When Dr. Sonia Ibarra approaches a research project, her first concern is something many scientists don’t even consider: the need to build the trust, relationships, and support of the community where her work will take place.
“Research and science have a long legacy of being extractive,” says Ibarra, Apache, Caxcan, and Mexicana, winner of this year’s Indigenous Excellence Award. “It’s not good enough to be a nice scientist and expect to be welcomed and trusted in a community. You have to do the work and demonstrate how you’re not extractive and how your personality is not extractive. Our work as researchers is always situated within the legacy of others. What are we doing as researchers to not continue a legacy of extractive research?”
For Ibarra, who grew up on the traditional territories of the Nomlaki people in Northern California, that has required fostering strong relationships with Tlingit and Haida leaders and their communities in Southeast Alaska. Indeed, as Ibarra pursued a PhD in fisheries from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, she worked with Indigenous leaders to define and develop a project for her dissertation centered around the perspectives, experiences, and priorities of the communities where the research took place. “When you’re coming into a community as a researcher and scientist, you can’t do it assuming you know what is available and meaningful to the community,” Ibarra says. “You have to turn to the community as the experts and leaders. Even if I’m labeled the expert, I’m always thoughtful about how my lens influences my work in ways that might conflict with or be supportive of community members.”
In the case of her dissertation, Ibarra worked with four tribes to research the challenges involved in accessing traditional foods, which are so important to the nutritional, cultural, and economic well-being of Native communities. In particular, the work focused on access to shellfish, an important resource that local tribes have managed for thousands of years. Since the 1970s, however, the ability to harvest shellfish has been negatively impacted by growing sea otter populations and limitations on hunting, a traditionally effective management practice.
Ibarra worked closely with local community members to gather both Western knowledge about the impact of sea otters on local shellfish populations and Native expertise and knowledge about the optimal way to achieve a sustainable balance between people and nature. “Blood quantum is a significant barrier to who is ‘Native enough’ to harvest sea otters,” Ibarra says. “The requirement is that you must be one-quarter Alaska Native and have your blood quantum documented. There is no other group of people in the U.S. that is monitored in this way.”
It’s the sort of holistic and community-focused approach to research that Ibarra is continuing to foster in her role as co-coordinator of the Tamamta Program, an Indigenous-centered graduate training initiative at the University of Alaska Fairbanks that seeks to counter the lack of Native representation in higher education and resource management in Alaska. Currently, Alaska Natives account for almost 20 percent of the state’s population but only 3 percent of students and less than 1 percent of faculty. To change this requires transforming education, research, and resource management and cultivating and mentoring a coterie of Native students to take on positions of responsibility. From an early age, Ibarra has honed her skills as a mentor. Her parents came to California from Mexico in search of a better life and worked constantly to create opportunities for their five children. “I was the oldest of five kids and was trained from a young age to be an older sister and auntie,” Ibarra says. “My parents worked and were always busy. Because of my parents’ financial situation, I ended up taking care of the youngest siblings. That’s a natural skill I feel I’m good at.”
Her commitment to mentoring and her focus on community-centered research are outgrowths of Ibarra’s taking the time and care to listen and respond to the tribe she wants to support. “I’ve learned that the more you give, the richer you become. It’s an Indigenous principle to measure wealth by how much you give,” Ibarra says. “I incorporate that into my research process and share equipment and traditional foods with community members as experts, just like you would someone with a master’s or PhD degree. It’s about responding to needs that are outside the research scope and letting go of the idea that the research is the most important thing. It’s not.”
