Indigenous StoryWORK

Abstract

In this presentation, made at the launch of the Narrative Practice Research Network, Tileah Drahm-Butler introduces her current doctoral research project, titled Emergency Storycare: Transforming the Cairns Hospital emergency department into a place of cultural safety as determined by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community through Indigenous storywork and narrative practice. This research will position Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as expert knowers and teachers, turning our backs on the narrative that we are damaged, broken and always on the brink of extinction. Its research methodology celebrates the friendship of Indigenous storywork and narrative practice to retrieve stories of wisdom, skill and know-how from First Nations communities, to position stories as pedagogy into the emergency department, and to bring forth the preferred practices of the emergency department workforce.