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1. Nunakut naguatun atugluu/Co-stewardship: Co-production’ through the lens of the Study of Environmental Arctic Change’s Human Wellbeing Team

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000692  

   Turner, Darlene Tocktoo; Schaeffer, Jacqualine Qataliña; Donatuto, Jamie; Landrum, Laura; Nunn, Chloe; Lukin, Maija Katak; Robards, Martin; Kerttula, Beth; Froehlich, Ephraim; Blair, Mary E; et al (August 2025, PLOS Climate)

   Birchall, S Jeff (Ed.)

   This paper explores the concept of co-stewardship in the Arctic through the lens of the Study of Environmental Arctic Change’s Human Wellbeing (HWB) team. Rooted in Indigenous knowledge and collaborative science, our work prioritizes equity in decision-making, recognizing multiple knowledge systems as equally valuable. Through intentional team-building, trust, and reciprocity, we examine successes, challenges, and opportunities in co-stewardship. Key successes include fostering meaningful relationships, integrating Indigenous perspectives into scientific and policy discussions, and uplifting innovative knowledge-sharing tools such as oral histories and visual storytelling. However, structural challenges persist, including colonial policy frameworks, inadequate funding models, and a lack of institutional mechanisms to support Indigenous leadership in co-stewardship initiatives. We propose policy shifts, long-term funding commitments, and greater Indigenous representation in decision-making as steps toward meaningful change. This work underscores the importance of Indigenous-led stewardship in addressing Arctic environmental and social challenges, offering a model for collaborative governance rooted in respect and reciprocity. 

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2. THE SCIENCE IN INDIGENOUS WATER STORIES, INDIGENOUS WOMEN’S CONNECTION TO WATER

   Todd, Wendy F; Northbird, Arianna V; Towne, Chessaly E (June 2023, Open Rivers)

   It is a familiar phrase, frequently spoken today. Even so, little thought goes into what this simple phrase means. We exist in water throughout our lives, dependent on it from conception, surrounded in water in our mother’s womb, until our last water vapor breath. Water is so common, we are so accustomed to our submergence in it that we fail to notice how vital it is and fail to recognize our dependence on it, taking for granted the water vapor-laden environment we exist in every moment of every day. Taking our fragile dependence on water into consideration, one would think we would have policies and practices to protect water and respect the beinghood of water that humans feel entitled to. However, mainstream society considers water to be a commodity, disregarded and taken for granted; the importance of water does not afford it protections to maintain healthy environments or to ensure healthy food and water resources. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is a combination of qualitative, quantitative, and spiritual knowledge that uses the same rigor as western science and represents knowledge of place, history, and spiritual/cultural philosophies about terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (Smythe et al. 2020). TEK is a collection of historical knowledge of place, providing in-depth knowledge about the intricate ecological relationships between the environment and all things through a spectrum of beliefs, values, and perceptions, developed using local natural phenomena (Smythe and Peele 2021; Smythe et al. 2020) We will consider the relationship three Indigenous women have with water and the cultural responsibility they bear as caretakers of water. We will examine the historical connections and worldviews each author (Todd and Towne as Alaska Native Haida, and Northbird as Fond du Lac Ojibwe) and their tribal community have with this sacred being. Here we discuss the importance of water to the Haida and Ojibwe peoples, demonstrate the importance of cross-cultural knowledge sharing, and present three educational activities to preserve and pass on TEK to the next generation. 

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3. Ecological Legacies and Ethnotourism: Bridging Science and Community in Ecuador’s Amazonia

   https://doi.org/10.3390/su16114664  

   Sarmiento, Fausto O; Bush, Mark B; McMichael, Crystal_N H; Chávez, C Renato; Cruz, Jhony F; Rivas-Torres, Gonzalo; Kavoori, Anandam; Weatherford, John; Hunt, Carter A (June 2024, Sustainability)

   This paper offers paradigmatic insights from an international workshop on Ecological Legacies: Bridge Between Science and Community, in Ecuador, in the summer of 2023. The conference brought together foreign and local scholars, tour operators, village community, and Indigenous leaders in the upper Amazonia region of Ecuador with the goal of developing a vision for a sustainable and regenerative future of the upper Amazon. The conference offered three epistemological contributions to the existing literature in the emergent field of Montology, including addressing issues of (a) understanding the existing linguistic hegemony in describing tropical environments, (b) the redress of mistaken notions on pristine jungle environments, and (c) the inclusion of traditional knowledge and transdisciplinary approaches to understand the junglescape from different perspectives and scientific traditions. Methodologically, the conference bridged the fields of palaeoecological and ethnobotanical knowledge (as part of a wider conversation between science and local communities). Results show that local knowledge should be incorporated into the study of the junglescape and its conservation, with decolonial approaches for tourism, sharing language, methodology, tradition, and dissemination of the forest’s attributes. Our research helped co-create and formulate the “Coca Declaration” calling for a philosophical turn in research, bridging science and ethnotourism in ways that are local, emancipatory, and transdisciplinary. We conclude that facilitating new vocabulary by decolonial heightening of Indigenous perspectives of the junglescape helps to incorporate the notion of different Amazons, including the mountainscape of the Andean–Amazonian flanks. We also conclude that we can no consider Ecuador the country of “pure nature” since we helped demystify pristine nature for foreign tourists and highlighted local views with ancestral practices. Finally, we conclude that ethnotourism is a viable alternative to manage heritagization of the junglescape as a hybrid territory with the ecological legacies of the past and present inhabitants of upper Amazonia. 

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4. Chasing colonization back: rethinking parks, returning place-names, and restoring buffalo medicine—an interview with Ninna Piiksii, Dr. Mike Bruised Head

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2024.1352329  

   Piiksii, Ninna; Lunstrum, Elizabeth; Stevens, Madison (May 2024, Frontiers in Human Dynamics)

   In this interview, we hear from influential Blackfoot Elder and Cultural Educator Ninna Piiksii, Dr. Michael Bruised Head. Mike reflects on the colonial naming of national parks and the need to return to Indigenous place-names, examining how we occupy a pivotal moment where park staff are more open to substantive Indigenous engagement and presence within parks, although more needs to be done. Drawing connections across topics that may initially seem discrete, Mike reflects on his experience as a survivor of the Canadian residential school system, colonial dispossession by parks and more broadly, and how Blackfoot restoration efforts—including the return of buffalo oriinnii—can offer paths for healing from these traumas and build a more just, Blackfoot-led future. Through this, Mike asks us to rethink the profound value and potential of conservation, pushing beyond Western understandings. He closes by asking the interviewers to reflect on what motivates them to support Tribal buffalo restoration, turning the tables on the interviewer and interviewee, and reinforcing the importance of connection and responsibility among non-Tribal research collaborators. We open with an introduction to Mike and then turn to hear his words. The interview format reflects a growing trend of expert-interviews-as-articles and Indigenous practices of oral knowledge transmission. We also link to an audio recording of the interview to allow readers to become listeners and hear Mike’s words in full context. The conversation and format are offered in the spirit of opening more space for Indigenous—and particularly Blackfoot—voices, perspectives, and methodologies in conservation scholarship. 

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5. A descriptive examination by race/ethnicity in how engineering faculty understand their efficacy and responsibility for engaging in equity-based initiatives for faculty of color

   DeAngelo, Linda; Winkler, Christa; Stone, Blayne; Diaz, Charlie (June 2025, American Society of Engineering Education)

   This full empirical research paper addresses how engineering faculty perceive their roles and responsibility in creating an equitable environment within academia, an understudied but important area to address in organizational change efforts. To begin to fill this gap, we developed a survey to understand the ways that faculty take up responsibility for driving diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) changes. The instrument included 7 scales measuring faculty perceptions of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belongingness (DEIB) policies and practices, professional development and support for faculty of Color, and efforts to recruit and retain faculty of Color, as well as their perceptions of personal responsibility and self-efficacy to enact DEIB change. We collected data from 179 engineering faculty at three private engineering institutions in the Northeast region of which 137 provided race/ethnicity data and make up our analytical sample - Asian faculty (n=29, 16.2%), Black, Latiné, Indigenous (BLI), and multiracial BLI faculty (BLI(M)) (n=18, 10.1%), and white faculty (n=90, 50.3%). Mean standardized factor scores were created for each scale and pairwise comparisons using t-tests with a Bonferroni correction were used to examine differences between groups. The results highlight differences and trends among Asian, White, and BLI(M) faculty in DEIB readiness and responsibility. The findings of this study have implications for understanding how faculty assess their environments and how they view their responsibility and readiness to engage in enacting equity-based initiatives. 

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