Good Relations: Consent, Reciprocity and Ethics in Indigenous-led Research

Research for the Front Lines, Indigenous Climate Action and SHIFT Center for Social Transformation present: Good Relations: Consent, Reciprocity and Ethics in Indigenous-led Research, with speakers Elizabeth Fast, Marina Johnson-Zafiris, and Ojistoh Horn.

During this hybrid event, our speakers will be discussing what research ethics means outside of academia. When we conduct research within universities, there are specific ethics and consent protocols that need to be followed. But when communities and movements conduct their own research, what ethical issues need to be considered? Whose consent needs to be sought and how? How is data held and managed to ensure data sovereignty? How do we ensure the research is done in ways that build strong relations and are grounded in local governance and knowledge systems? Through short presentations and discussion, these questions will be discussed as speakers share their own experiences of developing community-led research ethics processes.

Join us:

In person: Join us at at SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation Room LB-145, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, QC H3G 1M8 (J.W. McConnell Building) in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Remotely: Register on Zoom to get the link

Snacks provided.
The space is accessible to people with diverse mobility needs.

About the Speakers:

Marina Johnson-Zafiris is a PhD Student at Cornell University in Information Science, with a minor in American Indian and Indigenous studies. Her research interests focus on 1) computational community science and technological interventions for industrial accountability and socio-environmental justice and 2) critical data/information studies across Haudenosaunee Territory. Marina is Kanien’kehá:ka (Wolf Clan) on her mother’s side and Greek on her father’s side. She is presently based both in Ithaca, New York and Akwesasne.

Elizabeth Fast (she/her) is Michif and Mennonite, raised in Winnipeg Manitoba and a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation. She is the owner of Elizabeth Fast Consulting, a small business certified by the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, Elizabeth specializes in research and policy development in the area of Indigenous research methodologies, Indigenous program evaluation, and strategic consulting for Indigenous organizations and Indigenous-led projects. From 2015-2022, she was a professor at Concordia University and held a University Research Chair in Land-based learning and Indigenous pedagogies. She also acted as the Special Advisor to the Provost on Concordia University’s Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action. Elizabeth was a reviewer for the Indigenous research files on the Concordia ethics committee and has experience within and outside of the university context coordinating Indigenous youth-driven research as well as large national studies that have been concerned with how to ensure Indigenous data governance in contexts with various collaborators and partners.

Ojistoh Horn is Kanienkeha:ka, who is from Kahnawake where she lives with her family. Her father is from Akwesasne, where she currently works. She is a family physician taking care of her people through all stages of the lifecycle. Supervising medical students and family medicine residents during their rural rotations in Akwesasne, she emphasizes the complexities of providing primary
care to Indigenous peoples and their communities. Drawing on both Western and Traditional paradigms, working with like- minded physicians across the country, with a focus on the effects of the environment and pollution on health, she promotes the inclusion and support of traditional knowledge and ‘ways of being’ into a framework for providing wholistic and primary care to
her people.

About the organizers:

Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) is an Indigenous-led organization guided by a diverse group of Indigenous knowledge keepers, water protectors and land defenders from communities and regions across the country. We believe that Indigenous Peoples’ rights and knowledge systems are critical to developing solutions to the climate crisis and achieving climate justice. 

Research for the Front Lines supports the research needs of communities and movements on the frontlines of the fight for climate and environmental justice across Canada. Through funding, volunteer labor, strategic communication and more, we support folks on the frontlines to lead the research they need to inform and strengthen their fights.

Shift Centre for Social Transformation supports existing and emerging social transformation initiatives that unite the efforts of Concordians and their partners with the goal of creating a more just, inclusive, and broadly prosperous Montreal.