*6.2. Category 2: Integrating Indigenous Knowledges for Sustainability*

The second research question sought to discover how curriculum, research, facility operations, institutional governance processes, and community outreach are linked to sustainability through practice and policy. Curriculum, research, facility operations, governance, and community outreach were shown to be areas where Indigenization and sustainability were unevenly implemented or even understood as potentially complementary. Finding 3 indicates that in each of these areas, integrating Indigenous knowledges for sustainability should be carried out in support of Indigenous cultural identity. This finding is significant because participants interpreted sustainability as part of the Indigenous knowledge and identity of cultural communities, showing a direct relationship between sustainability and Indigenization within PSE institutions.

### 6.2.1. Curriculum

Social, economic, and environmental elements of sustainability mean making curriculum relevant through links to contemporary realities as part of the culture and suggesting the need to integrate content on political, social, and historical realities of Indigenous peoples. Grindsted and Holm [25] identified several sustainability declarations and statements available for use by higher education institutions around the world. An analysis in relation to Indigenous content is needed.

#### 6.2.2. Research

Participants maintained that Indigenous rights mean that Indigenous communities should be full partners in creating and conducting research that involves them, their territories, or their knowledges. Indigenous communities want to develop and lead their own research on issues of importance to them. Jonas, Makagon, and Roe [26] identified at least 25 international instruments connecting Indigenous rights with conservation standards.

## 6.2.3. Facility Operations

Participants talked about the importance of creating or accessing spaces where Indigenous knowledges could be conveyed in an appropriate setting. Institutional adaptations might include access to land-based programming, cultural camps, and other spaces appropriate to the transmission of Indigenous knowledges that can accommodate place-based education [4,27].

#### 6.2.4. Governance

Participants strongly maintained that leaders in charge of institutional governance, policies, and budgets are key to determining the extent of Indigenous knowledges within PSE institutions. They felt that even if Indigenous considerations have a place of importance in policy, support for Indigenous programming is often insufficient or financially insecure. Participants indicated that they had never been approached about discussing Indigenous knowledges and sustainability simultaneously, which might suggest that institutional leadership would benefit from new discourse on these matters [28,29].
