Critically Evaluating Sources

19 Knowledge Justice and Indigenous Ways of Knowing

Knowledge Justice

So, what is a good framework to balance all these limitations and issues to create just and responsible research practices? What can help build your confidence and guide your source evaluation process?

First, self-reflection is crucial in order to adapt a knowledge justice-lens to your evaluation techniques. See our “As You Research” guide for support on understanding your positionality and approaches to the world that will affect your evaluation skills.

Remember, there is always a potential for harm when we adapt any frameworks to engage in research, whether it is through our searching practices, dissemination of knowledge, evaluating sources, and more.

You can see how frameworks may have a potential for harm when it comes evaluating individual sources in a nursing case-study here:  

Caption: “Evaluating Individual Sources” from Knowledge Justice in the Helping Professions Copyright © 2025 by Campbell, H., McKeown, A., Holmes, K., Sansom, L., Dilkes, D., and Glasgow- Osment, B. (Eds.). is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Being aware of this potential to harm from epistemic injustice, and acknowledging that what you may practice may not always be perfect is key to:

  • Staying in relationship to knowledge
  • Engage thoughtfully with the knowledge and the communities they reside in 
  • Determining when and how harm has occurred 
  • Taking responsibility for how we move forward  

Voices Flower

Voices Flower with the petals saying: lived experiences, care providers, power holders, arm's length observers, and community representation

Caption: Voices Flower from Western Libraries OER “Knowledge Justice in the Helping Professions”

There’s a lot of questions and considerations to unpack in the above process when evaluating evidence, so remember to take it slow!

Indigenous Ways of Knowing

Knowledge Justice is important to bring out conflict in whose voices are considered (or not considered!) in Eurowestern information systems, but what about ways of knowing outside of these dominant narratives? How can we carry forward the essence of Knowledge Justice but also look beyond the epistemologies of our disciplines that seem to incorporate these missing voices already?

Examining evidence can help you facilitate the process to hold space for multiple truths at once and explore diverse ways of knowing in order to determine what, and who, counts in these knowledge dialogues! See how the holistic lifelong learning model from Indigenous Ways of Knowing unpacks this learning cycle below: 

Caption: “Holistic Lifelong Learning Model” from Sprig Learning (2021)

Some ways to consider multiple epistemologies from Indigenous Ways of Knowing can include[1]:

Two-Eyed Seeing

The teaching of Two-Eyed Seeing, gifted by Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall, offers one way to honour our knowledge justice responsibilities. Two-Eyed Seeing, or Etuaptmumk, encourages us to “see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing”—and to use both together for the benefit of all (Bartlett et al., 2012).

Two Row Wampum

The Two Row Wampum, or Kaswentha , is a living treaty between Dutch settlers and the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) from 1613, and it similarly provides guidance on how we might approach the world from multiple perspectives. The wampum stands for equity and respect, represented by two boats paddling alongside each other, travelling along the river of life without disrupting one another or the river itself (Canadian Museum for Human Rights, 2025 ). To learn more about the teaching of Two-Eyed Seeing, or about the Two Row Wampum, watch the optional videos

Check out this chapter from “Knowledge Justice in the Helping Professions” that details ways you can approach Indigenous Knowledge and Ways of Knowing through relationship!

Media Attributions

  1. Campbell, Heather, Ashley McKeown, Lea Sansom, Kathryn Holmes, Marguerite Lengyell, Dani Dilkes, Zoe Leyland, and Britney Glasgow-Osment. “3.5 Looking beyond the Epistemologies of Our Disciplines.” Knowledge Justice in the Helping Professions, August 28, 2025. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/epistemicjusticeoer/chapter/looking-beyond-the-epistemologies-of-our-disciplines/. ↵

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