Kelly Bannister

Kelly Bannister (B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.) is Co-Director of the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at the Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria. Her academic background is in ethnobiology and applied research ethics and she specializes in biocultural ethics, focusing on ethical and legal issues in research involving biodiversity, Indigenous knowledges and cultural heritage. Her work has explored the role of governance tools and processes (such as ethical codes and guidelines, codes of conduct, community research protocols, and contractual arrangements) to address power relations and facilitate equitable practices in collaborative research. Her current work explores new approaches to ethics policy and practice offered through relational ethics, intercultural communication, zen-based conflict resolution and embodied peace-making.

Kelly has been involved in ethics policy, praxis, research, analysis, development and education from local to national and international levels, in a variety of capacities over the last 20 years, working for, with and across many sectors (Indigenous communities, universities, non-profit, government). She was a member of the CIHR Aboriginal Ethics Working Group that developed the CIHR Guidelines for Health Research Involving Aboriginal People (in effect as national policy from May 2007 until December 2010). She was also a member of the Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics’ Technical Advisory Committee on Aboriginal Research (PRE-TACAR) as part of the Panel’s Aboriginal Research Ethics Initiative (AREI) that advised on Chapter 9 in the second edition of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS2). She co-chaired the Ethics Program for the International Society of Ethnobiology (ISE) from 2004-2018 including facilitating the completion of the ISE Code of Ethics in 2006.

In recent years, she has been working under the guidance of an Indigenous Advisory Circle to co-create contemporary ethical guidance that deeply considers the intercultural, interspecies and intergenerational aspects of sharing Indigenous knowledge across different knowledge systems and respects diverse ways being, knowing, and doing.