Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • COMMENT

Decolonize scientific institutions, don’t just diversify them

Indigenous scholars set out eight steps to stop marginalization in academia and to enable a shared Indigenous agenda in science.
By
  1. Tara G. McAllister

    1. Tara G. McAllister is from Te Aitanga a Māhaki and is a kairangahau matua (senior researcher) in ecology and higher education, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, New Zealand.

  2. Leilani A. Walker

    1. Leilani A. Walker is from Whakatōhea and is a senior lecturer in invertebrate zoology, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand.

  3. Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles

    1. Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles is a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and an adjunct professor in Indigenous geographies and land relations at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

  4. Lydia Jennings

    1. Lydia Jennings is Wixárika, a citizen of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and an assistant professor in Indigenous soil ecologies and Indigenous data sovereignty, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA.

  5. Bradley Moggridge

    1. Bradley Moggridge is Kamilaroi and a professor of science and associate dean (Indigenous Leadership and Engagement), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

  6. Sereana Naepi

    1. Sereana Naepi has ancestry from Nakida, Naitasiri, Fiji, and is an associate professor in sociology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

  7. Brittany Kamai

    1. Brittany Kamai is Kānaka Maoli and a lecturer in astrophysics and traditional voyaging, University of Hawai‘i – West O‘ahu, Kapolei, Hawaii, USA.

  8. Kat Milligan-McClellan

    1. Kat Milligan-McClellan is Inupiaq and an assistant professor of microbiology and a student mentor, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.

An Indigenous Innu caribou researcher walks beside caribou tracks on a dirt road in the Canadian boreal forest.

An Indigenous Innu researcher looks for caribou tracks in Quebec, Canada. Credit: Ed Jones/AFP via Getty

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives intend to support Black, Indigenous and other marginalized scholars — but the pace of change has remained slow.

Access options

Access through your institution

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 644, 331-334 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02516-8

References

  1. Ngata, T. Kia Mau: Resisting Colonial Fictions (Rebel, 2019).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Liboiron, M. Pollution is Colonialism (Duke Univ. Press, 2021).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Wynn-Grant, R. Science 365, 1256–1257 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Chen, C. Y. et al. eLife 11, e83071 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. McAllister, T. G. & Riva, G. D. J. R. Soc. N. Z. 53, 244–250 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Ballangarry, J. & Pugin, M. Int. Fem. J. Polit. 26, 706–720 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Haar, J. & Martin, W. J. Hum. Relat. 75, 1001–1027 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Settles, I. H., Jones, M. K., Buchanan, N. T. & Brassel, S. T. J. High. Educ. 93, 31–55 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Theodore, R., Kidman, J., Naepi, S., Kokaua, J. & McAllister, T. G. MAI J. 10, 202–206 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Gazing Wolf, J. et al. Front. Ecol. Environ. 22, e2776 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Kuokkanen, R. Rev. Educ. Pedagogy Cult. Stud. 30, 60–82 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Pihama, L., Lee-Morgan, J., Smith, L. T., Tiakiwai, S. J. & Seed-Pihama, J. AlterNative 15, 52–61 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Louis, R. P. Geograph. Res. 45, 130–139 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Smiles, D. Transmotion 7, 221–228 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links