Engaging tensions

Charmaine Green,Gordon Gray,Ashley Taylor,Kevin Merritt,Sarah Prout,Fiona Nichols,Wayne Mcdonald,Jennifer Kniveton

doi:10.5204/ijcis.v6i2.100

Abstract

Increasingly, applied researchers and Indigenous communities are genuinely seeking common ground to undertake research projects that are particularly attentive to issues of ownership and outcomes. Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) has been embraced globally as a best practice methodological framework for engaging in research in Indigenous communities, especially at the cultural interface where different knowledge systems meet. This article reviews the authors’ experiences of engaging with the challenging and enriching aspects of tensions encountered when using the CBPR approach during an Indigenous housing research project in regional Western Australia. Consistent with many CBPR processes, a number of tensions emerged in this cross- and intra-cultural research process. They related to multiple (and sometimes competing) expectations regarding what constitutes genuine partnership; the procurement and flows of research funding; data collection; and research translation mediums and activities. We conclude that engaging with the challenges of this methodological framework at the cultural interface opens up critical and dynamic spaces for shifting power relationships and asserting new models of ownership and outcomes in research with, and for, Australian Indigenous communities.

Highlights

Over the last decade, Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) has been increasingly embraced globally as a best practice methodological framework for engaging in research with Indigenous communities
The CBPR approach has been embraced as a productive framework for research in Indigenous contexts because it confronts the unequal power differentials that characterise conventional research paradigms (Castleden et al 2012a)
The partnership was not completely derailed. This was probably partly due to the considerable time and energy invested by both parties into adopting a CBPR focus, and largely due to concerned parties trust in the Aboriginal Reference Group and Charmaine to ensure Midwest Aboriginal Organisation Alliance (MAOA) was not sidelined in the research process

Summary

Introduction

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) has been increasingly embraced globally as a best practice methodological framework for engaging in research with Indigenous communities. An approach that emerged from research in the developing world during the 1970s (Fletcher 2003), CBPR emphasises genuine partnership between community and researchers in a process of knowledge co-production and dissemination that is mutually beneficial (Castleden et al 2012a). The CBPR approach has been embraced as a productive framework for research in Indigenous contexts because it confronts the unequal power differentials that characterise conventional research paradigms (Castleden et al 2012a). de Leeuw et al (2012), in particular, express deep concern about the considerable burden that ethical and institutional guidelines (which require significant levels of community consultation, engagement, and training) place on already-burdened Indigenous communities They argue that the productivity and accountability expectations placed on research academics can undercut the capacity of researchers to nurture genuine CBPR. As others before us have been (e.g. Cowlishaw 1999; Park and Lahman 2003) of how our positionings in cross-cultural research contexts influence the way we interpret and navigate both the pivotal and mundane moments in the research journey. Koster et al (2012) describe this step as a critical introductory element of any Indigenous meeting, and a critical way to begin narrative accounts of research by and/or with Indigenous peoples

Locating the Authors

Study Origins and Oversight

Research Design and Data Collection

Data Challenges

The Balancing Act of Genuine Partnership

Conclusion