Abstract

“Relationships First ... and Always” is a two-hour workshop to gain new perspectives on building relationships with Indigenous communities toward co-creation and service. The workshop addresses topics such as relational introductions (not just our professional roles but our place in family, society, and our obligations to our society), the painful historical context of Western education and Indigenous communities and how we can break those patterns with co-creation, the nature of Indigenous science, and recommended stages for institutional relationship-building.  

Biographies

Our facilitators are our friends and colleagues:

• Dr. Kat Gardner-Vandy (citizen of Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) is an Assistant Professor of Aviation and Space in Oklahoma State University’s School of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Aviation.  She is the Principal Investigator of a NASA Science Activation program at OSU titled "Native Earth | Native Sky."
• Daniella Scalice is the Education and Communications Lead for the NASA Astrobiology Program and the Community-Based Education Lead for NASA’s MAIANSE Program. Daniella also currently leads the Astrobiology for the Incarcerated program and an international Working Group of Native and non-Native scientists and educators across NASA and beyond who work with Tribes and Indigenous Communities. In 2005, she and her Diné colleagues co-founded the NASA and the Navajo Nation Partnership, an ongoing collaboration that has produced classroom materials, teacher trainings, and student summer camps which weave together Western and Navajo scientific knowledge. 

Resources and Links

• Presentation slides
• Interactive Jamboard (please feel free to continue to add to it)
• See below for additional links and a paper on this topic written by Dr. Gardner-Vandy, Ms. Scalice, and colleagues.