TY - JOUR
T1 - “Weaving a Mat That We Can All Sit On”
T2 - Qualitative Research Approaches for Productive Dialogue in the Intercultural Space
AU - Haynes, Emma
AU - Marawili, Minitja
AU - Mitchell, Alice
AU - Walker, Roz
AU - Katzenellenbogen, Judith
AU - Bessarab, Dawn
N1 - Funding: This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, the National Health & Medical Research Council End Rheumatic Heart Disease Centre for Research Excellence (ENDRHDCRE) project grant (GNT1080401); the National Health & Medical Research Council ‘Improving Health Outcomes in the Tropical North: A Multidisciplinary Collaboration (HOT NORTH)(GNT1131932); a Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases top-up scholarship (PR020343); and Peter and Anne Hector Award (Telethon Kids Institute (University of Western Australia)). J.K. is supported by an Australian Heart Foundation Future Leader
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/3/1
Y1 - 2022/3/1
N2 - Research remains a site of struggle for First Nations peoples globally. Biomedical research often reinforces existing power structures, perpetuating ongoing colonisation by dominating research priorities, resource allocation, policies, and services. Addressing systemic health inequities requires decolonising methodologies to facilitate new understandings and approaches. These methodologies promote a creative tension and productive intercultural dialogue between First Nations and Western epistemologies. Concurrently, the potential of critical theory, social science, and community participatory action research approaches to effectively prioritise First Nations peoples’ lived experience within the biomedical worldview is increasingly recognised. This article describes learnings regarding research methods that enable a better understanding of the lived experience of rheumatic heart disease—an intractable, potent marker of health inequity for First Nations Australians, requiring long-term engagement in the troubled intersection between Indigenist and biomedical worldviews. Working with Yolηu (Aboriginal) co-researchers from remote Northern Territory (Australia), the concept of ganma (turbulent co-mingling of salt and fresh water) was foundational for understanding and applying relationality (gurrutu), deep listening (nhina, nhäma ga ηäma), and the use of metaphors— approaches that strengthen productive dialogue, described by Yolηu co-researchers as weaving a ‘mat we can all sit on’. The research results are reported in a subsequent article.
AB - Research remains a site of struggle for First Nations peoples globally. Biomedical research often reinforces existing power structures, perpetuating ongoing colonisation by dominating research priorities, resource allocation, policies, and services. Addressing systemic health inequities requires decolonising methodologies to facilitate new understandings and approaches. These methodologies promote a creative tension and productive intercultural dialogue between First Nations and Western epistemologies. Concurrently, the potential of critical theory, social science, and community participatory action research approaches to effectively prioritise First Nations peoples’ lived experience within the biomedical worldview is increasingly recognised. This article describes learnings regarding research methods that enable a better understanding of the lived experience of rheumatic heart disease—an intractable, potent marker of health inequity for First Nations Australians, requiring long-term engagement in the troubled intersection between Indigenist and biomedical worldviews. Working with Yolηu (Aboriginal) co-researchers from remote Northern Territory (Australia), the concept of ganma (turbulent co-mingling of salt and fresh water) was foundational for understanding and applying relationality (gurrutu), deep listening (nhina, nhäma ga ηäma), and the use of metaphors— approaches that strengthen productive dialogue, described by Yolηu co-researchers as weaving a ‘mat we can all sit on’. The research results are reported in a subsequent article.
KW - Australian Abo-riginal
KW - Co-design and community engagement
KW - Decolonising method-ologies
KW - First Nations
KW - Health inequalities
KW - Innovative research practices
KW - Intercultural
KW - Productive dialogue
KW - Socially Disadvantaged Communities
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126453645&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph19063654
DO - 10.3390/ijerph19063654
M3 - Article
C2 - 35329344
AN - SCOPUS:85126453645
VL - 19
SP - 1
EP - 18
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
SN - 1660-4601
IS - 6
M1 - 3654
ER -