Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods » (New Edition)

Shawn Wilson works in the department of rural health at Northern Rivers University in New South Wales, Australia.

Describing a research paradigm shared by indigenous scholars in Canada and Australia, this study demonstrates how this standard can be put into practice. Portraying indigenous researchers as knowledge seekers who work to progress indigenous ways of being, knowing, and doing in a constantly evolving context, this examination shows how relationships both shape indigenous reality and are vital to reality itself. These same knowledge seekers develop relationships with ideas in order to achieve enlightenment in the ceremony of maintaining accountability. Envisioning researchers as accountable to all relations, this overview proves that careful choices should be made regarding selection of topics, methods of data collection, forms of analysis, and the way in which information is presented.

Acknowledgements 5

Foreword and Conclusion 6

My Writing Style 8

Sequencing of the Book 9

1 Getting Started 12

Introduction 15

Purpose of the Book 19

Research Question 20

2 On the Research Journey 22

Beginning My Research Saga 22

Researcher Background-Introducing the Storyteller 32

Definition of Terms 33

How I Searched for an Answer to the Question 35

Overview of the Dominant Research Paradigms 35

Strategy of Inquiry 39

3 Can a Ceremony Include a Literature Review? 43

The Progression of an Indigenous Research Paradigm 44

A Chronology of Aboriginal Research 45

The Development of an Indigenous Paradigm 52

A Shift in Terminology, a Shift in Understanding 54

The Criterion for Indigenous Research 55

4 The Elements of an Indigenous Research Paradigm 62

On a Journey with My Friends 62

Introducing an Indigenous Research Paradigm 69

Elements of an Indigenous Research Paradigm 71

Indigenous Ontology and Epistemology 73

Indigenous Axiology and Methodology 77

5 Relationality 80

Building Relations at the Indigenous Scholars Conference 81

Relations with People 84

Relations with the Environment/Land 86

Relations with the Cosmos 89

Relations with Ideas 91

6 Relational Accountability 97

Ways of Applying an Indigenous Research Paradigm 100

Topic: How We Choose What to Study 108

Methods: How We Gather Information 110

Analysis: How We Interpret Information 116

Presentation: How We Transfer Knowledge 122

7 Articulating an Indigenous Research Paradigm 126

An Indigenous Research Paradigm in Action 127

Conclusions 135

References 139