In Australia, as it is in other parts of the world, researchers need to consider and respect First Nations peoples’ perspectives of Country, and other ways of knowing and doing. For western trained scientists and researchers, this can be unsettling as it contradicts the colonial approaches embedded within our university and education system.
In this keynote, focusing on the conference theme Biobanking: Shaping the Future Together, we will discuss our own journeys of working in this space, and how we have established long-term collaborations with First Nations organisations and communities that are mutually beneficial and respectful, and provide examples of how our research in the natural sciences has changed as a result.
Some of the topics we will cover include why is it important to work with First Nations Communities; Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP); what free prior and informed consent means; how to establish and maintain meaningful and genuine engagement; how to approach decolonising research; what does ‘best practice’ look like; the use of Traditional language for naming specimens new to western science; collaborating and co-publishing research; how to collect data without physically removing material from Country; and the collection and accession of specimens off Country.
While this can be an uncomfortable conversation, reflecting on how we have worked in the past, and thinking about what we could do to change our approach to create genuine partnerships and collaborations is important. It helps to decolonise research by weaving together Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and cultural knowledge with western approaches, and supports truth-telling, reconciliation, and self-determination.