Dr. Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles established the Geographic Indigenous Futures Collaboratory in 2021 . The Collaboratory, sometimes affectionately nicknamed the GIF Lab (pronounced jif-), serves as a research group and community specializing in Indigenous geographic thought, particularly the role of futurisms and resurgence in Indigenous relationships to place and space.
We work with Indigenous communities in a wide variety of geographic locales on projects that further community goals in a range of topics, including Indigenous responses to climate change, Indigenous ecological resurgence, decolonization/Indigenization in gaming, Indigenous art-based research/resurgence, gender-based violence prevention in Indigenous communities, and more.
At the heart of the GIF Lab’s mission is to bring control of geographic research back into the hands of communities. For far too long, geographic research with Indigenous peoples has been extractive, with little to no benefit or data returned to communities after the research concludes.
We work to create a different framework, one that respects and upholds the autonomy of communities. We do not do work where we are not invited to do so, and we do not take any action on behalf of an Indigenous community without their express consent.
A successful Collaboratory project is one where all of the community’s objectives are met, or where the research is turned over to them to continue on their own, empowering them to shape their own futures.
Interested in being a part of the good work? Find out more about how you can join us.
Lab Values
Governing the Collaboratory are our lab values, a set of principles developed by Lab members to guide how we work with communities, and how we work with one another.
These values include:
Community
We work with many different types of Indigenous communities. Communities (and their individual members) are not research subjects to us–they are collaborators and partners in our work. They are the most important part of a project–we cannot do the work we do without them. We acknowledge that we enter into a certain set of relations with community, and we are accountable to them in our work. We also view ourselves in the Lab as a community, and constantly work to ensure that we are creating an accessible and positive community space at all times.
Indeterminacy
We recognize that we are always learning as human beings and as scholars. While we possess research experience, we recognize that in Indigenous communities, projects/work can change, and we accept that fact with courage and with a commitment to flexibility. We accept with humility that ultimately, the most knowledgeable partners in any project are the communities themselves.
Mutual Aid
We are an academic research lab, but we also bring non-academic perspectives and talents into the Lab and into our work with Indigenous peoples–we are strongly committed to using all resources at our disposal to support Indigenous peoples wherever they may be, whether that is research, or volunteering our time and energy for Indigenous causes.
Reciprocity
Our projects are at their heart a reciprocal exchange–from the communities we work with, we recieve their time, energy, and labour. On our end, we provide time, labour, energy, institutional support, research assistance, and facilitate opportunities for Indigenous communities in the work that we do with them. At the same time, we acknowledge the institutional privilege that we carry with us as university-trained researchers; therefore, we work to ensure that the maximum benefit will always flow to community.
Relations:
Our view of what makes Indigenous geographies unique is that they centre the relationships between humans and our broader environment, including land, water, air, more-than-human-relatives, and the multitudes of relationships that underpin these connections.
Relations are also important between people–we strive to promote positive, constructive relations at all times, between ourselves, and between the Lab and the communities we work with. The connections we build with collaborators could last a lifetime–we therefore must tend to these connections with the care they deserve.
Territory/Land:
At the heart of geography is the study of space and place. As an Indigenous geographies-based research group, we honour and recognize the importance of land and territory to Indigenous communities, and recognize our obligations to local communities as uninvited guests upon the territories we live, play, and work upon.
This recognition goes beyond mere land acknowledgements. We work to actively uphold Indigenous relations to their homelands/territories and make them visible in everything that we do as a collective.
Transparency
Academic research has historically taken on an opaque nature to Indigenous communities–the communities are not sure what they are being asked to consent to, or being asked to do in support of a project. Additionally, structures of funding, data ownership, and data sovereignty have historically been constructed in a way that disadvantages Indigenous communities. We believe strongly in open communication–we do not keep secrets from communities, and we are willing to answer any questions and clarify any part of the research process during a project, to any member of the community, at any time.
Geographic Indigenous Futures Collaboratory 