“He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.”
What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.
At the Southern eDNA Society (SeDNAs), we are committed to the values of inclusion, diversity, and equity. By promoting environmental DNA (eDNA)-centred collaboration across Australia and New Zealand through a variety of academic, industry, governmental, and non-governmental organizations and partnerships, we value diversity in backgrounds and skills in our society. We recognize that knowledge advancement is greatly enhanced if we work collectively to achieve solutions through different perspectives and expertise. Diverse teams perform better1, 2, 3.
SeDNAs aims to provide an inclusive, safe environment where everyone can connect, learn about, engage with, and perform science. Diversity includes, but is not limited to: gender, career stage, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, race, ethnicity, (dis)ability, language, political affiliation, socioeconomic status, religion, or physical appearance. We acknowledge that creating an inclusive and safe environment is an ongoing endeavour that demands consistent commitment, especially in the molecular biological space. We aspire to make conscious progress as we advance on this journey, and always stay attentive and proactive. Only by constant strides in improvement can we get the best eDNA outcomes and solutions which work for all.
We acknowledge the importance of Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous knowledge frameworks, and Indigenous knowledge holders as first peoples. We also recognize that historically these knowledge systems and Indigenous cultures have been devalued, displaced, diminished, ignored, and sometimes erased through the process of colonization.
Our commitment:
- We will foster an inclusive environment with diverse representation. All people are welcome.
- We recognize traditional career pathways in science can be exclusionary to underrepresented peoples (i.e. the “leaky pipeline”) – while we work towards long-term solutions as a broader scientific community, we remain aware of current challenges.
- We expect our members to meaningfully engage with the communities that they work with, especially if they are indigenous to the land or historically underrepresented.4
- We will foster diversity at our events by aspiring to have equal gender and career stage representation in keynote speakers and session chairs, as well as people of colour.
- We expect our members to engage with Indigenous knowledge and peoples in all applications of eDNA in our respective countries and respect their sovereignty over their lands and data. We will proactively implement practices to include Traditional Owners and kaitiaki (guardians), in Society activities for example, with travel awards to attend and present at our annual conference when possible.
[1] Sommers S. R. (2006). On racial diversity and group decision making: identifying multiple effects of racial composition on jury deliberations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(4), 597–612. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.4.597
[3] Díaz-García C., González-Moreno A. & Sáez-Martínez F. J. (2013). Gender diversity within R&D teams: Its impact on radicalness of innovation. Innovation, 15(2), 149-160. https://doi.org/10.5172/impp.2013.15.2.149
[4] Adame, F. (2021). Meaningful collaborations can end ‘helicopter research.’ Nature Career Column. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01795-1
Southern environmental DNA society 