“Research Rooted in Indigenous Ways: Ceremony, Language, Storytelling, and Ancestral Science at the Heart of the Sky Lodge.”
About the Sky Lodge
The Sky Lodge is a sacred space within CAAN Communities, Alliances & Networks, created through ceremony and guided by Knowledge Givers, and the voices of Indigenous communities with lived experience.
It stands as a living framework—research guided by ancestral science and operationalized through Indigenous ways of knowing and doing.
The Sky Lodge affirms that Indigenous-led research must be grounded in ceremony, kinship, and the principles of pimatisiwin—the good life. Here, research is not a transaction, but a relationship built on reciprocity, respect, and responsibility to community and to land.
From Our Okimaw, Margaret Kisikaw Piyesis
“We are the living prayers of our ancestors—spoken into existence by generations long past. The Sky Lodge at CAAN has come to life through ceremony and the guidance of Knowledge Givers. This framework centres Indigenous laws, kinship systems, and natural laws as the foundation for all research we do together.”
— Margaret Kisikaw Piyesis, Okimaw and CEO, CAAN
Guided by Knowledge Givers
Knowledge Giver Betty McKenna reminds us that we are all prayers lifted from our ancestors. Her teachings shape the Sky Lodge: every person sharing their story is not a “participant,” but a Hope Speaker—a voice carrying healing, trust, and connection across generations.
Our Commitments
- Uphold Indigenous data sovereignty
- Protect Hope Speakers through ceremony, trauma-informed practice, and cultural safety.
- Honour Knowledge Givers as sacred teachers—not contractors.
- Centre Ancestral Science as a valid, sovereign knowledge system.
- Embed Indigenous languages and laws in all research roles and responsibilities.
The Sky Lodge as a Call to Action
CAAN calls upon all partners, funders, and researchers to:
Recognize Indigenous science as equal to Western science.
Co-create research grounded in cultural safety, reciprocity, and ceremony.
Honour Elders and Knowledge Givers through relational, not contractual, agreements.
Together, we reclaim research as a sacred act—a bridge between land, language, and spirit.
