Indigenous-led Intervention Research

Kathleen Clapham

doi:10.5204/ijcis.v4i2.63

Abstract

This article is based on a presentation to the 2011 Indigenous Studies Research Network and Faculty of Health Symposium Healthier Futures Thru Indigenous Led Research held at the Queensland University of Technology. It critically examines the proposition that, in the context of the current health reform in Australia, an Indigenous-led and -developed research agenda should be prioritised to inform Indigenous health policy and programs. I argue that such a strategy is the best way to bring about improved Indigenous health outcomes. I draw on my experience over 15 years of working as a member of multi-disciplinary teams in public health intervention and health services research in urban, regional and remote areas of New South Wales, Australia. I reflect on the ways in which Indigenous leadership has figured in my research in the field of injury prevention. Finally, I identify some of the challenges and opportunities for enhancing Indigenous research leadership capacity.

Highlights

It is important to ask what we mean by ‘Indigenous-led’ research’? Is it communitycontrolled and community-driven research? Can it include academic research in partnership with community organisations? Is it research which is led and driven by Indigenous chief investigators or senior researchers with or without community partners? Can it refer to any research in which Indigenous people, for example as research associates, research assistants or project managers, take a leading role? Or is it research which follows a specific Indigenous research agenda or paradigm or which incorporates Indigenous participation into every phase of the research?
The literature on Indigenous health research over the past two decades draws attention to the negative impacts of past research practices on Indigenous communities, both in Australia and overseas, emphasises the need to protect the rights of vulnerable Indigenous communities and individuals, and highlights the important role which communities have in leading research by determining future research directions, questions and methodologies (Rigney 1999; Smith 2006; Dunbar and Scrimgeour 2006; Anderson 2011)
The principle of Indigenous community leadership and control of research has become firmly embedded in the guidelines for the ethical conduct of research with Indigenous Australian peoples (National Health and Medical Research Council 2003, 2005; Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies 2011)

Summary

Introduction

It is important to ask what we mean by ‘Indigenous-led’ research’? Is it communitycontrolled and community-driven research? Can it include academic research in partnership with community organisations? Is it research which is led and driven by Indigenous chief investigators or senior researchers with or without community partners? Can it refer to any research in which Indigenous people, for example as research associates, research assistants or project managers, take a leading role? Or is it research which follows a specific Indigenous research agenda or paradigm or which incorporates Indigenous participation into every phase of the research?. The principle of Indigenous community leadership and control of research has become firmly embedded in the guidelines for the ethical conduct of research with Indigenous Australian peoples (National Health and Medical Research Council 2003, 2005; Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies 2011). Smith defined an ‘Indigenous research agenda’ as a program or set of approaches situated within the decolonisation of politics of the Indigenous peoples’ movement which followed the end of the World War II, but from political and civil rights movements of the 1960s It is research which: is undertaken from the framework of self-determination and social justice; insists on Indigenous protocols; is underlined by a set of values and principles consistent with the beliefs and values of Indigenous people; places Indigenous people in control of the research process; and has clear and obvious benefits for Indigenous people. Throughout this whole period of thinking and development of ethical guidelines for Aboriginal health research, the inherent right to Indigenous self-determination has remained the central principle

Health policy and evidence in Indigenous health

Injury prevention research

Concluding remarks