This chapter features diverse Indigenous and Indigenist research projects in Australia, the Pacific and beyond. It’s a work in progress and we will be adding further papers in coming months.
The Indigenist research perspective of Lester-Irabinna Rigney
Lester-Irabinna Rigney is an Australian Aboriginal educator, academic and member of the Narungga, Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri peoples from the southern regions of South Australia. This course has been curated by Dulwich Centre Foundation, which is located on the lands of the Kaurna people.
It is almost thirty years since Lester-Irrabina wrote his groundbreaking paper “Internationalisation of an Indigenous anti-colonial cultural critique of research methodologies: A guide to Indigenist research methodology and its principles” (1997, 1999). In this paper, Lester-Irabinna described three fundamental and interrelated principles that inform Indigenist research:
- resistance as the emancipatory imperative in Indigenist research
- political integrity in Indigenous research
- privileging Indigenous voices. (1999, p. 118)
He also describes its political imperative, hence his use of the term “Indigenist”:
Indigenist research has a political imperative – it is research undertaken by Indigenous Australians who set their own political agenda for liberation. It takes research to the heart of Aboriginal struggle, and to the heart of collective community struggle (Rigney, 1999, pp. 118–119).
And how these forms of resaerch are linked to struggle, healing, self-determination and freedom:
Indigenist research is research undertaken as part of the struggle of Indigenous Australians for recognition of self-determination. It is research that engages with the issues that have arisen out of the long history of oppression of Indigenous Australians, which began in earnest with the invasion of Australia in 1788. It is research that deals with the history of physical, cultural and emotional genocide. It is also research that engages with the story of the survival and the resistance of Indigenous Australians to racist oppression. It is research that seeks to uncover and protest the continuing forms of oppression confronting Indigenous Australians. Moreover, it is research that attempts to support the personal, community, cultural and political struggles of Indigenous Australians to carve out a way of being for ourselves in Australia in which there can be healing from past oppressions and cultural freedom in the future. (Rigney, 1999, pp. 117–118)
Fast forward thirty years from that early paper and there are now so many different Indigenous and Indigenist research initiatives.
The Indigenous Knowledge Institute
One way to get a sense of some of the developments in Indigenous research in Australia is to explore the website of the Indigenous Knowledge Institute at the University of Melbourne. Research themes include Healthy Country; Culture, Land and Heritage and Health and Justice.
The Collaborative Indigenous Research Digital Garden
The Collaborative Indigenous Research Digital Garden, developed by Eve Tuck and the Tkaronto CIRCLE Lab, brings together two methodological streams: Indigenous methodologies and participatory methodologies. This searchable digital database is a treasure trove of projects. The initiative has an advisory board including Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Bagele Chilisa, Jo-Ann Archibald Q’um Q’um Xiiem, and others.
Coming soon
More links and papers will be included on this page soon, including initiatives from Rwanda, Papua New Guinea, Palestine, Canada and Australia.
These will include:
- The Search for Green Ant Dreaming: A transformative Indigenist story-journey research methodology by Anthony Newcastle
- Indigenous storywork and collective narrative practice as transformative research by Tileah Drahm
- The research approaches of the We Are Allies project that uplifts Two-Spirit, trans and gender-diverse knowledges, teaches about mis- and disinformation, and (re)connects parents, new learners, potential allies and others with liberatory gender histories and information.
- ‘Researching health, justice and the capacity to endure‘ and ‘Researching suffering, subjugated knowledge and practices of health‘: Two interviews that took place at Berzeit University in Ramallah, Palestine, with Professor Rita Giacaman
- Arts, story, ritual and action: Creative Papua New Guinean research methodologies – An interview with Jane Awi & Dorothy Wanega
- Research as Transformative Healing? Homegrown Rwandan Research Practices Using Song, Proverbs, ‘Giving back story’ and Collective Care by Adelite Mukamana
Stay tuned!
References
Rigney, L. (1997). Internationalization of an Indigenous anticolonial cultural critique of research methodologies: A guide to Indigenist research methodology and its principles. Research and Development in Higher Education, 20, 629–636.
Rigney, L.-I. (1999). Internationalization of an Indigenous anticolonial cultural critique of research methodologies: A guide to Indigenist research methodology and its principles. WICAZO Sa Review, 14(2), 109–121. https://doi.org/10.2307/1409555 (Original work published 1997.)