Generations before the arrival of Europeans, many Indigenous people in the southern Americas relied on a nutritious grain that provided protein and carbohydrates. Communities traded, shared and adapted the grain for different climates, with some tribes using it in rituals and ceremonies. Such was its importance that when Spanish colonizers arrived, they saw the grain as a threat to their power and worked to eradicate it. By the 1940s, this grain was nearly extinct, replaced by Eurocentric crops such as wheat. It wasn’t until its health benefits became attractive to modern consumers in the late 20th century that the grain saw a resurgence as a “superfood.”
This grain is called quinoa.
Quinoa is an example of the vast array of Indigenous knowledge and ways of learning and adapting that were almost lost during colonization. The question is: How can we recover and invest in this knowledge without inflicting even more damage on communities still recovering from the effects of colonization?
IDRC was an early investor in research on quinoa and continues to support Indigenous research today in key sectors like food security, human rights, education, health and economic development. IDRC’s May 2025 call for research aims to support knowledge exchanges between Indigenous researchers in Canada and the Global South to co-develop Indigenous research agendas that may lead to broader endeavours.
IDRC has funded around 30 projects engaging Indigenous communities since 2012, with investments totalling nearly $24 million CAD, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean. About eight percent of the region’s population is Indigenous (it’s about 5% in Canada), and that figure rises to more than 25 percent and 40 percent in Peru and Bolivia, respectively. While many Indigenous communities face disadvantages, a robust Indigenous rights movement has produced important political, social and educational reforms in recent decades, and it continues to lobby for better economic, educational and health services today. Priority themes of existing and past programming at IDRC respond to those challenges.
IDRC strives to ensure that Indigenous communities are active participants in the research process, not just as beneficiaries but also as leaders and collaborators in design and production. This approach involves partnering and collaborating with Indigenous researchers and academic institutions as part of our longstanding belief that those closest to the problem are often best placed to develop solutions.
For example, Indigenous children suffer from chronic malnutrition at twice the rate of non-Indigenous children in Latin America. IDRC-supported research is catalyzing Indigenous knowledge to build more resilient food systems through a cohort of five projects guided by Indigenous people. For example, a project in Ecuador documenting and evaluating Indigenous food systems is housed at the Universidad Intercultural de las Nacionalidades y Pueblos Indígenas Amawtay Wasi and carried out by Indigenous researchers working with approximately 300 Indigenous families.
The changing climate is a major complicated issue for Indigenous people in Latin America. Mining, logging, agriculture, drought and fires are chipping away at traditional territories and ways of life, livelihoods and personal security. IDRC-supported research led by South American institutions recognizes that climate change can have disproportionately harmful social, economic and public health impacts on vulnerable populations and works with Indigenous people to design policies to respond to these challenges.
At the same time, some Indigenous people are paying a price for solutions that, while intended to address the climate crisis, are actually creating new inequities and rights violations. For example, researchers from Argentina, Bolivia and Chile are working with Indigenous people and communities to document and raise awareness about the impact of lithium mining on human rights. Straddling these three countries, the Andean region known as the Lithium Triangle is home to more than half of the world's lithium supply — a key ingredient in the production of batteries that offer alternative energy to fossil fuels. Recommendations stemming from the affected communities are contributing to public debate on legislation, public policy and corporate practices to protect Indigenous rights.
As part of its work to break down barriers for underrepresented groups in science, IDRC supports programming to advance Indigenous careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This includes providing postdoctoral fellowships for Indigenous women scientists in Mexico and Guatemala and supporting inclusion policies and practices for Indigenous groups within research and higher education institutions in Central America. IDRC has also worked to embed Indigenous perspectives throughout the life cycle of a project, from research design to data collection and interpretation to help identify successful strategies that can be replicated to support Indigenous women in science in Peru.
Many Indigenous leaders in Latin America are actively pursuing alternative economic pathways for their communities. They are part of a movement towards regenerative agri-food business that IDRC is supporting through research into the needs and impacts of this business model in the Amazon and Central America. The organization implementing the project designed it with Indigenous and traditional farming communities, analyzed needs based on data and conversations with participants and designed a tailored mentoring process as part of the project.
Co-creation with Indigenous communities is also an approach taken in some of the health-related research that IDRC supports. For example, a project in Guatemala works with users of health services, civil society organizations, frontline providers and health authorities to develop policies that recognize traditional Indigenous health interventions.
The hope is that through these initiatives, as well as new areas of research in 2025 and beyond, we can build on five decades of experience in working with Indigenous knowledge to help inform a framework for ethical Indigenous research co-creation, support Indigenous research self-determination and further engage networks in Canada and around the world. In alignment with Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action and the Centre’s focus on fostering local, Southern-led solutions to development challenges, IDRC is dedicated to supporting Indigenous-led research and amplifying Indigenous voices, perspectives and experiences to build a more inclusive and sustainable world.