Aligning place-based research with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) sets minimum standards for Indigenous rights that include self-determination and free, prior, and informed consent for activities in territories. Despite its relevance to research conducted on Indigenous lands and research affecting Indigenous people, scholars lack practical tools to align projects with UNDRIP’s mandates. We introduce UNDRIP, Indigenous critiques of research, anti-colonial approaches to research and research project evaluation, arguing for moving beyond methods for project evaluation towards an orientation of anti-colonial, place-based research. We propose a series of guiding questions rooted in UNDRIP articles and co-created research practices that together form an orientation for aligning the research process with UNDRIP. The orientation can guide research project inception, design, execution, and evaluation by settler and Indigenous researchers, communities, partners, and academic institutions. These guiding questions are directions for how researchers can tangibly align the research process with UNDRIP, which, most importantly, begins by seeking a preliminary understanding of Indigenous communities’ priorities. Our goal is to improve research outcomes for Indigenous peoples and their territories by aligning research with Indigenous rights.