Blog of TVRN Meeting: February 13, 2025

Our February meeting was a discussion of the following article: 

Coombes, J. and Ryder, C. (2020) ‘Walking together to create harmony in research: A Murri woman’s approach to Indigenous research methodology’, Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 15(1), pp. 58–67. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/QROM-07-2018-1657.

Seven voice teachers from the UK, US, and Germany attended this meeting and we had a thoughtful conversation about Dadirri, Indigenous people in research, and non-Indigenous people engaging with Indigenist approaches and epistemologies within our own context. 

The distinct cultures of Indigenous peoples around the world share key ontological and epistemological concepts, which hold, at their core, that reality and knowledge are created within the interconnected relationships humans have with all living things, the earth, the cosmos and spirit. Indigenous scholars working in universities around the world, especially in North America and Australia, have developed research approaches that reflect their ontologies and epistemologies, which they frequently summarize using the 4 R’s:

●      Respect for Indigenous Cultural Identity

●      Relevance to Indigenous Perspectives and Experiences

●      Reciprocal Relationships

●      Responsibility through Participation.

These principles, making up the Indigenous Research Paradigm, can and should be integral to every aspect of research, from choosing a topic to data gathering to analysis (Wilson, 2008; Kawulich and Chilisa, 2012; Tachine, 2018; Pidgeon, 2019; Prete, 2019; Pidgeon and Riley, 2021; Smith, 2021). 

Coombes and Ryder(2020) talk specifically about using Dadirri, a word from the Aboriginal River People in Australia that means “deep listening and quiet, still awareness.” Translated into methodological practice, Dadirri is a cyclical process of listening, reflecting, observing feelings and actions, reflecting, and learning, all in a cyclical process, allowing ever-deepening levels of understanding. In response, we explored the idea that cyclical approaches to data collection, analysis and dissemination can bring the work alive in a different way, creating new connections and the potential to become something beyond a published paper. 

During our meeting, we discussed how integrating this kind of deep listening and valuing our complex relationships with each other and the world around can bring deeper understanding of issues facing our world by accounting for the complexity of our world.  Even in scientific fields, accounting for complexity can increase our understanding because no substance acts in isolation. We also asked the question: what do we miss out on because we are NOT listening deeply to patients in medicine? There are studies showing that patients who are listened to by medical professionals have higher rates of healing (Helding and Ragan, 2022).  Listening deeply brings us into closer relationship while also expanding our understanding of the challenges they face.  How can we shift the system so that moves towards valuing the complexity of the world, including both the qualitative and the quantitative? 

Another question we grappled with was, “What does it mean for non-Indigenous people to engage with the IRP?” Indigenous scholar Shawn Wilson invites others engage with these ideas, and suggests that we call it the “Indigenist Research Paradigm.” (Wilson, 2014).  We commented that we can be inspired by the approach, find connections within it to our own cultural heritages and ways of knowing and being, and build those enriched ways of knowing into our own research and practice. This can allow us to re-value our own perspectives and speak and contribute authentically from our experience, especially where systems of oppression have damaged our sense of self-identity. 

One of the challenges for researchers using IRP and truly challenging power structures within research processes is that the process itself has a built-in power structure, and often happens within the hierarchical context of the University. Can we truly call people we work with co-researchers if the leader of the project holds all the structural power in the situation? 

Ethics is another area where conventional academic norms hit up against the Indigenist epistemologies. For example, many conventional research contexts demand confidentiality/anonymity for research participants.  However, because IRP holds that the knowledge is created in relationship, hiding the identity of participants erases their contributions and threatens to reinforce the power structures that have historically devalued the contributions of women and BIPOC contributors to knowledge. However, funding may be withheld if identities are not hidden. 

Coombes, J. and Ryder, C. (2020) ‘Walking together to create harmony in research: A Murri woman’s approach to Indigenous research methodology’, Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 15(1), pp. 58–67. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/QROM-07-2018-1657.

Helding, L. and Ragan, K. (2022) ‘Evidence-Based Voice Pedagogy (EBVP), Part 3: Student Goals and Perspectives’, Journal of Singing, 78(5), pp. 635–640. Available at: https://doi.org/10.53830/logc7063.

Kawulich, B. and Chilisa, B. (2012) ‘Chapter 3: Selecting a research approach: Paradigm, Methodology, Methods’, in C. Wagner, B. Kawulich, and M. Garner (eds) Doing Social Research:  A Global Context. McGraw Hill.

Pidgeon, M. (2019) ‘Moving between theory and practice within an Indigenous research paradigm’, Qualitative Research, 19(4), pp. 418–436. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794118781380.

Pidgeon, M. and Riley, T. (2021) ‘Understanding the Application and Use of Indigenous Research Methodologies in the Social Sciences by Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Scholars’, International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership, 17(8). Available at: https://doi.org/10.22230/ijepl.2021v17n8a1065.

Prete, T.D. (2019) ‘Beadworking as and Indigenous Research Paradigm’, Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal, 4(1).

Smith, L.T. (2021) Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Third Edition. New York: Zed Books.

Tachine, A.R. (2018) ‘Story Rug: Weaving Stories into Research’, in R. Starr Minthorn and H.J. Shotton (eds) Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education. 1st edn. Rutgers University Press, pp. 64–75.

Wilson, S. (2008) Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. 1st edn. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing.

Wilson, S. (2014) ‘An Open Forum on Indigenous Research Methodologies’, YouTube [Preprint]. University of Manitoba. Available at: https://youtu.be/N2aCxNbtTvo (Accessed: 9 April 2023).