About
In print since 1971, the American Indian Culture and Research Journal
(AICRJ) is an internationally renowned multidisciplinary journal
designed for scholars and researchers. The premier journal in
Native American and Indigenous studies, it publishes original scholarly papers and book reviews on a wide range of issues in fields ranging from history to anthropology to cultural studies to education and more. It is published three times per year by the UCLA American Indian Studies Center.
Volume 47, Issue 1, 2023
Special Issue: Community-Based Inquiry from within Indigenous Early Learning Communities of Practice
Front Matter
Front Matter 47.1
Front matter
Articles
The Wisdom of Plants: Guides in a Journey of Community-Based Inquiry
The COVID-19 global pandemic brought many stressors that greatly impacted communities on many different levels, and in the shadow of these stressors were opportunities to innovate. This was especially true for early learning communities, and specifically for Indigenous early learning communities. From a foundation of Community-Based Inquiry, I aim to tell my story as a first time director at Daybreak Star Preschool where our process of healing and re-membering Indigenous practices with preschool children is rooted in land-based pedagogy and curriculum. This process built a momentum for our early learning community to move from a place of simply surviving the pandemic, to a place where we could thrive in reciprocity with our plant relatives and their wisdom.
Centering Community, Indigenous Relationships, and Ceremony through an Alaska Native Collaborative Hub to Prevent Suicide and Promote Youth Wellbeing
The Alaska Native Collaborative Hubfor Research on Resilience (ANCHRR) engages Indigenous leadership at all levelsin a strength-based study to deepen our understanding of community levelprotective factors in Indigenous communities, which are the collectiveinfluences shaping individual wellbeing across time. Overall, ANCHRR aims toposition Alaska Native Tribes, Tribal organizations, and community members asthe guides for culturally responsive research that is aligned with communitypriorities of increasing resilience and wellbeing among Alaska Native youth andreducing their suicide risk. Our approach brings together Indigenous knowledgeand research methods that humbly draw attention to the solutions that alreadyexist within communities. An Indigenous paradigm shifts the approach from asingular focus on individuals and their risks and deficits, to appreciation forthe cultural, community and systemic ways in which community members support,care for, and guide their young people into adulthood. We describe the lessonslearned about this unique approach to Indigenous leadership and community engagementand discuss the research processes that keep the relational heart-work at thecenter of every project activity. This capacity-building, mutually beneficialand relational approach offers new insights to knowledge development endeavors.