Universities are colonial environments, where eliminatory narratives about Indigenous people are created and perpetuated. Indigenous health and place research seeks to rewrite these colonial narratives, to address Indigenous health inequities, and support the health and healing of Indigenous people. Working across Indigenous and academic worldviews, community research partnerships centre equity, prioritizing the needs, values and goals of Indigenous communities. However, these partnerships face challenges when Indigenous and academic research paradigms collide. These challenges persist despite Indigenous activism and university commitments to decolonization, inclusion and reconciliation. To better understand how and why these challenges persist, twelve Indigenous (4) and allied (8) academics were interviewed about their experiences working on research partnerships at the nexus of Indigenous health and place, at Canadian universities. Participants described how challenges occur when they prioritize Indigenous practices and protocols over those of the academy. For participants who are deeply embedded in community, it is clear that the practices and protocols of their community partners flow from inherent rights, responsibilities and nationhood, something academia fails to recognize. Using sovereignty as a conceptual lens, this presentation translates the weight and value of Indigenous research practices across the divide between Indigenous and academic worldviews. The presentation closes with a discussion of practical utility of a sovereignty-based approach for allied faculty and staff struggling to support decolonization within academic environments.