UO professor Michelle Jacob believes one of the keys to working toward better equity and justice is to turn to Indigenous values and cultural teachings to rethink the way organizations, institutions and individuals operate.
Settler colonialism left a damaging legacy that positioned Indigenous communities and the environment as “less than” and disposable, she said, and adopting Indigenous values could help address that harm. To help guide the effort, Jacob teamed up with researchers from other institutions to develop a tool that uses Indigenous values to offer different ways of thinking and being.
“The idea is to interrogate our core values and ask what it would look like to center Indigenous values in the way we do things,” said Jacob, a professor of education studies in the College of Education.