Decolonizing Approach Research Articles

Searching for Justice: Indigenous Self-Determination over the Landfill Search as a Matter of Justice for MMIWG2S

“Search the Landfill” is an Indigenous-led movement for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S) which originated through Indigenous resistance to police racism in Winnipeg, Canada. The movement calls upon all levels of government to support and execute the search of the Prairie Green Landfill, just north of the City of Winnipeg, to recover the bodies of at least two of four First Nations women who were murdered in early 2022 at the hands of a white male serial killer. Through an analysis of the news articles, press releases, and reports, this paper explores the way in which Indigenous leaders resisted and rewrote the discourses that surrounded the search. By at once condemning the Winnipeg Police Service’s refusal to search the landfill and rejecting police authority and control over the decision-making process, Indigenous women who became the leaders of this movement crafted the space to articulate for themselves how and why the search must be done as a matter of Indigenous rights. This paper explores how Indigenous leadership offers glimpses of what a decolonizing approach to justice may look like in cases of MMIWG2S and which, in turn, invites further opportunities to problematize, subvert, and move beyond the Western legal norms and traditions.

Dilemmas of making and unmaking environmental and cultural heritage in Southern Belize

ABSTRACT Heritage is defined and maintained through complex and changing processes. In what ways might heritage scholars and practitioners understand dynamic complexities theoretically, methodologically and ethically? Through reflections on involvement in environmental and cultural heritage initiatives with Maya communities in southern Belize, this paper argues for an explicit forefronting of community aims and goals in heritage-focused project design and implementation. It demonstrates how cultural anthropologists involved in collaborative projects with archaeologists, non-governmental and/or community organisations may use ethnographic approaches to push collectively towards decolonial, community archaeologies. The challenges of ethnographers and archaeologists working together to document heritage past and present are critically and reflexively analysed, using frameworks rooted in environmental anthropology to capture the fluid and negotiated nature of heritage constructions by exploring what it means to live a ‘good life’ in Maya communities in Belize. The insights generated for developing a decolonising approach for future work of this type are also considered. By challenging what constitutes project ‘success’, and discussing the questions simultaneously posed and revealed by the long-term community projects detailed here, the paper argues for a more collaborative, nuanced and fluid conceptualisation of what constitutes heritage, and who is served by its documentation and dissemination.

How does taking a praxis-based decolonising approach to primary history education impact pupils’ perceptions of Romans and Roman Britain?

ABSTRACT This study presents findings from an action research project that I completed in my own year 3 classroom. Using the frameworks of praxis (Freire, P. 1970. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin Books.) and sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, L. S. 1978. Mind in Society The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Edited by M. Cole et al. Translated by M. Cole. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.), I studied the relationship between praxis-based, decolonised history teaching and year 3 students’ perceptions of Romans and Roman Britain. Student-participants’ work and classroom observations were used as data collection methods. An inductive approach to thematic analysis produced 5 themes, namely: Knowledge of locations across the Roman Empire, People’s physical actions, Characteristics of people that lived in Roman Britain, Migration in the Roman Empire and Students’ disciplinary knowledge.

Decolonization and Pathogen Reduction Approaches to Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare-Associated Infections.

Antimicrobial resistance in healthcare-associated bacterial pathogens and the infections they cause are major public health threats affecting nearly all healthcare facilities. Antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections can occur when colonizing pathogenic bacteria that normally make up a small fraction of the human microbiota increase in number in response to clinical perturbations. Such infections are especially likely when pathogens are resistant to the collateral effects of antimicrobial agents that disrupt the human microbiome, resulting in loss of colonization resistance, a key host defense. Pathogen reduction is an emerging strategy to prevent transmission of, and infection with, antimicrobial-resistant healthcare-associated pathogens. We describe the basis for pathogen reduction as an overall prevention strategy, the evidence for its effectiveness, and the role of the human microbiome in colonization resistance that also reduces the risk for infection once colonized. In addition, we explore ideal attributes of current and future pathogen-reducing approaches.

"Listen with your ears and eyes and heart and your minds and your soul": Implications for decolonising consultation and occupational therapy from case studies on "Closing the Gap" policy implementation.

Including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities through consultation has been a key feature of policy implementation throughout the Australian Government's "Closing the Gap" (CTG) strategy. However, consultation often reinforces power imbalances between government and local community and can undervalue or marginalise Indigenous knowledge and leadership. Occupational therapy has a short history of examining colonial power structures within the profession, but there has been limited progress to decolonise consultation and practice. Drawing on decolonising research methodology and positioned at the interface of knowledge, comparative case studies were used to understand policy implementation in two regions. In Shepparton, Victoria, CTG policy was implemented predominately through an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, and in Southern Adelaide, South Australia, CTG policy was implemented through mainstream state government and non-government providers in the absence of a local Aboriginal-controlled organisation. Findings were examined critically to identify implications for occupational therapy. Our case studies showed that policy stakeholders perceived consultation to be tokenistic and partnerships were viewed differently by Aboriginal and non-Indigenous participants. Participants identified the need to move beyond a rhetoric of "working with" Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to promote Aboriginal leadership and really listen to community so that policy can respond to local need. The findings of this research show that Aboriginal-controlled services are best positioned to conduct and respond to community consultation. A decolonising approach to consultation would shift the status quo in policy implementation in ways that realign power away from colonial structures towards collaboration with Indigenous leadership and the promotion of Aboriginal-controlled services. There are lessons for occupational therapy from this research on policy implementation on authentic, decolonised consultation as a key feature of policy implementation. Shifting power imbalances through prioritising Indigenous leadership and honouring what is shared can drive change in CTG policy implementation processes and outcomes.

A decolonizing approach to digital 3D visualizations and 3D printed models of human skeletal remains as demonstrative evidence in court: a view from Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT This research examines the impact of creating and presenting 3D visualizations and 3D printed models of human skeletal remains in relation to the cultural and ethical values of Māori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand. Within Aotearoa, there is a complex history where Māori have not been consulted regarding the introduction of new technologies and systems, which ultimately had negative consequences for Māori. Using a decolonizing research approach, interviews (N = 12) and a focus group (N = 2) were conducted to identify key concepts regarding the sovereignty of these novel forms of digital data through a Māori cultural framework. For Māori, human skeletal remains are sacred; this research explored key questions including Māori Data Sovereignty and Rights, and what the digital data from human remains represents for Māori. Particular themes were identified regarding consultation with whānau (extended family) about the usefulness of the data to justice outcomes, and the rights of whānau to access, storage and disposal of the digital data, and subsequent printed 3D models. The core discussion across all participants related to tikanga Māori (Māori protocols) regarding the creation and interpretation of data, and the need for wider consultation with forensic scientists, lawyers, judges, Police and iwi (tribes) across Aotearoa.

Transforming <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> in a Juvenile Detention Centre in Italy: A decolonising approach to Prison Shakespeare

This article examines an Italian Prison Shakespeare initiative based at the Cesare Beccaria juvenile detention centre in Milan and facilitated by the University of Milan and the theatre company Puntozero in 2022. In particular, it focuses on the young inmates’ reappropriation and recontextualisation of Romeo and Juliet, arguing that the structure of the 2022 workshops and final play allows for the empowerment of the participants, decentring the problematic authority of Shakespeare. Through the exploration of a case study that exemplifies a decolonising approach to Shakespeare in the marginal(ised) context of prison, my discussion ultimately invites reflection on the alleged ‘transformative’ aims and impact of Prison Shakespeare.

A Culturally Humble Approach to Designing a Sports-Based Youth Development Program With African-Australian Community.

This article draws on the concept of cultural humility, to describe and analyze a decolonizing approach to co-designing a primary prevention basketball program for young African-Australian people in Melbourne, Australia. We explore the potential for genuine collaboration and power-sharing with a culturally diverse community through collaboratively developing the co-design process and resultant program design. This article highlights the central role of UBUNTU in the co-design process, prioritizing African ways of knowing, being, and doing within a Westernized social work and design context. Through reporting on the stages of program design, we offer an example of how Indigenous knowledges and philosophies such as UBUNTU might be incorporated into co-design through cultural humility. We suggest this allows for a transformation of design tools and processes in ways that undermine oppressive and marginalizing power imbalances in design and social work.

Re-framing the importance of Group B Streptococcus as a gut-resident pathobiont.

Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B Streptococcus, GBS) is a Gram-positive bacterial species that causes disease in humans across the lifespan. While antibiotics are used to mitigate GBS infections, it is evident that antibiotics disrupt human microbiomes (which can predispose people to other diseases later in life), and antibiotic resistance in GBS is on the rise. Taken together, these unintended negative impacts of antibiotics highlight the need for precision approaches for minimizing GBS disease. One possible approach involves selectively depleting GBS in its commensal niches before it can cause disease at other body sites or be transmitted to at-risk individuals. One understudied commensal niche of GBS is the adult gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which may predispose colonization at other body sites in individuals at risk for GBS disease. However, a better understanding of the host-, microbiome-, and GBS-determined variables that dictate GBS GI carriage is needed before precise GI decolonization approaches can be developed. In this review, we synthesize current knowledge of the diverse body sites occupied by GBS as a pathogen and as a commensal. We summarize key molecular factors GBS utilizes to colonize different host-associated niches to inform future efforts to study GBS in the GI tract. We also discuss other GI commensals that are pathogenic in other body sites to emphasize the broader utility of precise de-colonization approaches for mitigating infections by GBS and other bacterial pathogens. Finally, we highlight how GBS treatments could be improved with a more holistic understanding of GBS enabled by continued GI-focused study.

Understanding racial equity in research with Indigenous Peoples: including anti-racism and decolonization approaches

ABSTRACT Colonization of Indigenous Peoples living in what is now called the U.S. and U.S. territories began over 500 years ago, yet colonization continues today and results in historical trauma and inequities for Indigenous people. This paper describes the current application of racial equity in research and its limitations when applied to work with Indigenous Peoples. It highlights how the existing racial equity framework falls short in (1) respecting Indigenous sovereignty, (2) addressing historical and ongoing colonization through land dispossession and codified racism in blood quantum, and (3) acknowledging the profound impact of historical, cultural, and intergenerational trauma. We propose an expanded racial equity approach to research that incorporates an anti-racist and decolonizing approach. We conclude by outlining specific strategies researchers should adopt when employing a racial equity lens in their work with Indigenous populations.

Decolonisation for health: A lifelong process of unlearning for Australian white nurse educators.

Indigenous nurse scholars across nations colonised by Europeans articulate the need for accomplices(as opposed to mere performative allies)to work alongside them and support their ongoing struggle for health equity andrespect and to prioritise and promote culturally safe healthcare. Although cultural safety is now being mandated in nursing codes of practice as a strategy to address racism in healthcare, it is important that white nurse educators have a comprehensive understanding about cultural safety and the pedagogical skills needed to teach it to undergraduate nurses. We open this article with stories of our journeys as two white nurses in becoming accomplices and working alongside Indigenous Peoples, as patients and colleagues. Our lived experience of the inertia of healthcare and education organisations to address systemic and institutional resistance to the practice of cultural safety underpins the intention of this article. We understand that delivering this challenging and complex topic effectively and respectfully is best achieved when Indigenous and white educators work together at the cultural interface. Doing so requires commitment from white nurses and power holders within universities and healthcare institutions. A decolonising approach to nurse education at individual and institutional levels is fundamental to support and grow the work that needs to be done to reduce health inequity and increase cultural safety. White nurse accomplices can play an important role in teaching future nurses the importance of critical reflection and aiming to reduce power imbalances and racism within healthcare environments. Reducing power imbalances in healthcare environments and decolonising nursing practice is the strength of a cultural safety framework.

Decolonising Art and Design Education through Standpoint Theory, Embodied Learning and Deep Listening

AbstractUnderstanding and advancing pluralist worldviews through education is a tenet of decolonisation. This paper explores the importance of a decolonial pedagogical framework in visual art and design education by disrupting epistemic injustice through employing creative body‐based learning (CBL). This approach focuses on relationality and inter‐subjectivity through embodied strategies that create encounters to explore pluralist worldviews. Finally, by employing the cognitive, affective and aesthetic domains within a learning design, the paper argues for a decolonising approach to visual art and design education that embodies deep listening, dialogic meaning making and standpoint theory.

Training Indigenous Community Researchers for Community-Based Participatory Ethnographic Dementia Research: A Second-Generation Model.

Conducting community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a complex endeavor, particularly when training non-academic community members. Though examples of CBPR training programs and protocols have been published, they often address a limited set of concepts and are tailored for university or medical school students. Here, we describe the process of developing an online CBPR training program for American Indian (United States) and Indigenous (Canada) community members to conduct multi-sited ethnographic dementia research. This program is unique in its breadth and depth, as our program covers CBPR theory, methods, practical research, and administrative skills. Significantly, this program centers Indigenous methodology, pedagogy, and processes such as two-eyed seeing, storywork, and decolonization approaches. Key to this training program is a "second-generation" approach which incorporates experiential knowledge from prior community-based researchers and academic partners and is designed to develop CBPR capacity among community-based researchers and partnering communities. In this paper, we detail the experience of the first cohort of learners and subsequent improvement of the training materials. Unique challenges related to the specific research focus (dementia care pathway), population/setting (American Indian and Indigenous communities), and technology (rural digital infrastructure) are also discussed.

"Because of COVID…": The impacts of COVID-19 on First Nation people accessing the HIV cascade of care in Manitoba, Canada.

The COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020-May 2023) had a profound effect around the world with vulnerable people being particularly affected, including worsening existing health inequalities. This article explores the impact of the pandemic on health services for First Nations people living with HIV (FN-PWLE) in Manitoba, Canada. This study investigated perceptions of both health care providers and FN-PWLE through qualitative interviews occurring between July 2020 and February 2022 to understand their experience and identify lessons learned that could be translated into health system changes. Using a qualitative, participatory-action, intentional decolonizing approach for this study we included an Indigenous knowledge keeper and Indigenous research associates with lived experience as part of the study team. A total of twenty-five [25] in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven healthcare providers (HCPs) and fourteen First Nation people with lived HIV experience (FN-PWLE). In total, 18/25 or 72% of the study participants self-identified as First Nation people. The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted health services access for FN-PWLE, a) disrupted relationships between FN-PWLE and healthcare providers, b) disrupted access to testing, in-person appointments, and medications, and c) intersectional stigma was compounded. Though, the COVID-19 pandemic also led to positive effects, including the creation of innovative solutions for the health system overall. The COVID-19 pandemic exaggerated pre-existing barriers and facilitators for Manitoba FN-PWLE accessing and using the healthcare system. COVID-19 impacted health system facilitators such as relationships and supports, particularly for First Nation people who are structurally disadvantaged and needing more wrap-around care to address social determinants of health. Innovations during times of crisis, included novel ways to improve access to care and medications, illustrated how the health system can quickly provide solutions to long-standing barriers, especially for geographical barriers. Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic should be considered for improvements to the health system's HIV cascade of care for FN-PWLE and other health system improvements for First Nations people with other chronic diseases and conditions. Finally, this study illustrates the value of qualitative and First Nation decolonizing research methods. Further studies are needed, working together with First Nations organizations and communities, to apply these recommendations and innovations to change health care and people's lives.

Blurring English language binaries: a decolonial analysis of multilingualism with(in) EAL/D education

ABSTRACT This article aims to visibilise the opportunities for decolonising standardised language practices for multilingual students learning English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) in Australian schools. We suggest that a decolonising approach to language education would value the multilingual, non-standard, and diverse language practices of learners. Using the Australian state of Queensland as a case study, we trace examples of decolonising language practices highlighted by teachers in focus groups and analyse these examples using a theoretically- informed, reflexive thematic analysis to unpack how teachers disrupt colonial binaries in EAL/D education. Our findings show that teachers encourage multilingualism, relationality, and the discomfort of unknowing but are confronted with practical barriers that limit their capacity to enact this further. As such, we outline the implication for EAL/D education and teacher education.

Gullion, J. S., & Tilton, A. (2020). Researching with: A decolonizing approach to community-based action research. Brill.

Gullion, J. S., & Tilton, A. (2020). Researching with: A decolonizing approach to community-based action research. Brill.

Integrating Indigenous epistemologies into mainstream foreign language teaching

Abstract This study explores teacher perspectives on a government policy that seeks to integrate Indigenous knowledge into mainstream foreign language education in New Zealand schools. Based on in-depth interviews, the study found that language teachers generally support this educational change because trans/languaging involving English and te reo Māori (the Māori language) has become an ordinary practice in their teaching and school lives. However, foreign language teachers expressed a need for discipline-specific materials and professional development to help them integrate mātauranga Māori (Indigenous knowledge of Māori) into their teaching. Their concerns can be understood as a lack of support in interpreting “what,” “how,” and “to what extent” the policy will be implemented. The study suggests using a decolonising approach to help teachers affirm the relevance of Indigenous knowledge in their discipline. It recommends that policymakers adopt a pluriversal stance to ensure that diverse knowledge systems can coexist and interact harmoniously rather than compete with one another in the new National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) curriculum.

Cultural safety involves new professional roles: a rapid review of interventions in Australia, the United States, Canada and New Zealand

Cultural safety is a decolonizing and transformative approach to health care aimed at achieving health care that recognizes, respects and nurtures the needs, rights and identities of Indigenous peoples. Such a transformation requires new or radically reimagined professional roles. Based on a rapid review design, this synthesis aimed to identify fundamental characteristics of cultural safety interventions that involved the creation or transformation of professional roles. The 23 included studies presented three main categories of professional roles for cultural safety. These roles were focused on (a) supporting health care system navigation, (b) providing a new or improved service offering, and (c) building organizational capacity to provide culturally safe health care. Our results demonstrate that cultural safety can be implemented by key actors playing different roles at different levels of the health care organization. These roles should be viewed as complementary to one another and be defined and implemented in partnership with Indigenous partners.

Pathways Taken By One Canadian College to Advance Reconciliation and the Creation of a New Reconciliation Engagement Program with Indigenous Peoples

Canada-wide efforts are being made to close the gaps that exist in the health and wellness of Indigenous Peoples besieged by a past of cultural genocide, oppression, and exploitation. The purpose of this essay is to provide members of Colleges and Institutes of Canada (CICan) access to a proposed program to engage in reconciliation, with the objective of facilitating Indigenous community engagement through social innovation, training, and applied research. The proposed program is exemplified through the relationship built between Collège Boréal and Dokis First Nation located in northern Ontario. The proposed Reconciliation Engagement Program consists of two streams that encourage CICan members to utilize, among other possible decolonizing methods, the tenets of a Critical Indigenous Methodology to value and foreground local Indigenous voices. The first stream would consist of networking activities to establish relationships, understand Chief and Council’s vision, and seek opportunities for capacity building within an Indigenous community. The second stream would be project-based so that capital costs and human resources can be accessed to complete each project. While proposing the new program is important, the present essay can also be used to exemplify how Canadian colleges and polytechnics can adopt a decolonizing approach during their engagement with Indigenous communities.

Indigenous and Settler Understandings for Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Australia: The Significance of a Decolonial Approach

Addressing the gendered dimensions of family violence remains a key focus in the primary prevention of violence against women (PVAW) in Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian communities. What is seen as more important for Indigenous communities in PVAW is addressing the legacies and ongoing impacts of colonisation on Indigenous people, families, and communities. This focus on decolonisation deviates from settler PVAW programs where the emphasis is on challenging hegemonic masculinity and patriarchy. In this paper, I consider the importance of critiquing the western logic of colonisation within both Indigenous and non-Indigenous PVAW programs through examining the links between hegemonic masculinity, colonisation and neoliberal capitalism. I draw attention to the inherent violence and corrosion within processes of colonisation that adversely affect the social and emotional wellbeing and relationships of Indigenous and non-Indigenous men (albeit in very different ways) and argue the importance of a decolonising approach for addressing gender-based violence within Indigenous and non-Indigenous programs.