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 desribes its political imperative, hence his use of the term ‘Indigenist’:
Indigenist research has a political imperative – it is research which is 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 initiaives.
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.
More links and papers will be included on this page soon, including initiatives from Rwanda, Papua New Guinea and Australia. 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.