“‘Keep the Fire Burning’: Applications and Culturally Congruent Research Strategies for Research on Sexual and Reproductive Health With Indigenous Women”

Abstract

Because of the long history of exploitative research with Indigenous groups, an ethical and empirical imperative exists for researchers, especially non-Indigenous scholars, to reflect on their own positionality and to use culturally congruent methodologies and strategies when conducting research. A simultaneous need is for research on the reproductive and sexual health experiences of Indigenous women, who experience extensive reproductive health disparities and reproductive injustices. The purpose of this article is to provide an example of a best practice in conducting community engaged research to explore the reproductive and sexual healthcare experiences of Indigenous women, through the identification of factors that promote and that act as barriers to health. We first provide an overview of the literature describing the history of researcher exploitation before providing an in-depth discussion of the methodology used in this study. We then describe an application of the qualitative description methodology in 31 semi-structured life-history interviews with Indigenous women. The strategies used in this study facilitated the provision of rich qualitative information about reproductive health, which will be used to develop interventions for tribal members. This study addresses gaps by providing an example of a culturally appropriate methodology and its application with Indigenous women.