Learning to be a Good Relative

Current Project

Circumspect Awareness and Navigation of Outcomes and Expectations (CANOE)

The CANOE Approach helps guide non-Indigenous researchers in building stronger, more thoughtful relationships with Indigenous communities. Through co-created workshops and hands-on training, CANOE encourages researchers to reflect on whether their work should involve community engagement and how to do so in a good way. With guidance from Indigenous partners and CIEDAR’s Advisory Council, participants learn about ethical research practices, community expectations, and the importance of consent and collaboration, working towards reducing harm caused by outdated or colonial research approaches and creating space for lasting partnerships.
Read our manuscript here.

Outputs

The CANOE Workshop Series Report (2025–2026) presents key findings from seven workshops on ethical, relational approaches to community-engaged research with Indigenous communities. The report highlights participant reflections, core themes, and recommendations for future practice.
Read the full report here.

The Circumspect Awareness and Navigation of Outcomes and Expectations (CANOE) approach describes what should be considered before embarking on a community-engaged research journey with Indigenous communities. The article builds on existing literature regarding understanding the need to recognise positionality, practise reflexivity, assess personal strengths and weaknesses, and consider abilities and skills that can be offered or promised to Indigenous partners. The goal is to provide principles of being reflexive, intentional, and careful before launching into research with Indigenous communities.
Read the full manuscript here.

The Lunch & Learn series, co-developed by CIEDAR and EDI&I work to promote equity in research activities within CoVaRR-Net. The series does not merely promote principles of co-creation, but actively demonstrates them. For instance, CIEDAR and EDI&I actively integrated Indigenous research methods and diverse ways of knowing with Western research methodologies in their planning sessions to cultivate transformative engagement.
Each of the four days of the Lunch and Learn event was visually recorded via graphic recording. View them here.

In August 2024, CIEDAR collaborated with Building Bridges, a program that aims to decolonize learning and drive societal change by drawing from Indigenous teachings. Dr. Kimberly Huyser presented on the River of Life Exercise and implored listeners to explore their positionality—traits and experiences that have shaped their identity.

At the CoVaRR-Net Spring 2023 Meeting, Dr. Kimberly Huyser presented alongside CoVaRR-Net EDI&I Associate Director Claire Betker to present on the concept of positionality, which highlights the importance of dialogue and stories within Indigenous communities. Dr. Huyser led conference participants in an exercise called “Drawing your River of Life”.
Dr. Huyser and Dr. Betker also spoke about an aspirational definition of health equity, which not only means equitable access to healthcare, but also equitable opportunities for people to reach their full health potential without being disadvantaged by social, economic, or environmental factors.
Watch Dr. Huyser’s and Dr. Betker’s presentation here.

At the CoVaRR-Net Spring 2023 Meeting, the CIEDAR team and EDI&I executives acted out a skit that simulated an interaction between a non-Indigenous research team and an Indigenous community review board. This entertaining, educational skit showed common mistakes health researchers make in presenting research applications to Indigenous communities. It provided context as to why researchers must build relationships with individual communities prior to starting a project and allow time to establish effective research collaborations. The simulation also offered pointers about how best to establish successful research collaborations with Indigenous communities.
Watch the skit presentation here.