AISES 2025 Reflection

Concluding wisdoms from dr. lelemia irvine at AISES 2025 session on ‘awe and talanoa (Photo credit: S. Hokulani Sharp)

Last weekend, I traveled to the ancestral homelands of the Dakhóta Oyáte (Dakota People) presently considered the U.S. city of Minneapolis for the 2025 AISES (American Indian Society of Engineers and Scientists) meeting. I was a first-time attendee of this annual gathering, representing HONUA Scholars and participating in a presentation on “A values-based framework for integrating cultural perspectives into community-engaged STEM design workshops,” which focused on the work that the organization does to support and retain Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in STEM fields. Additionally, I attended a beautiful ʻawa (bitterroot drink) and talanoa (open-mat discussion) session led by dr. lelemia irvine (University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu) got to bear witness to the good medicine of being in ceremony and talking story with Indigenous Peoples from around the world.

In the wake of funding cuts to STEM fields and attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging work (DEIB), there were also discourses about the AISES organization’s recent downsizing and the felt absence of community members in the space. Still, the conference organizers remained firmed and expressed their stance about Indigenous belonging in STEM: We are all scientists. At the same time, I was reminded of the ongoing circulation of colonial ideologies about who belongs in STEM and whose knowledge counts in STEM, and I think of the ways Indigenous knowledge systems specifically are not taken up by those with power and authority to generate a paradigm shift in the teaching and learning of STEM. I continue to sit with this tension in Indigenous and settler STEM practices, and I remain in solidarity with Indigenous scholars in STEM fields and majors who resist institutionalized ideologies and discourses that fail to recognize their lived experiences and wisdoms as credible sources. Moreover, I remain committed to disrupting beliefs about the exclusivity of STEM, and I embrace the worldview that we are all scientists. Mahalo.