UMass Amherst Collaborates with Indigenous Communities to Launch $30M NSF Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst have been selected by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to help lead the newly announced NSF Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CBIKS) – a five-year, $30 million international NSF Science and Technology Center based at UMass Amherst. The center, funded by the largest grant ever received by the university, will focus on connecting Indigenous knowledges with mainstream “Western” sciences to address some of the most pressing issues of our time in new ways.

The center will work on complex, evolving challenges brought on by climate change, including dire impacts affecting land, water, plant and animal life; the danger posed to irreplaceable archaeological sites, sacred places and cultural heritage; and the challenges of changing food systems, all of which disproportionately affect Indigenous communities.

By taking a transdisciplinary approach, CBIKS will use community-based research to undertake place-based studies and projects in partnership with institutions and 57 Indigenous communities in eight international “hubs” in the U.S., Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. The center’s team of over 50 scientists — including more than 30 of the world’s leading Indigenous natural, environmental and social scientists, representing Native American, First Nations/Métis, Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native, Māori and Aboriginal Australian peoples — will work cross-culturally, involving Indigenous community members and scientific researchers. Among the 40 partner organizations are 29 universities, two tribal colleges, five NGOs, two national museums and two industry partners, and CBIKS intends to grow these partnerships to include additional Indigenous community partners and regional hubs.

Sonya Atalay, provost professor of anthropology at UMass Amherst, will serve as director of CBIKS, while Jon Woodruff, UMass Amherst professor of earth, geographic and climate sciences, will serve as co-principal investigator. They will be joined by fellow co-PIs Ora Marek-Martinez, assistant professor of anthropology and associate vice president of Native American Initiatives at Northern Arizona University, and Bonnie Newsom, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Maine.

“Combining Indigenous and mainstream Western sciences involves the ‘plural coexistence’ of two very different knowledge systems, a process the Mi’kmaq peoples call ‘two-eyed seeing’ and which we refer to as ‘braiding knowledges,’” says Atalay. “We have evidence of Indigenous science’s potential for better understanding and adapting to long-term environmental shifts, changes in biodiversity and the appropriate and respectful consideration for and preservation of cultural heritage. Geoscientists, archaeologists and climate scientists demonstrate an interest in knowledge co-production with Indigenous people, yet Indigenous knowledge remains at the margins of scientific research. Our vision is that braided Indigenous and Western methodologies become mainstream in scientific research – that they are ethically utilized by scientists working in equitable partnership with Indigenous and other communities to address complex scientific problems and provide place-based, community-centered solutions that address the existential threat of climate change and its urgent impacts on cultural places and food systems.”

Atalay continues, “We envision a new generation of students, scientists and Indigenous community members with the skills and training to conduct research ethically using braided methodologies and to apply the results to improve quality of life through a healthier planet.”

“We know from scholarship in Native and Indigenous studies and from research in climate science, archaeology, environmental and geosciences that Indigenous and Western sciences are complementary and can be effectively brought together,” says Woodruff, who is also co-director of the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center. “Research using a knowledge methodology that includes Indigenous communities increases scientific understanding, can enrich the wellbeing of Indigenous communities and benefits broader society. We now need to better understand how to bring together Indigenous and Western sciences effectively and ethically, without replicating the past legacy of problematic scientific practices that often ignored or exploited Indigenous communities and their knowledges.”

UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes says, “The university is honored to partner with this outstanding group of scholars and institutions to advance the CBIKS mission. We are committed to learn together how to appropriately include Indigenous knowledge in our understanding and approach to these critical global challenges.”