By their very presence: rethinking research and partnering for change with educators and artists from Long Island’s Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum

This paper recounts the non‐Native authorʹs journey toward understanding and enacting Indigenous research paradigms in her home region of Long Island, New York. Unknown to most Long Islanders, their region, which extends over 100 miles eastward from Manhattan, contains two state recognized Native reserves—Shinnecock and Poospatuck. Long Island is home to contemporary Indigenous educators, artists, lawyers, journalists, filmmakers, tribal leaders, and elders striving to maintain, strengthen and pass on their cultural heritage within an educational, economic and political context that more often than not excludes their perspectives and concerns. This narrative inquiry focuses on the educational stories told by individuals affiliated with the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum, which strives through art, education, history and social activism to keep alive and vibrant their important cultural heritage within a contemporary context. In addition to these Indigenous voices, the stories of non‐Native teachers from two predominantly white Long Island school districts are included. The result is the creation of a multi‐voiced forum that examines the problem of invisibility and the silencing of Indigenous perspectives within K‐12 schools and teacher preparation programs. The hope of this ongoing decolonization project is to nurture respectful cross‐cultural collaborations that honor the “first voices” of our educational and research communities and to explore new research approaches arising from Indigenous scholarship.