Mission and Positionality
Research grounded in accountability, relationship, and Indigenous futures.
Blue Sky Research Lab understands research as something shaped by histories, responsibilities, place, and living relationship. Our mission and positionality are not side notes to the work. They are part of how the work is done, why it is done, and who it is accountable to.
Our Mission
Our work is guided by the understanding that research is never neutral. It is shaped by relationships, responsibilities, histories, and place. Blue Sky Research Lab is committed to approaches that honour Indigenous Peoples, respect community priorities, and support research practices that are accountable, relational, and useful.
We aim to support work that contributes to Indigenous futures, strengthens community-connected knowledge-sharing, and challenges extractive forms of research that treat people, story, or place as resources to be taken rather than relationships to be upheld.
Our Positionality
We are a diverse group of researchers led by Nêhiyaw scholar Dr. Paulina Johnson, based at the University of Alberta. Relationship building and ceremony guide our work. We aim to uphold Treaty while nurturing the spirit of our work: respect, humility, love, and fun.
Positionality, for us, is not a statement completed once and then set aside. It is an ongoing practice of naming where we stand, being honest about the relationships and histories that shape us, and recognizing that knowledge is always connected to responsibility.
What Accountability Looks Like
- Moving at the pace that relationship and context require
- Being transparent about purpose, process, and limits
- Recognizing community priorities as central, not peripheral
- Respecting that some knowledge is not for public circulation
- Treating knowledge-sharing as responsibility rather than output alone
- Returning to the work with humility, care, and openness to correction
In Practice
In practice, this means that research is not separated from ceremony, from relationship, or from the responsibilities we hold to community, land, and one another. It means asking not only what research can produce, but what it asks of us and how it must be carried.
It also means being careful about what becomes public, what stays relational, and what requires consent, context, or community direction before it is shared.
Connected Pages
Learn more about the people, relationships, and public work that give shape to Blue Sky Research Lab.