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FYS 120V: Global Folktales

Source Evaluation for Indigenous Research Topics

Colonization and marginalization of Indigenous peoples means that information about them is often created by non-Indigenous people.

Consider:

  • Who created the resource:

    • Is the writer Indigenous? Are they a part of the Indigenous community they're writing about?

    • What is the author's worldview?

  • Why the resource was created:

    • Who benefits from the research? Indigenous communities? Individuals? Institutions? The general public?

  • When the resource was created:

    • Is this an older resource? It may contain language and ideas that are considered harmful.

    • What is the historical context of this resource? What was its intended purpose at the time of its creation?

  • How the resource was created:

    • Did the writer consult an Indigenous community?

    • What methods were used to gather the information?

    • Was the research made available to the Indigenous communities that participated in the study?


The above content is published under a CC-NC-SA 4.0 license. It was adapted from the University of Alberta Library under a CC-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Evaluating Research Sources: Questions to Consider