Gateways: International International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, 2014) Wilson, Ciann; Oliver, Vanessa; Flicker, Sarah; Prentice, Tracey; Jackson, Randy; Larkin, June; Restoule, Jean-Paul; Mitchell, ClaudiaOne rainy spring evening, our research team was preparing for a community report-back session on the Taking Action community-based participatory action research project in Kahnawà:ke, a Mohawk reserve located near Montreal. We presented our major research findings by showcasing several of the arts-based products (e.g. murals, paintings, hip hop songs and videos) produced by youth participants during the project, linking structural inequity to HIV vulnerability (Flicker 2012; Flicker et al. 2014a, b). The event culminated in a conversation with the audience on the issues raised in the project. During the discussion, one man asked: ‘Why are Aboriginal youth into hip hop, wearing baggy clothes and acting Black?’ Many of the youth present were frustrated by the question. They tried to explain that Indigenous cultures are not static; rather they are fluid and change over time. They felt that expression through hip hop and ‘new’ forms of art were mediums as powerful as drumming circles or pow-wows for conveying their health promotion messages to their peers. One of the adults in the room chimed in, stating, ‘Ya, I do photography. That is not often seen as a traditional Aboriginal art form, but what does it mean to be “authentically” Aboriginal?’ Not completely sure if he was satisfied with the answers he had received, the man sat back in his seat mulling over the responses. The discussions in this community exemplify the challenges between representations of Indigenous identity and traditional and contemporary Indigenous cultures. They highlight the ways in which Indigenous identity is often thought to be synonymous with ‘static’, ‘primitive’ and ‘unchanging’ traditions that are often juxtaposed with ‘contemporary’ practices (King 2011). This vignette also demonstrates how Indigenous identity expression has taken on political, historical, racial and nationalist signification and remains a site of much tension, both within and outside Indigenous communities in Canada. In this article, we explore (a) the ways Indigenous youth involved in an HIV intervention take up and reclaim their cultures as a project of defining self, and (b) the way Indigenous culture can be used as a tool for resistance, HIV prevention, and health promotion more generally. Here, we draw on Simpson’s (2011) definition of culture as a series of interrelated processes (e.g. activities, ceremonies) that engage our full beings and require our full presence (mental, physical, spiritual, etc.) in order to survive, live full lives and grow.Item Supporting Indigenous language revitalisation through collaborative postsecondary proficiency-building curriculum(Language Documentation and Description, 2017) Czaykowska-Higgins, Ewa; Burton, Strang; McIvor, Onowa; Marinakis, AlikiOne contemporary strategy for reversing language shift undertaken by Indigenous communities includes engaging with educational institutions. In Canada language revitalisation strategies in Indigenous communities increasingly include adult language courses and programmes, often delivered through partnerships between communities and post-secondary institutions. A challenge for revitalisation strategies at the post-secondary level is creating programmes founded in Indigenous educational traditions and values within largely Euro-Western focused institutions that have themselves played a role in the colonisation of Indigenous communities. A component of shifting the legacy of colonial power relations and building Indigenous-based programmes in post-secondary institutions is to ensure these programmes are explicitly informed by, support, and respond to community needs, goals and perspectives. Here we provide a brief description of the Indigenous language revitalisation programmes offered at the University of Victoria (Canada), which seek to support the creation of new adult speakers and teachers. Our description begins with the context for the development of these programmes, and then focuses on exemplifying and discussing an Indigenous Language Teachers’ Package curriculum resource developed to support community-based language instructors as they work towards meeting their students’ proficiency-building goals. By outlining some of the complex factors taken into consideration, challenges faced, and sharing one university team’s responses to community needs, goals, and perspectives, we aim to contribute to the growing scholarship on post-secondary proficiency-focused Indigenous language programming.Item Laying the groundwork: A practical guide for ethical research with Indigenous communities(The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 2017-04) Riddell, Julia K.; Salamanca, Angela; Pepler, Debra J.; Cardinal, Shelly; McIvor, OnowaAlthough there are numerous ethical guidelines for research with Indigenous communities, not all research is conducted in an ethical, culturally respectful, and effective way. To address this gap, we review four ethical frameworks for research with Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Drawing upon our experiences conducting a transformative social justice research project in five Indigenous communities, we discuss the ethical tensions we have encountered and how we have attempted to address these challenges. Finally, drawing on these experiences, we make recommendations to support those planning to conduct research with Indigenous Peoples in Canada. We discuss the importance of training to highlight the intricacies and nuances of bringing the ethical guidelines to life through co-created research with Indigenous communities.Item Integrating linguistic structure, content, and communicative practice into post-secondary Indigenous language curriculum: Now what?(4th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC), University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2015-03-12) Strang, Burton; Czaykowska-Higgins, Ewa; Aliki, Marinakis; McIvor, OnowaAs part of comprehensive language revitalization strategies many North American Indigenous communities are partnering with post-secondary institutions to offer language courses and programs. Teaching Indigenous languages shares similar challenges to those facing second language teaching of dominant languages and has led to development of pedagogical models like Master-Apprentice Program (e.g., Hinton 2002) and Accelerated Second Language Learning (Greymorning, 2005, 2010), both created to support revitalization of Indigenous North American languages. Despite the increase in pedagogical models for teaching Indigenous languages, little research has focused directly on post-secondary Indigenous language curriculum (cf. Miyashita and Chatsis 2013, Suina 2004, Leap 1991). In this paper, we contribute to Indigenous Second Language research by outlining factors taken into consideration and responses developed by a language curriculum team in British Columbia, Canada for Indigenous Language Revitalization programs offered in community-post-secondary institution partnerships. We consider how Indigenous language curriculum can integrate language structures, appropriate cultural and language content, and communicative practice through task-based and focus-on-form techniques. The programs under discussion are composed of Certificate and Bachelor's degrees in Indigenous Language Revitalization, including 12 language-learning courses spanning four years of post-secondary training. To develop Indigenous language curriculum we considered: 1) curriculum needing to be useable for various languages and dialects within different language families; 2) instructors with varying degrees of formal training in teaching methods; 3) students with significantly different previous exposure to their Indigenous language; 4) needing to respond to local ways of knowing, teaching, and being (Western Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Basic Education, 2000); 5) varying accessibility of language documentation; 6) university expectations for language teaching and outcomes; 7) requests from instructors and community-partners for clear curriculum and defined outcomes. In our paper we describe the process undertaken in curriculum development, illustrating the main features of the resulting Indigenous Language Teachers' Package, which includes a Teachers' Guide, Scope and Sequence Samples, Class Activities Samples and Feedback-Assessment Samples. We demonstrate how we responded to the varying factors and needs by developing course-shells allowing for a task-based (Nunan 1989) communicative curriculum. This type of curriculum provides teachers the possibility of flexibly integrating grammatical structures through focus-on-form techniques (e.g., Nassaji 2000) into their classrooms while using different types of language documentation. Finally, we consider the extent to which our Teachers' Package has been useful for teachers, and how it has served and will serve as a basis for further curriculum development and its application. References Adley-Santa Maria, B. (1997). White Mountain Apache language: Issues in language shift, textbook development, and Native speaker-university collaboration. In Reyhner, J. (ed) Teaching Indigenous Languages. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University. Pp. 129-143. Greymorning, S. (2005). Weaving the fibre for instruction and acquisition of North American Indigenous languages. In Te toi roa, Indigenous excellence: WIPCE Official Handbook (pp. 191). Hamilton, Aotearoa-New Zealand: The 7th World Indigenous Peoples' Conference on Education. Greymorning, S. (2010). ASLA training workshop. SENĆOŦEN Department, Adult Education Centre, WSÁNEĆ, BC, June 7–9. Hinton, L. (2002) How to keep your language alive: A commonsense approach to one- on-one language learning. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books. Leap, William. (1991). Pathways and barriers to Indian language literacy-building on the Northern Ute Reservation. Anthropology & Education Quarterly. (22)1, 21-41 Miyashita, M. and A. Chatsis (2013) Collaborative development of Blackfoot language courses. LD&C 7. 302-330. Nassaji, H. (2000). Towards integrating form-focused instruction and communicative interaction in the second language classroom: Some pedagogical possibilities. The Modern Language Journal (84)2:241-250. Nunan, M. (1989). Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge, University Press. Suina, Joseph. (2004). Native language teachers in a struggle for language and cultural survival. Anthropology & Education Quarterly (35)3. 281-302. Western Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Basic Education. (2000). The common curriculum framework for Aboriginal language and culture programs: Kindergarten to grade 12. Edmonton, AB: Author.Item Language and culture as protective factors for at-risk communities(International Journal of Indigenous Health, 2009) McIvor, Onowa; Napoleon, Art; Dickie, Kerissa M.A comprehensive review and analysis of the literature related to the role of Indigenous language and culture in maintaining and improving the health as well as reducing the risk factors for health problems of Indigenous people. Although much literature exists on various topics related to culture, language and health, the specific focus of this paper was studying the effects of the use of language and culture on the health of Indigenous people. Once all relevant literature was gathered, six linked themes emerged as protective factors against health issues; land and health, traditional medicine, spirituality, traditional foods, traditional activities and language. Findings included evidence that the use of Indigenous languages and cultures do have positive effects on the health and wellness of Indigenous people. However, the majority of the existing literature focuses on culture and its effects on health. Therefore, more studies are needed specifically on the potential health benefits of Indigenous language use. Other recommendations for ways forward include more targeted research on urban Indigenous populations, and making links between the loss of traditional land, contaminants in the food chain and the health of Indigenous people in Canada.Item I am my subject: Blending Indigenous research methodology and autoethnography through integrity-based, spirit-based research(Canadian Journal of Native Education, 2010) McIvor, OnowaThe preparation for an adult Indigenous language learning journey is explored in this article by blending autoethnographic methodology with Indigenous research methods. Themes such as spiritual preparation, truth in telling one's families stories, the role of integrity, and the exposure experienced through authoethography are discussed. The author concludes by acknowledging the emergence of new Indigenous research paradigms and their potential for knowledge creationItem Teaching from a Place of Hope in Indigenous Education(Anthropology News, 2017) Chew, Kari A. B.; Anthony-Stevens, VanessaThe Council on Anthropology and Education’s Standing Committee on Indigenous Education has had a presence at the Annual Meetings of the American Anthropology Association over the past decade. The CAE Indigenous Education Standing Committee #7 is dedicated to the exploration of anthropology of education from an Indigenous perspective. Member activities focus on engaging in theoretical and methodological discussions central to the field of Indigenous education, particularly those related to power differentials, knowledge, identity, schooling, agency and appropriation, and persistence. Committee #7 is committed to understanding the experiences, perspectives, and epistemological frameworks of Indigenous peoples through their own words, and works to privilege Indigenous scholarship and collaborative research in the anthropology of education. The following article shares key highlights from a session at last year’s American Anthropological Association Meetings that was sponsored by the Standing Committee on Indigenous Education.Item Claiming Space: An Autoethnographic Study of Indigenous Graduate Students Engaged in Language Reclamation(International Journal of Multicultural Education, 2015) Chew, Kari A. B.; Greendeer, Nitana Hicks; Keliiaa, CaitlinThis article explores the critical role of an emerging generation of Indigenous scholars and activists in ensuring the continuity of their endangered heritage languages. Using collaborative autoethnography as a research method, the authors present personal accounts of their pursuit of language reclamation through graduate degree programs. These accounts speak to the importance of access to Indigenous languages and the necessity of space at universities to engage in language reclamation. The authors view higher education as a tool—though one that must be improved—to support Indigenous language reclamation efforts.Item Family at the Heart of Chickasaw Language Reclamation(American Indian Quarterly, 2015) Chew, Kari A. B.Located in south- central Oklahoma, the Chickasaw Nation faces unprecedented language loss. Because of colonization and forced assimilation, the intergenerational transmission of the Chickasaw language—Chikashshanompa’—has been interrupted in families, leading to devastating and rapid language decline. In 1994 there were an estimated one thousand Chikashshanompa’ speakers. Currently, there are about seventy remaining speakers, all of whom are elders. While a small but increasing number of second-language learners speak the language at a level of conversational fluency, new generations do not speak Chikashshanompa’ as a first language. As a result, community members are growing increasingly aware of the urgency surrounding language loss and the necessity for language reclamation. Currently, a small group of dedicated Chickasaw citizens and allies are working to restore Chikashshanompa’ as a healthy and vibrant language of the community. Significantly, family has emerged as being at the heart of their efforts.Item Studying Indigenous Heritage Languages at Universities A Collaborative Autoethnography(4th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC), 2015-03) Chew, Kari A. B.; Keliiaa, Katie; Hicks, NitanaUsing collaborative autoethnography, this article explores the experiences of Indigenous graduate students as they navigate higher education and work to ensure the continuance of their heritage languages for future generations. The authors of this self-study represent diverse heritage languages and attend different universities across the United States. Following a discussion of Indigenous languages as tied to identity and a means to confront hegemonic power within universities, a review of the literature highlights new directions in language reclamation scholarship—particularly in the portrayal of youth, young adult, and postsecondary student contributions. The authors then present their experiences through vignettes, as well as an analysis of emerging themes. Ultimately, the article argues that, despite diverse backgrounds, the authors share a view of higher education as a tool—albeit one with limitations—that can enable them as effective contributors to language revitalization efforts.Item Weaving Words: Conceptualizing Language Reclamation through a Culturally-Significant Metaphor(Canadian Journal of Native Education, 2019) Chew, Kari A. B.When the Creator called us to our homelands to become a distinct people, Chickasaws received the gift of our language—Chikashshanompa'—with which to speak to each other, the land, the plants, the animals, and the Creator. Chickasaws have held sacred the gift of our living language, passing it from generation to generation for thousands of years. From this understanding of the purpose of Chikashshanompa', I challenge metaphors of language endangerment, loss, and death which pervade academic research. Drawing on research utilizing a culturally-grounded methodology, as well as Chickasaw epistemologies to conceptualize Chikashshanompa' reclamation work, I introduce finger weaving—the traditional Chickasaw art form used to weave sash belts for ceremonial attire—as a culturally-significant and -appropriate metaphor for the process of ensuring language continuance over generations. I identify distinct strands of the weaving as themes emerging from both academic research and personal experience, including: the development of a critical Chickasaw consciousness, an understanding of Chikashshanompa' as cultural practice, and the (re)valuing of language learners. One of the most challenging aspects of finger weaving is ensuring proper tension between strands. To this end, I explore those forces that may also undermine language reclamation, such as persistent and damaging language ideologies. This shift in metaphor and paradigm emphasizes and values the vital roles of Indigenous community members in language research and ongoing reclamation work. Ultimately, I argue that by upholding metaphors for language work which reflect Indigenous epistemologies, we become guided by a sense of hope for the continuance of language.Item Hear Our Languages, Hear Our Voices: Storywork as Theory and Praxis in Indigenous-Language Reclamation(Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2018) McCarty, Teresa L.; Nicholas, Sheilah E.; Chew, Kari A. B.; Diaz, Natalie G.; Leonard, Wesley Y.; White, LouellynStorywork provides an epistemic, pedagogical, and methodological lens through which to examine Indigenous language reclamation in practice. We theorize the meaning of language reclamation in diverse Indigenous communities based on firsthand narratives of Chickasaw, Mojave, Miami, Hopi, Mohawk, Navajo, and Native Hawaiian language reclamation. Language reclamation is not about preserving the abstract entity “language,” but is rather about voice, which encapsulates personal and communal agency and the expression of Indigenous identities, belonging, and responsibility to self and community. Storywork – firsthand narratives through which language reclamation is simultaneously described and practiced – shows that language reclamation simultaneously refuses the dispossession of Indigenous ways of knowing and refuses past, present, and future generations in projects of cultural continuance. Centering Indigenous experiences sheds light on Indigenous community concerns and offers larger lessons on the role of language in well-being, sustainable diversity, and social justice.Item Enacting Indigenous Language and Cultural Reclamation across Geographies and Positionalities(Transmotion, 2019) Chew, Kari A. B.; Anthony-Stevens, Vanessa; LeClair-Diaz, Amanda; Nicholas, Sheilah E.; Sobotta, Angel; Stevens, PhilipIn globalizing landscapes, Indigenous ways of knowing and being persist in their connectedness to specific geographies, even as they are transformed by migrations, both forced and voluntary, and dynamic exchanges. This paper presents narratives of Indigenous and ally scholars which explore what it means to enact language and culture reclamation from a place of hope—by Indigenous peoples, for Indigenous communities—and in connection with distinct historical, political, and geographic sites. By naming the identities the authors represent—Chickasaw, Nez Perce, Eastern Shoshone/Northern Arapaho, Hopi, San Carlos Apache and Euro-American—we use a framework of hope to counter damaging assumptions of homogeneity of Indigenous communities while also searching for common themes to advance an agenda of decolonization across positionalities. Understanding that Indigenous sovereignties are built on “contingency with the beliefs, and understandings of the past” (Grande 250), we interrupt settler-colonial narratives which portray Indigenous languages and cultures as deficient and vanishing. Further, through narratives, we explore how disciplines such as linguistics, anthropology, education, and cultural studies can be interwoven to highlight experiences of identity reconciliation, spirituality through language revitalization, and storytelling as narrative reclamation. A critical culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy unifies the narratives and provides a framework for attending to “asymmetrical power relations and legacies of colonization” (McCarty and Lee 8). In this way, Indigenous narratives of persistence and optimism find relevance in the global and local here and now while emphasizing the relevancy of hope as a rooted practice of relationality in Indigenous language and cultural education. Sharing narratives of hope acknowledges the experience of colonization, while privileging the hope in Indigenous knowledge as a return to the community and generator of new narratives.Item Lighting a fire: Community-based delivery of a university Indigenous-language teacher education program(Promising Practices in Indigenous Teacher Education, 2018) McIvor, Onowa; Rosborough, Trish; McGregor, Catherine; Marinakis, AlikiItem Publish or perish: Māori, Pāsifika, and international Indigenous scholars’ critical contribution to public debates through the invited NZARE Symposium, International Organisations Session, AERA 2017, San Antonio, Texas(New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 2018-07) Kēpa, Mere; Manu’atu, Linitā; Stephens, Cheryl; McIvor, Onowa; Kaimikaua, Charmaine; Whitinui, PaulThe commentary centres on the preparation and collaboration of Māori, Tongan, nehiyaw, and Native Hawaiian cognoscenti for AERA 2017 (Kēpa et al. in International Organisation Sessions at American Education Research Association Conference, San Antonio, 2016, 2017). In the contemporary era where publish or perish has become the dictum for academics amid the mushrooming of numerous journals, the New Zealand Education Act (1989) offers sanctuary, par excellence, for Indigenous scholars to collaborate. The Act offers the burgeoning forte of Indigenous cognoscenti, neutral positions beyond the received wisdom for the publication of quality research, exemplary enthusiasm and devotion to good spirits interwoven with affection and sympathy for other people. Thereby, the Indigenous scholars are provided impartial platforms, where the outcome of our relentless toil to know Indigenous wisdoms and western science finds expression in writing collaboratively. Propitiously, the Act enables the scholarly community to publish, not only for purely informational value; the law enables our writing of appreciation for beautiful ideas, values and things. Critically, the Indigenous scholars are enabled to publish with the purpose to perish prevailing beliefs that Indigenous knowledges do not proffer ‘truth’ or scientific fact.