From my perspective, there are from time to time contradictions, but I think what has really helped is building those trusting relationships and taking the time to work in both systems for understanding on both sides. When you take that time and you really delve into the depth of the knowledge systems, you can see how they work together and how they are complementary.
I will give you an example. When we were selecting the area for investigation for a deep geological repository in northwestern Ontario, we had to do scientific studies. We had our staff walk the land, and our western scientists walked the land, but we had indigenous people with us. Both systems came together.
One would think that maybe they were contradictory, but they actually helped us to make a better decision at the end of the day. We could respect the cultural use of the land and we could find a place where western science came together. We had a much better decision at the end of the day, because those two systems, while they weren't perfectly aligned, worked together and found the optimum way of implementing our project.