Open research questions in Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights

What the literature leaves open

• The challenges faced by Indigenous women in reporting their victimization, given the power that their abusers had in their families. The fear of not being believed and the stigma associated with reporting victimization. The lack of access to resources and support for Indigenous women who have experienced violence.

  Life-Course Victimization and Resilience Among Indigenous Women with Histories of Family Violence · 2026 · DOI

• small sample size, - limited to Indigenous women receiving services from a domestic and family violence agency, - limited to the southwest region of the U.S., - reliance on self-reported data

  Life-Course Victimization and Resilience Among Indigenous Women with Histories of Family Violence · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies challenges in collecting data, including the lack of consent for audio recording. It highlights the need for a community-based participatory approach to understand how ILK and community capitals shape income security. The study addresses the challenge of integrating ILK into Community Capitals to enhance income security in the context of climatic and environmental changes.

  Integrating Indigenous and Local Knowledge into Community Capitals to Enhance Income Security: Case of the Waimanu Catchment in Fiji · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the existing literature on the integration of ILK into Community Capitals to enhance income security. It highlights the need for a community-based participatory approach to understand how ILK and community capitals shape income security. The study addresses the gap by focusing on primary knowledge holders from the Waimanu Catchment and documenting their iTaukei knowledge and local knowledge acquired from other settlers.

  Integrating Indigenous and Local Knowledge into Community Capitals to Enhance Income Security: Case of the Waimanu Catchment in Fiji · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the impact of differing treaty contexts on connection to the land, wellbeing, and the sustainability of Indigenous cultures. It notes the lack of consideration of Indigenous worldviews in prior work on wellbeing. The study highlights the need for more research on the importance of land in Indigenous wellbeing.

  Wellbeing, Connection to the Land, and Cultural Sustainability: Indigenous Voices from Canada and Australia · 2026 · DOI

• The lack of literature referencing solastalgia in an Aboriginal-specific context. The need for a decolonised, Indigenist approach to understanding solastalgia. The gap in understanding the emotional response of Aboriginal Peoples to natural disasters.

  Understanding solastalgia from a decolonised, Indigenist lens: a scoping review · 2024 · DOI

• The lack of a holistic and Indigenous-based approach to lifestyle interventions for Indigenous populations in North America. The neglect of cultural and traditional knowledge systems in current lifestyle interventions. The need for population-specific critical domains of health and effective evidence-based strategies to address them.

  The Medicine Wheel as a public health approach to lifestyle management interventions for indigenous populations in North America · 2024 · DOI

• Research is needed to advance the science in public health for Indigenous populations in North America

  The Medicine Wheel as a public health approach to lifestyle management interventions for indigenous populations in North America · 2024 · DOI

• However, few studies have considered how historical loss may exacerbate the negative impact of ACEs in relation to PTSD symptoms, particularly among AI/AN adults.

  Does historical loss impact the relation between ACEs and PTSD symptoms for American Indian and Alaska Native adults? · 2026 · DOI

• Indigenous student-athletes remain underrepresented in post-secondary sport, yet limited research has examined how they experience and make meaning of participation within sporting and educational contexts.

  Beyond underrepresentation: narratives of identity and healing among Indigenous post-secondary student-athletes · 2026 · DOI

• However, participant experiences and perceptions of Indigenous research involvement remain underexplored.

  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' Experiences With Culturally Safe Dental Research: A Qualitative Exploration · 2026 · DOI

• While scholars identify best practices for research engagement in light of colonial harms, the ideal visions that Tribally and university‐affiliated people have for research partnerships and the barriers to achieving those ideals are poorly understood.

  Shared Ideals, But Persistent Barriers: Improving Tribal‐University Research Engagement to Strengthen Native Nation Building and Rural Development☆ · 2024 · DOI

• , Indigenous Peoples in Canada, including First Nations, Inuit and Métis (FNIM), and equity-deserving (ED) groups, have not been evaluated while receiving integrated SUHMH services.

  Evaluation of the outcomes of equity-deserving individuals receiving services and support from integrated substance use health and mental health services: a pilot study protocol · 2024 · DOI

• The extent to which non-Western sociocultural beliefs about body representations in health and disease, including Indigenous beliefs, could influence the patient-practitioner dyad and affect the interpretation of pillars of evidence-informed practice, such as patient-centered care and patient expectations, remains unknown.

  Epistemological Flexibility in Person-Centered Care: The Cynefin Framework for (Re)Integrating Indigenous Body Representations in Manual Therapy · 2024 · DOI

• There is a lack of consensus in domain definitions and operational approaches. There is a need for increased attention to the measurement of Indigenous culture. There is a need for resources to appropriately grapple with and build momentum around ethically and logistically complicated issues surrounding Indigenous cultural measures.

  Measuring Indigenous Cultural Strengths: a Systematic Review of a Decade of Approaches · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies the challenge of prevailing models of intercultural education remaining bound by Eurocentric, cisnormative frameworks. It highlights the need to centre non-Western knowledge systems and gender-diverse identities. The paper notes the challenge of educational frameworks often neglecting to interrogate transphobia, rendering gender-diverse experiences peripheral or invisible.

  Learning and belonging: Decolonial and Indigenous approaches to gender diversity in higher education · 2026 · DOI

• The prevailing models of intercultural education remain bound by Eurocentric, cisnormative frameworks. The discourse on transgender issues is predominantly shaped by Global North perspectives, which overlook the diverse ways of knowing and experiencing gender.

  Learning and belonging: Decolonial and Indigenous approaches to gender diversity in higher education · 2026 · DOI

• The challenges facing Aboriginal people in Australia, including racism and lack of representation. The difficulties of selling Aboriginal music to a White audience. The barriers that kept Aboriginal people locked out of higher education.

  Rock Against Racism concerts and Aboriginal community organisation, 1979–1988 · 2026 · DOI

• There is a lack of documentation and recording of the RAR concerts and their impact. The subject of RAR is scarcely written about and recorded.

  Rock Against Racism concerts and Aboriginal community organisation, 1979–1988 · 2026 · DOI

• Future research can build on this study by exploring the long-term impact of integrating Indigenous knowledge systems into higher education curricula. The study's findings can inform the development of more inclusive curricula and assessment frameworks. Further research can examine the application of Blackfoot Values in different educational contexts.

  Towards epistemological plurality: Blackfoot knowledge, decolonisation, and intercultural competency in higher education · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the literature regarding the integration of Indigenous knowledge systems into higher education curricula. The research recognises the marginalisation of Indigenous and Global South knowledge systems in education. The study aims to address this gap by promoting epistemological plurality and challenging dominant epistemological hierarchies.

  Towards epistemological plurality: Blackfoot knowledge, decolonisation, and intercultural competency in higher education · 2026 · DOI

• Co-autoethnography highlighted a lack of programmatic assessment, particularly in workplace learning. Course accreditation standards were likely limiting factors.

  Strengths and problems with competency-based anti-Indigenous racism education: A mixed methods study · 2026 · DOI

• Health professionals can graduate without antiracism skills. Accreditation standards in health professions programs often do not ensure antiracism skills.

  Strengths and problems with competency-based anti-Indigenous racism education: A mixed methods study · 2026 · DOI

• Future research should explore the development of Mahi a Atua as a kaupapa Māori therapeutic intervention. Future research should investigate the use of pūrākau narratives in promoting Indigenous resistance. Future research should examine the impact of wānanga on personal growth and transformation.

  Mahi a Atua: Awakening Indigenous resistance through the voices of our Atua · 2026 · DOI

• There is a need for more research on Indigenous-led interventions. There is a need for more research on the use of kaupapa Māori approaches in promoting healing and transformation.

  Mahi a Atua: Awakening Indigenous resistance through the voices of our Atua · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights

• Indigenous health part 2: the underlying causes of the health gap · The Lancet · 2009 · 1,032 citations
• Indigenous health part 1: determinants and disease patterns · The Lancet · 2009 · 997 citations
• How Native Is a “Native” Anthropologist? · American Anthropologist · 1993 · 796 citations
• Historical Trauma in American Indian/Native Alaska Communities · Journal of Interpersonal Violence · 2008 · 711 citations
• Internationalization of an Indigenous Anticolonial Cultural Critique of Research Methodologies: A Guide to Indigenist Research Methodology and Its Principles · Wicazo Sa Review · 1999 · 658 citations
• Ch'ixinakax utxiwa: A Reflection on the Practices and Discourses of Decolonization · South Atlantic Quarterly · 2012 · 628 citations
• Historical Trauma Among Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: Concepts, Research, and Clinical Considerations · Journal of Psychoactive Drugs · 2011 · 602 citations
• Decolonizing Feminism: Challenging Connections between Settler Colonialism and Heteropatriarchy · Feminist formations · 2013 · 597 citations
• The Cultural Interface · The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education · 2007 · 593 citations
• Being Indigenous: Resurgences against Contemporary Colonialism · Government and Opposition · 2005 · 574 citations

Most recent work

• RCC Perspectives, Vol. 2 (2014): Minding the Gap: Working Across Disciplines in Environmental Studies · Own your potential (DEAKIN) · 2026
• Multispecies Responsibility and Planetary Health Education: Integrating Indigenous Relational Ontologies and Behavioral Transformation · Challenges · 2026
• Reclaiming Indigenous Water Governance: Decolonial and Community-Led Approaches at Star Blanket First Nation, Saskatchewan · Society & Natural Resources · 2026
• Strengthening Culturally Responsive Mental Health Supports for Crises Preparedness: Lessons From Indigenous Educator's Experiences During COVID ‐19 Pandemic · Journal of School Health · 2026
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' Experiences With Culturally Safe Dental Research: A Qualitative Exploration · Community Dentistry And Oral Epidemiology · 2026
• Regenerating the Peatland Forests of Kalimantan Through Dayak Ngaju Language: New Animisms, Ecolinguistics and the Naming of Worlds · Australian Journal of Environmental Education · 2026
• Integrating indigenous knowledge to foster social, environmental, and moral consciousness in accounting education · Accounting Education · 2026
• Practices for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Western Sciences for Research and Monitoring of Biodiversity in Canada · Ecology and Evolution · 2026
• By Māori, for Māori: community partnerships for culturally sustaining schools · Journal of Educational Administration · 2026
• On Settler Colonialism, Its Critics, and Its Critics’ Critics · American Journal of Sociology · 2026

Related topics in Social Sciences