Fight for rights in sight?

About a month after I arrive in the village, the day comes when the judge will hand down a decision on a landmark court case that has been pending for over a year. He will decide if 32 other indigenous communities will also be granted the rights to traditional land tenure in the same way the village where I’m working was last year. There is excitement in the community and a group of community members are planning to travel to the capital city to hear the judgment. After that, they will join a large group for a celebration in a neighboring village. My friends in the community ask me to join them for the rally in the capital and for the high-profile celebration. They know I support them in their fight for their land rights. Of course I’ll come! But wait- I have been working with both activists and government officials and I know this is a divisive issue. My presence at these events could put me firmly on one side of this debate and jeopardize my ability to carefully negotiate my own neutrality as a researcher. Whatever I choose to do, I could be violating someone’s values- my own, the community’s, the activists’, the government ministers’.

I am having an ethical dilemma!