Embedded with pre-existing meaning and a complex set of core principles and practices, "diplomacy" is a term familiar to most. Simply put, diplomacy is the established methods of influencing the decisions and behavior of foreign governments and peoples through dialogue, negotiation, and other measures to resolve conflict and maintain peace. In this article, we review the literature pertaining to the concept of diplomacy, focusing primarily on the lesser recognized diplomacies of First Peoples in Australia and Sweden. Through the telling of three significant events, historical and contemporary, drawn from many possible examples of the two nations, we demonstrate that Indigenous diplomacies are not new but rather newly recognized. We argue for the utilization of Indigenous diplomatic practices to realize self-determining research with, and by, First Peoples. In doing so, centuries of colonization that have resulted in power imbalances, which sought to assimilate and benefit settler/colonizer privilege through its governing institutions, may be disrupted and transformed. According to the literature search undertaken, this is an approach to Indigenous research that has received scant attention. Our discussion is guided by two key questions. First, can research informed by Indigenous diplomatic practices disrupt assimilationist research agendas set predominantly by society's governing institutions? Second, can recognition of Indigenous diplomatic principles and practices facilitate self-determining research? We draw on our experiences as Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers to suggest that the enactment of Indigenous diplomatic practices when undertaking our research 'proper ways' with First Peoples, according to Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing, has facilitated its success.