‍Critical Approaches to Indigenous Relationality (CAIR), is a research network program dedicated to exploring the concept of Indigenous relationality in the breadth of Indigenous traditions and their overlapping connections. CAIR is an initiative hosted by the Prairie Relationality Network (PRN), which is based out of Canada.

We aim to answer: What contributions does Indigenous relationality make towards knowledges and societies?

As humanity faces unprecedented crises at local and global scales, there is a need to explore and draw on a multitude of resources to respond to questions of how we might exist in relation to one another, to non-human entities, and to the living earth in generative and sustainable ways. Given this, there is need for generational knowledge sharing between local, regional and intersocietal contexts. Compounded with this, there has been an ongoing need to address the historical and ongoing impacts of colonization. This has been a prohibitive barrier in many cases to creating space in and out of the academy that embraces the diversity of Indigenous thought as well as philosophies in Canada and around the world. CAIR aims to address the complexity of all these factors by supporting 25 co-developed research projects that centre Indigenous Indigenous approaches within the humanities and social sciences. Key to these approaches are Indigenous knowledges and practices of relationship which act as the foundation.

‍CAIR exists to advance new knowledge about the interconnected structures, systems, and lifeways of different Indigenous Peoples through the deepening and strengthening of decentralized Indigenous research. CAIR has identified that a limitation in the scholarship today is an absence of theory that is based on examples of relational politics, society, economics, culture, and pedagogies in Indigenous life. CAIR exists to fill the need for place-based, nuanced, contextual engagements with relational models so that the concept of relationality remains grounded in specific notions of place, family, connectivity, and community. A result of this will be resources related to relationality. Resources pertaining to relationality need to be stable and ongoing to ensure critical dialogue and exchanges can endure  in order to engage in Indigenous-led knowledge mobilization and exchange. Providing meaningful, supportive space for community-drive research will continue to benefit and support Indigenous Peoples in many ways. For the research community, CAIR hopes to act as an enduring example of collaborative, ethical and respectful research partnerships. In addition CAIR has the potential to advance the self-determination and empowerment of Indigenous communities. Again, this is achieved by exploring relationality in localized contexts and engaging in collaborative applied research which resist operative norms that often distil Indigenous People into mere subjects of research rather than partners in research.

‍CAIR, in short, involves scholars, organizations and community partners. The program involves predominantly Indigenous academics and partner organizations divided into three overarching thematics and then one of twenty-five unique projects. Our scholars and partners come from eight distinct Indigenous traditions and are from at least 17 Indigenous communities. Our scholars come from a wide range of disciplines including political science, Indigenous studies, literary studies, film, nursing, techno-science, women’s studies, archaeology, education, sociology, religion, anthropology, and history.

Most CAIR projects occur within Canada, but there are some exceptions. CAIR’s work is not geographically limited to the Prairies as its parent network may suggest. Instead, CAIR involves communities coast to coast.

CAIR will formally operate between 2024 and 2030. There will be a few formal reporting milestones throughout this time to meet the obligations and responsibilities in continuing to receive this SSHRC grant funding. Most of the 25 themed research projects will be held in the first four years of the grant. The final two years of the grant will be focussed on weaving the findings from those 25 projects and their subsequent themes, and objectives. This will be done through network-wide synthesis, co-production, theorization, and dissemination.

The best way to explain the difference between CAIR and PIRN is to say that PIRN is a parent program to CAIR. This means that not all CAIR participants are PIRN members and vice-versa. Nonetheless, there is a lot of collaboration between the CAIR and PIRN to ensure everything runs smoothly. Another difference lies in the fact that CAIR is an initiative of PIRN with a set amount of funding time to operate while PIRN is an organization with an indefinite lifetime. PRN will likely outlive all initiatives and projects it takes on. CAIR is also inspiring a new direction from what PIRN initiatives have generally followed. Specifically, CAIR advances the research network and efforts well beyond the prairies, including projects expanding north (Dinjii Zhuh research), south (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, South Dakota), east (Radical Culture School), and west (Secwépemc research). On top of this, CAIR is investigated topics beyond what was initially researched within PIRN—Indigenous politics—and expanding to more than ten disciplines.

Progress indicators for this project include but are not limited to:
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- Critical thought and knowledge creation for diverse audiences
- A dynamic decentralized network of autonomous thinkers
- Feelings of connection, welcome, and inclusion among members of the network and participants
- Innovative outputs at multiple scales
- A leadership team that actively practises and theorizes relationality through this project

We plan to use the following methods off knowledge mobilization within the CAIR initiative: 
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- Academic dissemination (essentially, a one-way flow to other scholars in or near your field(s) of research)
- Knowledge transfer (transferring knowledge to scholars in other fields of research)
- Knowledge translation (writing or presenting research findings in more readable or useable forms e.g., writing for
a wider or more diverse public)
- Knowledge exchange (exchanging or sharing knowledge with other disciplines or across sectors (two-way flow)
e.g., workshop or conference)
- Knowledge brokering (facilitating the flow of knowledge between others)
- Knowledge synthesis (pulling together existing research in a useful form for other researchers or organizations)
- Co-production (building research teams or alliances that generate new knowledge based on an ongoing exchange
of knowledge)
- Networking (organizing ongoing networks of scholars and/or other experts to mobilize knowledge)

Looking ahead, we hope that CAIR leaves a lasting legacy on relationality scholarship and continues to inspire scholars to critically engage with the emerging theory surrounding it and the practice of living in a relational way.

‍Click the PDF document(s) below to see what academic scholarship informed and continues to inform CAIR. Take note of the many works done by CAIR members!

We will continue to release PDF documents with ongoing literature informing the CAIR.

Scholarship that informed the beginning of CAIR (Fall 2023)