Indigenous open educational resources (IOER)

Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous Knowledge is traditional and communal knowledge passed from generation to generation through different ways of learning such as teaching, observation, practice, and storytelling. Indigenous Knowledge takes many forms: ethnobotany and resource procurement, food and food preparation, ancestral and family histories, language, ceremonies, songs, clothing, to name a few. Knowledge is earned throughout the course of an individual’s life, from the journey of youth to elder. One never stops learning and does not possess all the knowledge of their community. Indigenous communities have diverse knowledge systems and ways of learning, and access to knowledge can be varied based on age, gender, time of year, etc.

What is Indigenous OER?

Indigenous Open Educational Resources interweave Indigenous knowledges with the framework of western open educational resources (OER). Open educational resources are publicly accessible learning, research, and teaching materials created and shared using an open access model and license that allows the public to use, share, and in some cases, modify those materials while also allowing the original creator or author to retain certain intellectual rights to their original materials. Indigenous Open Educational Resources (IOER) integrate the OER concept with Indigenous knowledges frameworks, sovereignty, and ways of knowing and learning.

The 6 R’s of IOER

Indigenous OER is founded on a framework known as the 6 R’s of Indigenous OER, which guide creators, authors, and researchers who incorporate Indigenous knowledges and materials in their research and work. The 6 R’s of Indigenous OER are:

• Respect – For Indigenous Cultural identity, communities, and topics
• Relationships – Connects to concept of all of our relations and building relations with communities
• Responsibility – Responsibility to share only when we are allowed, and to publish in an ethical way while considering ownerships, protocols, and community practices
• Reverence – Respect for the sacred
• Relevance – Legitimize and incorporate Indigenous Knowledges into curriculum when it makes sense
• Reciprocity – Both receiving and giving with communities

This framework guides the management of the IKDLL and influences how materials are reviewed and curated for access via the IKDLL. For more information about The 6 R’s of Indigenous OER, please refer to The 6 R’s text.

IOER vs. traditional OER

Traditional OER frameworks are founded from a western perspective and understanding of knowledge systems and education. Indigenous OER takes many facets of traditional OER and deconstructs and decolonizes those facets and rebuilds them using Indigenous perspectives on knowledge. Where Indigenous OER uses the 6 R’s, OER uses a framework known as the 5 R’s of OER:

• Retain – make, own, and control a copy of the resource (e.g., download your own copy)
• Revise – edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource (e.g., translate into another language)
• Remix – combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material(s) to create something new (e.g., make a mashup)
• Reuse – use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g., in a class)
• Redistribute – share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others (e.g., post a copy online to share with class)

There are many ways in which Indigenous knowledges and cultures do not align with traditional OER, specifically the open access component of OER. Indigenous communities hold knowledge as sacred and earned, and individuals earn the privilege to certain knowledge based on varied factors of age, gender, role in the community.  Indigenous OER recognizes that not all information and materials should be available for public access and that Indigenous communities possess the rights of data sovereignty – the right to ownership and control over their data and data about them that was taken with and without their consent. Working in a space that provides access to Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous OER requires recognition and careful consideration of culturally sensitive knowledge that may be present in materials, and work to ensure that these materials are safeguarded and made accessible or are restricted based upon consultation with Indigenous and tribal communities.