Conducting decolonizing research and practice with Australian First Nations to close the health gap (original) (raw)
Related papers
AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 2013
This paper explores a decolonizing approach to research about Indigenous women's health in Australia. The paper identifies the strengths of decolonizing methodologies as a way to prioritize Indigenous values and worldviews, develop partnerships between researchers and the researched, and contribute to positive change. The authors draw on Laenui's (2000) five-step model of decolonization to describe their work in the Indigenous Women's Wellness Project in Brisbane, Queensland. They argue that Laenui's model presents a valuable framework for conducting decolonizing research projects about women's health with Australian Indigenous women. The authors demonstrate that working within a decolonizing framework offers autonomy and sustainability for women's wellness activities, while continuing to improve a community's health and wellbeing outcomes.
Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante, 2006
Knowledge translation at the Manitoba First Nations Centre for Aboriginal Health Research emerged through several population health research initiatives conducted in partnership with Canadian Indigenous peoples. An initial collaboration to carry out a regional health survey laid the foundation to share leadership, power and decision-making, and resulted in a program to build capacity in the First Nations health planning community through familiarity with the tools and skills of health researchers. Connections between health researchers and First Nations health planners have since led to the incorporation of evidence-based decision-making in many First Nations communities.
Decolonizing health in Canada: A Manitoba first nation perspective
International Journal for Equity in Health
Introduction & Background Global persistence of health inequities for Indigenous peoples is evident in ongoing discrepancies in health and standards of living. International literature suggests the key to transformation lies in Indigenous efforts to control Indigenous health and healthcare. Previous authors have focused upon participation, structural transformation, and culturally appropriate healthcare recognized as a political right as fundamental tenets of Indigenous control. Contextualizing Indigenous health and wellness falls within a growing discussion on decolonization – a resituating of expertise that privileges Indigenous voice and interests. Methods The study is a qualitative, grounded theory analysis, which is a constructivist approach to social research allowing for generation of theory in praxis, through interactions and conversations between researchers and participants. One hundred eighty-three interviews with additional focus groups were held between 2013-15 in eight...
Science, research and social change in Indigenous health ? evolving ways of knowing
Australian Health Review, 2009
History tells us of the overwhelming destructive influence of exotic culture, politics and knowledge forms upon the worldview and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians. The power of dominant culture to oppress, control and dominate traditional Indigenous ways of knowing and being has been identified as a being a crucial influence on the health status, future hopes and aspirations of Indigenous Australians. Fundamental to this assertion is that the alienating effect of the belief in and application of the scientific method in relation to learning and knowing is a phenomenon that is incompatible with the law and cultural ways of traditional Indigenous people. The establishment of the Centre of Clinical Research Excellence (CCRE) is predicated upon and responds to a deep need in our community today to synthesise the ideological and epistemological premises of an increasing range of cultures and world views. It recognises that clinical research, for example, is important to the health of ...
The Long Story of an Indigenous Health Research Project
2023
Indigenous health inequities represent a significant challenge for health research and programming. The research seeking to address these inequities also faces significant challenges. To guide researchers through these challenges, several resources exist. That said, the real world of Indigenous research is complex and contains much that, as experience suggests, is not accounted for by the existing resources. Therefore, this article tells the full and honest story of conducting research within largely Western systems and the barriers they present to Indigenous community-based health research that respects self-determination, OCAP, CARE and FAIR principles, and culture. When relevant to discussion, examples are provided from a recently completed COVID-19 vaccine promotion research project. In telling this story, many questions are posed, some of these are tentatively answered, and many are left for contemplation and future work. When answers are provided, they often stem from personal experience, and so, conclusions should be approached cautiously. Regardless, prioritizing respectful and authentic relationships appears to be a universal compass that can guide researchers to the good way. Still, more consistent and honest reporting of barriers, failures, and opportunities may be needed to truly reflect the challenging realities of ethical Indigenous research.
Qualitative health research, 2011
Evidence-based approaches to health care have been difficult to achieve in Indigenous populations across the world, a situation which has contributed to the significant health disparities found in this group. One reason for the inadequacy of evidence-based health interventions is that empirical knowledge tends to be organized around professional disciplines that are grounded in Western ways of knowing. In this article we describe events that have led to more appropriate research methods in Australia, and the resulting changes in the research community. The principles that have guided Australian research policy development might not yet be fully matured, but the improvements we have experienced over the last several decades have gone a long way toward acknowledging the significant disparities that affect Indigenous people and the role of researchers in addressing this issue.
Canadian and Australian First Nations: Decolonising knowledge
International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies
This article explores Indigenous standpoint theory in Australia in the context of postcolonialism and some of its aspects influencing Canadian First Nations scholarship. I look at how cultural metanarratives are ideologically informed and act to lock out of scholarship other ways of knowing, being and doing. I argue that they influence knowledge and education so as to ratify Eurowestern dominant knowledge constructs. I develop insights into redressing this imbalance through advocating two-way learning processes for border crossing between Indigenous axiologies, ontologies and epistemologies, and dominant Western ones. In doing so, I note that decolonisation of knowledge sits alongside decolonisation itself but has been a very slow process in the academy. I also note that this does not mean that decolonisation of knowledge is always necessarily an oppositional process in scholarship, proposing that practice-led research (PLR) provides one model for credentialling Indigenous practitio...