Inuit and Western Ways of Knowing in Academic Research: Examining IQ and Community-Based Participatory Research

This research project is situated within a larger HIV prevention focused community-based participatory research (CBPR) study taking place in three Inuit communities across Nunavut. Much of the literature surrounding CBPR strongly promotes this approach as a successful process for collaborative research between University-based researchers and Indigenous communities. However, missing from the literature is research specifically examining CBPR processes and Indigenous ways of knowing, their alignment, and if and how they work together. Drawing on the concept of Two Eyed Seeing, made known by Elder, Albert Marshall, this research project will examine a CBPR project in action, in order to assess the alignment of Inuit Qaujimimajatuqangit (IQ) and principles of CBPR. IQ refers to Inuit epistemology, or Inuit societal values that represent Inuit ways of knowing and doing past present and future. Study results will provide an in-depth understanding of how Western (Academic) and Indigenous (Inuit) ways of knowing interact within a CBPR HIV prevention research study. With no universities in Nunavut, academic research with Inuit communities in the territory must on a variety of levels navigate/ negotiate Inuit and non-Inuit ways of knowing. This project will ultimately produce knowledge for Inuit-specific research frameworks that will have great utility across disciplines. The findings from this research project will help to ensure Inuit ways of knowing are explicitly incorporated into research processes and will contribute to knowledge for both Inuit communities and University-based researchers to conduct culturally affirming research and lead to wise practices for community-placed and Inuit-led research.