The Social Innovation Think Tank: indigenous social innovation

The Social Innovation Think Tank

The Social Innovation Think Tank series explores the power of social innovation in the modern world; sharing its necessity and capacity to challenge the status quo.

The monthly series is hosted by Dr Neil Stott and Professor Paul Tracey, co-directors of the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation.

They interview academics from many disciplines, who discuss their motivation to strive towards to a more equitable and sustainable world.

Episode Five – Indigenous Social Innovation

In the fifth episode of The Social Innovation Think Tank, Dr Neil Stott and Professor Paul Tracey discuss ‘Indigenous Social Innovation’.

Our guests are Dr Bettina Schneider from First Nations University of Canada, and Dr Ella Henry from Auckland University of Technology; both share their perspectives on Indigenous social innovation.

“Social innovation for us is about finding those cultural values and philosophy that helped keep our society robust for thousands of years and working out how we can incorporate those values and practices into contemporary practice, particularly around leadership, economic development. We were colonised by Christianity, patriarchy and a very euro-centric approach to capitalism, which completely undermined our traditional value system and our traditional political economy.

Dr Ella Henry

“This social innovation piece is challenging systemic, social, economic and environmental issues and creating the space for something different, for something new that is rooted in indigenous values, priorities, worldviews and creating this whole new space to grow and change the narrative, change the discourse, change the norms that have been established by these dominant paradigms and systemic challenges.”

Dr Bettina Schneider