Indigenous Geoscience Community

Indigenous Geoscience Community

The Indigenous Geoscience Community (IGC) is a sustainable community of Indigenous geoscientists who come together to share knowledge using a relational framework, such that Traditional Knowledge and western knowledge can be expressed within culturally specific protocols without disciplinary boundaries. The purpose of the IGC is to address the urgent need for an international community of geoscience scholars and cultural practitioners that increases representation and leadership of Indigenous peoples in the geosciences, to provide a space for cross-cultural knowledge exchange, and support and mentorship for Indigenous geoscientists in a culturally respectful and ethical manner.

The IGC acknowledges that the U.S. and its territories is the ancestral home of multiple Indigenous groups and the interconnectedness of these communities, through the relational experiences of their histories, lives and upon the lands upon which they live and is a powerful way for “communities and people to come together, transcending their own colonized contexts and experiences, in order to learn, share, plan, organize and struggle collectively for self-determination on the global and local stages”. The IGC engages in consultation with an Elders Council and Advisory Board, who will guide the design and development of a cross-cultural guide of best practices for engaging in geoscience research and education with Indigenous communities.