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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

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

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Nature 644, 331-334 (2025)

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

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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