Building upon the inspiring two-eyed seeing and braiding themes of the OE Global '23 conference, I wonder if anyone from our open education community is directly involved in the recently-announced Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science? Funded by a US National Science Foundation grant, based at UMass Amherst, with many partner institutions including some with strong OER programs.
The CBIKS knowledge base and education aspects seem pretty resonant with what we held in Edmonton, I hope our community might be connected and show up in a good way for their important work.
It’s very exciting! We are not involved but I am looking for ways to follow the work. I left a comment along those lines for someone on LinkedIn but if you know or hear of any channels they’ll be using to publish updates, do keep us in the loop!
Thanks again, Curt for bringing us a reminder of CBIKS here (noting your earlier mention when we introduced the braiding concept).
This is part of our interest in continuing to investigate and looks for ways to engage in acts of braiding, it absolutely resonated with many attendees of the OEGlobal 2023 conference.
I wonder too about how connections can be made and we will try to look for more news as the project unfolds, but at least we can see the broad range of institutions and organizations involved listed at the bottom here https://www.umass.edu/gateway/research/indigenous-knowledges
I hope we can raise more interest and action, and we will try to monitor CBIKS opportunities as the project unfolds. And please everyone share other related, relevant links… er braids, here.
A few more references to add to the stack, these seem mostly come from projects around environmental science (like the resource you share) or healthcare.
Braiding Ways of Knowing (Reconciling Ways of Knowing site) a recorded conversation with Dr. Robin Wall author of “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants,” full recording available in YouTube
Knowing Home: Braiding Indigenous Science with Western Science, Book 2 Open textbook from BCcampus (CC-BY) “Knowing Home attempts to capture the creative vision of Indigenous scientific knowledge and technology that is derived from an ecology of a home place. The traditional wisdom component of Indigenous Science—the values and ways of decision-making—assists humans in their relationship with each other, the land and water, and all of creation. Indigenous perspectives have the potential to give insight and guidance to the kind of environmental ethics and deep understanding that we must gain as we attempt to solve the increasingly complex problems of the 21st century.”
Practices for braiding Indigenous knowledge systems and Western science for research and monitoring of terrestrial biodiversity in Canada (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) Comprehensive research report including literatiuve revoew of 0ver 12000 documents “In this work, we synthesized practices for braiding Indigenous knowledge (IK) and Western science (WS) in terrestrial ecosystems in Canada and international areas where Indigenous territories span the Canada-US or Canada-Greenland borders. We then identified gaps in knowledge about how knowledge systems can be used together. To do this work, we: 1) interviewed 46 people spanning 12 Indigenous communities (from BC, AB, QC, ON, NB) and asked about their experience with braiding knowledge systems, and if/how it should be done; and 2) conducted a systematic review of braiding practices in the peer-reviewed and grey literature for terrestrial ecosystems”
Beginning the journey into the spirit world (Canadian Partnership against Cancer) References both braiding and Two-eyed seeing in context of palliative and end-of-life care. “Based on the 2016 work of Drs. Gloria Snively and Wanosts’a7 Lorna Williams, Knowing home: Braiding Indigenous science with Western science, this metaphor describes how Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing can be used in a way that is mutually respectful and reciprocal.”
