Governance

One of the goals of the Situated Knowledges: Indigenous Peoples and Place signature area is to develop a governance structure that centers Indigenous ways of knowing and being, rather than reproducing the hierarchical structures often found in western institutions. For this reason, SKIPP is committed to having Co-Directors, rather than a Director/Associate Director structure. In addition, we are exploring how to ensure that Indigenous Elders, knowledge holders, and scholars are able to provide their knowledge and wisdom to SKIPP in an ethical way.

SKIPP has taken a collective approach to determining a governance structure for the Signature Area. During SKIPP’s Listening Phase (2019-2020), attendees at SKIPP listening events were asked (among other topics) questions relating to the governance of the Signature Area, specifically: “How do we move forward defining a relational way to govern our work?”, “How is governance seen from an indegenous worldview?”, and “What principles might we use as we imagine a governance structure for SKIPP”?

The responses to these questions were analysed by SKIPP staff for common themes and summarized in a Listening Phase report. These questions and feedback have been discussed with attendees of our SKIPP Scholars’ Circles gatherings for Indigenous colleagues, and the report has been distributed to the SKIPP network. SKIPP will continue to engage with our Indigenous colleagues as we develop our governance structure.