Multiple Sites of Enunciation
When it comes to the topic under address in the "Voices of Thunder" testimonies: the phenomena of polar bear harvesting quota- the scientific practitioners of the BearWatch project are not completely disconnected. As entangled with the overarching polar bear management and monitoring apparatus, we agreed that it would be important for the positionality of the BearWatch scientists to be explicitly present in some of the co-creative output.
Such explicitness presence allows us to conduct a ‘negotiation of voice’(Jones and Jenkins, 2008), which is especially appropriate within the affordances of academic writing in the social sciences. Based on the tension of our differences, rather than attempting to erase them, we have sought to create multiple sites of enunciation, while maintaining a pragmatic collaboration across them.
This aligns with the principles of ethical engagement, that guides willing partners to ‘appropriately, correctly, and respectfully acknowledge the "that's me" and the "that's you" of their differentiated worldviews' as a crucial requirement to ethically engage with each other (Institute for Integrative Science & Health, 2013b). It enables parties to respects the integrity of each voice and avoid 'cultural confusion'. Cultural confusion is a state in which ‘we no longer know what informs each of our identities and what should guide the association with each other’ (Ermine, 2007 p. 197 ; see also Blackfoot elder Reg Crowshoe in AER, 2014).
ICC's Protocol 2 calls for the recognition of Indigenous Knowledge in its own right. Its third directive states that "Indigenous Knowledge must not be translated, integrated into, or validated by science – Recognition, trust and respect must be given to the unique contributions of Indigenous Knowledge as a way of knowing. With a clear understanding that Indigenous Knowledge holds its own methodologies and objectives, one can begin to appreciate the importance of not attempting to translate or integrate one source of knowledge into the other."