Indigenous scholars set out eight steps to stop marginalization in academia and to enable a shared Indigenous agenda in science

Decolonize scientific institutions, don’t just diversify them

Indigenous scholars set out eight steps to stop marginalization in academia and to enable a shared Indigenous agenda in science

Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives intend to support Black, Indigenous and other marginalized scholars — but the pace of change has remained slow.

Too often, Indigenous people continue to be objects of research; they must be allowed to become research leaders. For this to happen, extractive research that is taken from Indigenous people without their meaningful involvement, benefit or consent must stop. Indigenous communities must be in charge of whether or not they participate in research, and what happens with any data collected. This is how universities and scientific institutions should uphold key principles of Indigenous self-determination, and ensure data sovereignty in education and research. Institutional power and expertise must serve Indigenous causes, too, and the research community must nurture Indigenous scholars.

We are Indigenous scientists who work and live in the settler-colonial countries of Aotearoa (New Zealand), Canada, Australia and the United States, with expertise spanning microbiology, astrophysics, behavioural ecology, hydrogeology, water science, Traditional Knowledge, Indigenous Research Methodologies and Indigenous geographies. Here, we outline eight steps that academic institutions can take to stop marginalizing Indigenous people.

Recognize science’s colonial legacy

Dominant science (sometimes referred to as Western science) is rooted in colonization, racism and white supremacy: it has been an active participant in the assimilation, marginalization and genocide of Indigenous people¹^,². Black and Indigenous people have been exploited repeatedly by dominant science for monetary and educational gain³, and many institutions were funded by money acquired after stealing Indigenous lands.

Captain James Cook’s voyage to the South Pacific in 1768, for example, wasn’t only a scientific expedition commissioned by the UK Royal Society — it was also meant to help colonize New Zealand and Australia for the UK government. On arrival in Aotearoa, Cook shot and killed at least nine Māori¹. Yet he and his crew are widely remembered as scientists, explorers and cartographers. The accomplishments of scientists, past and present, are often celebrated — including through the names of parks, species, buildings, awards and fellowships — without acknowledgment of the harm they perpetuated.

These concerns are not simply a historical artefact. Colonialism remains deeply embedded in many facets of dominant science, leading to inequitable health and social outcomes. For example, Indigenous people globally have lower life expectancies and higher rates of maternal and infant mortalities than other population groups. And facial-recognition algorithms are often based on white facial features, meaning their results have high false-positive rates for Black and Indigenous people.

These practices (past and present) have caused harm and a distrust of scientific research in Indigenous communities. To begin to dismantle these legacies, all scientists must understand how their disciplines have enabled colonialism. Universities must ensure that students learn the history of their field as part of the curriculum. For example, at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, the bachelor of science degree includes a mandatory course about the relationship between science and Indigenous knowledges (both Māori and Pacific) in Aotearoa.

Fund Indigenous scientists

Indigenous scientists are chronically underfunded internationally: they often receive fewer academic fellowships and research grants than their white colleagues do⁴. For example, in the United States, between 1996 and 2019, white principal investigators were consistently funded by the National Science Foundation at higher rates than were principal investigators of colour⁴. In 2021, Māori were under-represented in both decision-making panels and in successful applications for the Endeavour Fund⁵ — one of New Zealand’s largest research funds, named after Cook’s ship. This under-representation, combined with the fact that Indigenous people occupy few research positions (statistics from settler-colonial countries such as Australia suggest that less than 1% of all PhD holders globally are Indigenous) means that these scientists are often locked out of opportunities to do meaningful research⁶.

This lack of access is not limited to research funding and has numerous knock-on effects. The key metric of research success used by most funding mechanisms is narrow: the number of papers published in high-impact journals. But these papers are often behind paywalls or, when open-access options are available, prohibitively expensive for scholars who do not have institutional revenues. And Indigenous science scholarship often gets relegated to review-type or opinion pieces rather than primary research papers. Many Indigenous scholars also conduct, and want to publish, research in the language of the community involved, which can be at odds with the dominance of English in high-impact journals.

Traditional land owners start a controlled fire of bushland in Australia’s Northern Territory.Credit: Matthew Abbott/Panos Pictures

Indigenous faculty members add other strengths to research communities: outreach, education and mentoring in both Indigenous and campus communities, for example. But those activities require time away from writing papers and grant proposals, and are typically not valued and rewarded by funding mechanisms.

Thus, university leaders and funders should implement the following changes. First, create flexible funds specifically for Indigenous scientists, to be used for fostering relationships with Indigenous communities. Second, fund research led by Indigenous scholars. Too often, projects about Indigenous Knowledge are conducted by people who are not from Indigenous groups or who engage with Indigenous people tokenistically. Researchers frequently ask Indigenous scientists to join their projects at a late stage, for example, rather than involving them as a collaborator from the start. Third, fund projects that are responsive to Indigenous community needs — transdisciplinary, holistic and place-based.

For these changes to happen, the conventional metrics of research excellence must be expanded. Reports written for Indigenous communities should be considered equivalent to peer-reviewed manuscripts. The scientific community must acknowledge the value of research that is led by Indigenous communities, as well as research that centres Indigenous Knowledge systems.

Increasing Indigenous representation on decision-making panels would help to break the cycle of inequity in all these areas.

Hire, retain, promote

In the past decade, we have noticed an increase in academic positions targeted towards Indigenous peoples, particularly in settler-colonial states that have made appreciable moves towards reconciliation, such as Australia, Aotearoa and Canada. But it is not enough to simply hire Indigenous scholars. Institutions must work to ensure that they can thrive in academia.

It is crucial to bring Indigenous scholars together, such as through mentoring networks, and to ensure that Indigenous faculty members have time to build relationships with local Indigenous Peoples.

Universities have started to turn to cluster hiring, in which several people are recruited at the same time to improve racial or gender diversity. For Indigenous scholars, this approach can prevent the isolation both of the individual who is hired and of the Indigenous values, contributions and ways of knowing. Although hiring in cohorts is not sufficient by itself to change organizational culture or shift power, it is crucial to help build a critical mass of Indigenous scientists who will enable enduring change.

Increasing the presence of Indigenous researchers in a university benefits Indigenous students, who gain from being taught, mentored and supervised by Indigenous scientists in a variety of fields. We speak from personal experience — we have all had key Indigenous mentors who supported us in academic structures. It is also advantageous for students who are not from Indigenous groups to be exposed to other ways of knowing. And by showing that they value Indigenous researchers, universities can lessen perceived hierarchies in academia and in wider society.

Dismantle institutional racism

Institutional factors such as racism, burnout, isolation, excess labour and inequitable funding, as well as unsafe and unwelcoming environments, all contribute to greater turnover of Black and Indigenous faculty members than of white colleagues⁷^,⁸. Universities must work to dismantle the structures, practices, policies and processes that have led to this situation. They must facilitate connections, collaborations and mentorships among Indigenous academics.

Evaluation and promotion processes should be redesigned⁹ in consultation with key Indigenous people on and off campus. This consultation should not force Indigenous community members to make hasty decisions, but instead take into account the lived experiences of Indigenous academics as well as the community members they work with. Individual Indigenous scientists, who already have limited resources and energy, must be supported adequately — the onus should not be on them to fix the system. Any time and energy spent educating students and faculty members about Indigenous Peoples and their rights must be valued and recognized, for example in promotion processes.

Scientists must also attend to their own racism. It is not enough to be non-racist. Structural issues and inequities exist in the Western academy. Those who avoid engaging with racism and colonialism in scientific works and spaces merely promote the status quo. All scientists will encounter opportunities to be anti-racist. They can redress historical injustices as they work, such as by changing approaches to working in or around Indigenous land, fostering an inclusive laboratory environment, exposing students to Indigenous research methodologies and enabling citation justice, which recognizes and elevates the contributions of Indigenous scholars, knowledges and communities. Fighting racism in science is everyone’s responsibility.

Recognize Indigenous Knowledge

For thousands of years, Indigenous Peoples have accumulated and developed place-based knowledge about our local environments, through systems built on each community’s philosophies, methodologies, criteria and world view. Indigenous Knowledge is increasingly being sought in both basic and applied sciences¹⁰, particularly in fields such as fire management, sustainability and conservation. But the superficial inclusion of some fragments of Indigenous Knowledge in science is not decolonization.

Representatives of the Ngāi Tahu ki Murihiku in Aotearoa release takahe (*Porphyrio hochstetteri*) as part of a collaborative conservation programme.Credit: Robin Hammond/Panos Pictures

It is crucial that scientists do not extract Indigenous Knowledge systems from local contexts, but instead engage with the Indigenous communities who steward such knowledge, with their full consent. White scholars must recognize, read and cite Indigenous scholarship. But they must also engage with it in deep, relational ways and be open to fully understanding its messages, even if it makes them uncomfortable — especially, we argue, if it makes them uncomfortable. Similarly, universities must stop treating Indigenous Knowledge as supplementary to ‘real knowledge’¹¹; this perpetuates white supremacy in science.

Exciting but potentially difficult shifts are under way in science, policy and education. For example, in 2022, the US government released new Indigenous Knowledge guidance and an implementation memorandum for federal agencies to recognize and include Indigenous Knowledge in research, policy and decision making.