The Institute for Indigenous Knowledge (IIK, “eye-eye-kay”) serves as a comprehensive center for both research and education. It fosters a collaborative environment for scholars and Indigenous community partners who are committed to the study of Indigenous knowledge and sustaining it within the lives of Indigenous peoples.
IIK’s research and educational initiatives include topics of particular interest to contemporary Indigenous nations and people and that reflect the commitments of our IUB faculty. This includes Indigenous philosophy and thought, language and culture, history, health and wellbeing, environmental sustainability and justice, food security and sovereignty, housing, community and economic development, land rights, legal justice, social justice, and education.
Within IIK is its Center for the Documentation and Revitalization of Indigenous Languages (CDRIL, “see-drill”). CDRIL collaborates with Indigenous partners to systematically record Indigenous languages and sustain and revitalize them within the culture groups to which they belong. It does so through the creation and sharing of print and digital resources such as audio and visual recordings, dictionaries, grammars, language curricula and instructional materials, language planning documents, monographs, research articles, biographies, histories, stories, as well as ethnographic and linguistic fieldnotes.
IIK-CDRIL has collaborative partnerships with several Indigenous communities, institutions, organizations, and individuals from diverse nations. We are continually expanding the geographic scope and increasing the depth of our partnerships. Given that the IUB campus sits on the homelands of the Bodwéwadmik (Potawatomi), Lënape (Delaware), myaamiki (Miami), and saawanwaki (Shawnee) peoples, IIK is especially committed to creating and sustaining meaningful partnerships with these Indigenous nations.
As an organizational structure for coordinating research and educational activities, IIK is expanding opportunities for Indigenous communities and individuals to benefit from resources at Indiana University. It is preparing the next generation of scholars of Indigenous knowledge through education and mentorship. IIK also connects those at IUB who are interested in Indigenous knowledge with the global community of people who are similarly committed to promoting Indigenous knowledge. We thus aim to contribute to a mutually supportive community designed to bring about lasting good for Indigenous peoples.
