Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education eds. by Robin Starr Minthorn and Heather Shotton (review)

With increasing visibility over the last two decades, Indigenous scholars in student affairs and higher education have been engaged in a collective research agenda to address gaps in the student development literature (Garland, 2010; Fox, Lowe, & McClellan, 2005; Shotton, Lowe, & Waterman, 2013; Waterman, Lowe, & Shotton, 2018). During this same period, one could make an evidence-based argument that Indigenous scholars have also been claiming and reclaiming our places, voices, and positions within higher education across North America. This includes our collective voices beyond campus in national associations and governmental and nongovernmental organizations that are important to future directions in education policy, practice, and research. In their new edited text, Minthorn and Shotton have brought together leading Indigenous scholars who illuminate and illustrate what many thought was illusory and possibly lost: Indigenous ways of research. The collection of chapters within this text present an elixir to higher education and its limited ways of Western knowing, especially within research methods and processes. Reading through the chapters, we are reminded that Western approaches to research can be impersonal, individualistic, and disappear Indigenous voices. The personal, collective, and inclusive Indigenous voices within this text are refreshing, necessary, and make it all but impossible for higher education to return to its Indigenous-free ways. After all, every college and university in the United States is on historically Indigenous lands.

In the foreword, Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy writes that Indigenous research is often situated in relationship, especially when discussing college students and their success. As such, you will read overarching themes across the chapters that include respect for research participants and their ways of being and knowing, ethical considerations sometimes not included in traditional Western approaches to research, and most importantly, research engagement that is relevant, helpful, and participatory. I especially enjoyed Brayboy's summary: "The chapters not only reclaim, but they reassert, reiterate, repatriate/rematriate, and recognize the power of the personal, the presence, the place, and the positionality of Indigenous peoples as actors and doers in the research enterprise" (pp. xi-xii).

The editors succinctly make their case for the book by discussing a phenomenon so many Indigenous scholars know too well: invisibility within higher education. Not just Indigenous students on campus and in the higher education literature, but the invisibility of Indigenous scholars and their research. In light of this, the editors have curated a beautiful collection of Indigenous research approaches and discussion that help to fill higher education's gaps in knowledge.

In chapter 1, the editors, in collaboration with Charlotte Davidson and Stephanie Waterman, outline the heretofore missed benefits of Indigenous-based research in higher education; however, they also acknowledge that Indigenous researchers frequently use Western epistemological approaches but often do so through their own interpretations. This chapter succinctly outlines the evolution of Indigenous contributions to the literature on higher education and how those contributions established the basis from which new generations of Indigenous researchers may depart. Their argument is situated in decolonization, which remains one of the most pervasive barriers to ongoing inclusion of Indigenous voices in higher education.

In chapter 2, Erin Kahunawaika'ala Wright shares a Hawaiian perspective for understanding higher education by and for Native Hawaiians. In a refreshing approach, Wright uses "kuleana-centered higher education" to illustrate a uniquely culturally based analysis. Reporting results from a study of the Center for Hawaiian Studies and its graduates, Wright explores the power of Native Hawaiian pedagogy, curricula, and faculty involvement. This qualitative study results in many fascinating reflections on learning and lifelong contributions to Hawaiian culture.

Charlotte Davidson writes a stunningly moving chapter 3, situated in the Diné tradition of Hózhó, or "walking in beauty." Translating this approach into a research method that respects an Indigenous culture while engaging an emerging tradition for research in higher education is powerful. Although an incredibly complex topic, Davidson writes in such an accessible way that you are immediately immersed in the journey...