Working towards decolonial futures in Canada: First steps for non-Indigenous fisheries researchers

Motivated by the leadership, scholarship, and activism of Indigenous Peoples, there are growing calls to transform and decolonize Canadian institutions that govern fisheries research in Canada. As a predominantly non-Indigenous group that works at the intersection of fisheries and justice, we encounter questions daily about how to act as allies in these efforts and take up this urgent call in our own work. Our goal with this perspective is to synthesize and share some of what we have learned about encountering and combatting colonialism in the hope that it may offer something to other non-Indigenous and settler fisheries researchers who are grappling with colonization in their own work. This synthesis is based on both Indigenous scholarship and our own experiential learning. We look to actions fisheries researchers may take to advance Indigenous sovereignty in fisheries research. We offer this to our fellow non-Indigenous researchers who likely also struggle with similar questions, and hope that in doing so, we can help move towards decolonial fisheries futures.