Community Research Keepers

Community Research Keepers are community members who help keep the Office of the Three Sisters' research alive by receiving research updates, integrating what they learn, and carrying appropriate insights back into their own networks. Collectively they form the Circle of Community Research Keepers, which operates as a sum-group of the Circle Keepers role inside the Earth Stewardship Program.

Status: In discernment · Count: Open subscription circle · Languages: EN / ES · First pilot: Sjeanne BC · Source: South Day Rimanakuy with Kichwalana + Truman, 2026-05-12

Role in context

  • Circle Keepers is the broader role family; the Circle of Community Research Keepers is one collective expression within it.
  • Community Research Stewards are distinct: they are mentors, guides, and advisors to direct researchers, typically with Indigenous research background. No direct Steward↔Keeper interaction is currently imagined, though cross-collaboration may develop.
  • Earth Stewardship Program is the wider participation pathway within which this circle sits. Anyone in Earth Stewardship receives access to the Registry of Operational Needs and the majority of Office resources.
  • The Office receives and organizes research; Community Research Keepers receive publicized research from the Office and help it travel in community. The boundary between internal and restricted-public materials is managed by the Office upstream — not by the Keeper.

In Kichwa schema terms, Community Research Keepers occupy an active-contributor layer of the Wasi Runa position: beneficiary-contributors who receive Wasi support, find their rikchay in listed needs, and participate in the living web of Yachay.

Why this role matters

Research Keepers are a pillar of knowledge sovereignty. Their role helps ensure that research does not only live in documents, organizations, or experts — it helps keep knowledge oral, relational, transmittable, and alive within community. This supports the integrity of the Office's research methodology, rooted in Yachay: the living practice of keeping knowledge alive within the communities that discovered it, nurturing and fostering ancestral Indigenous knowledge practices by keeping them oral and transmittable.

Core commitments

The v0.1 framing (Combined Roles Document) names three commitments, with acknowledgment folded into the third. The v0.2 orientation packet surfaces four:

  1. Financial stabilization — $25/month for one year. People who cannot make this commitment are offered a different participation path through the Office; exceptions may be explored over time.
  2. Attention — receive research updates, progress reports, and offerings from the Office and from the circles joined, with care.
  3. Integration — read, process, integrate, and further the work by sharing appropriate insights with one's own networks.
  4. Acknowledgment — respond through a simple read receipt, reflection, or participation in the monthly Lunar Cycle research gathering, so the Office knows the work is landing.

What Keepers receive

  • Acceptance into the Earth Stewardship Program
  • A welcome and acceptance letter
  • Contribution receipts or records
  • The introductory video on Indigenous Research Methodology and the role (see Community Research Keepers Intake / Payment / Receipt Flow v0.1)
  • Orientation to the Earth Stewardship Program, the Registry of Operational Needs, and the Circle of Community Research Keepers
  • Office resources, participatory offerings, progress updates, and infrastructure context
  • Research updates from the Office and the circles they are connected to
  • Invitations into the Alli Kawsay areas of community need
  • A living relationship to the work rather than a passive subscription

Alli Kawsay area selection

Keepers may choose to follow or support one or more of the seven Alli Kawsay areas:

  1. Celestial rhythms and timekeeping support
  2. Rimanakuy — community gatherings and events
  3. Coworking / third spaces, mentorship, personalized learning, and creative exploration
  4. Higher education alternative opportunities — Hampina Path
  5. Sacred intimacy, relational support, and repair
  6. Indigenous sovereignty and community resilience
  7. Habitat and ecological stewardship

Not every Keeper needs to follow every stream equally. Over time, people may gravitate toward particular areas.

Research and update cadences

The Office may send different kinds of updates through the year, per Kichwalana (2026-05-12):

  • Tending the Living Day updates
  • General progress updates
  • Medicine Wheel cycle updates (every ~6-day sub-cycle)
  • Lunar cycle updates (every ~28 days)
  • Seasonal updates (equinox / solstice)

Read receipt and acknowledgment options

Acknowledgment is relational, not surveillant. A Keeper may acknowledge by:

  • replying by email;
  • replying in Discord;
  • responding through a form or dashboard (when available);
  • participating in a lunar-cycle research gathering and naming what stood out and what they may share.

Suggested acknowledgment form:

I received this update. I read it / will read it by ___. One thing I am sitting with is ___. One place this may be useful is ___.

The specific mechanism (email, Discord, website dashboard, lunar gathering) is the Keeper's choice based on how they receive updates.

Right relationship and use of materials

Materials shared with Community Research Keepers should already be prepared for circulation unless otherwise noted — the Office manages the internal/restricted-public boundary upstream. Even so, Keepers agree to:

  • preserve context and evidentiality when sharing;
  • not claim authority, authorship, or lineage they do not hold;
  • ask before using Office material for fundraising, teaching, public posts, or organizational claims;
  • honor requests from the Office to pause, correct, remove, or re-contextualize shared material.

This is not about surveillance. It is about keeping the work in right relationship as it moves through community.

Cycle and term

Each term begins and ends on the Spring Equinox. A Keeper may join at any time during the year; however, their term concludes on the next Spring Equinox unless they choose to continue for another cycle. Participation in all programs of the Office of the Three Sisters is mutually consensual and non-binding.

Graceful pause or exit

A Community Research Keeper may pause or leave if their capacity changes. A graceful exit asks for:

  • a short note naming the pause or completion;
  • any final reflection on what they received;
  • any commitments that need to be closed;
  • an updated communication preference for future contact.

No one should remain in the circle out of pressure or guilt.

Status and pilot

The role is in discernment as of 2026-05-12. The placement question — its own role file or a sub-form of Circle Keepers — remains open.

First pilot: Sjeanne BC (testing the $25/month contribution path and vision-orientation pathway clarity). Jeremy Kirshbaum is piloting the Community Research Stewards path and will help clarify the Keeper↔Steward relationship in practice.

Related pages

Type: role · Also known as: Community Research Keepers