This paper uses the concept of glocality to illuminate the ways in which the global operates as a hegemonic social construct for settler and colonial states to infiltrate and repress other local epistemological domains to assert and maintain control. Identifying four prominent and interconnected themes in the glocality literature: developing deep understanding; addressing power dynamics; privileging Indigenous knowledge systems; and accountability to place, the authors draw on their experience working in health scholarship to reflect upon how the social development goals can be approached by universities in ways that do not reify colonial relationships with Indigenous peoples.