Protocols for Non-Indigenous People Working with Indigenous Knowledge
This is the compost of many failed projects, interventions and sustainable development adventures. Written in 2024 by Indigenous scholars from IKSLabs at Algoma (Canada) and Deakin (Australia) Universities, in conjunction with Indigenous thinkers from AIME and the Indigenous Commons, under the auspices of the Indigenous Systems Knowledge Collective. Illustrations by Stephanie Beck.
Imagine this....
You’re sitting by the embers of an old fire, one not yet fully extinguished. Around you, the elders of two clans sit, one ancient and grounded, the other fumbling and newly arrived, they are trying to find the language for something that has always existed but has rarely been spoken of, the space between them. The air crackles not with words but with tension, stories, and something harder to name, a shared knowing that what comes next must be made, not borrowed.
This is where the Protocols begin...
Crafted by Indigenous scholars, artists, and communities, this bundle represents elements of ceremony in written form. It’s a spotlight on what happens when histories of extraction and intervention are composted and broken down, turned over and over again, patiently and kindly tendered to until something living emerges. This isn’t a document to be consumed by the transactional world, it’s somthing that is to be sat with, moved through, and perhaps be completely tipped over by.
Embassy and Entanglement
In the world of these protocols, knowledge doesn’t come as data points or deliverables. It arrives, it's shifting, unpredictable, and impossible to hold as an individual. To enter this space is to leave behind your straight lines, timelines and deadlines and step into the loops, spirals, and criss crossings of embassy. Here, relations aren’t just negotiated they are felt, understood in glances and silences. You’re rarely given answers.
Instead, you’re handed a basket and asked to gather your own and throw those up in the air and see how they land.
There are tools for this work to be carried out and they come in the form of five ritual objects:
Container, Ornament, Tool, Protective Device, and Weapon.
These are not static categories but dynamic ways of being in relation.
The container welcomes you.
The ornament gifts you a role.
The tool calls you to create.
The protective device draws a boundary, and the weapon—well, that one comes when things fall apart. And they will fall apart.
The Space Between Stories
The widespread sharing of Tyson Yunkaporta’s insights often spark debate, underscoring the tension at narrative boundaries. When this document was posted it received a flurry of attention, both praise and critisism, signalling something alive in the work, indicators of right story. Many Indigenous voices leaned into the invitation of adapting the protocols to their own spaces and contexts. Others saw the document as a stark mirror, reflecting the harm and appropriation still embedded in systems of "collaboration." And the non-Indigenous responses? Predictable, perhaps, but also revealing, a mix of genuine engagement, defensive posturing, and the occasional meltdown at the sheer audacity of being asked to slow down and listen.
Making, Breaking, and Re-making
The journey of creating these images was quite winding. During the embassy gatherings in Canada, I sketched and painted, looking for ways to process the big stories around me, looking to understand governance and how that sits within and part of ceremony and also pieces that sit with our non human kin. I wanted to try catch the patterns I was seeing, hold it in the book to reflect on later. All around me I was starting to see more, the layered processes that went into the preparation of the ceremonies, taking place lots of different levels, the fire, the food, the helpers, the songs, the drums, the water, the wood, the direction you walk… the relationships between it all, the knowledge exchange/superhighways in movement, dancing together beautifully.
My practice began to evolve significantly here, especially after receiving a book on generative scribing from Melanie G, what a gift!
There’s a bigger story in here that unfolded as I reflecting with Grandmother moon... that'll find its way here soon too.
For now, I think thats enough, it’s enough to say that this document doesn’t let you off the hook and dive straight into application, take some time in the understanding, enjoy the loop de loops!!