Abstract
Despite significant disparities existing between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, many Indigenous communities argue that little of the research conducted with them has benefitted them. Further, decades of research with Aboriginal communities have brought little improvement in the research methods used. Yarning, validated in Australia and elsewhere, is one potential method that may be employed by researchers when engaging with Indigenous communities. Yarning is an Indigenous method of conversation through which all participants share knowledge and learn from one another. When used for research, yarning is a rigorous process that promotes the development of relationships built on trust and mutual respect between researchers and participants. This chapter explores the use of yarning as a culturally appropriate and empowering research method when engaging with Indigenous Australian communities.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
AIATSIS. (2012). Guidelines for ethical research in Australian Indigenous Studies. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
Ashworth, G. J. (2002). Holocaust tourism: The experience of Kraków-Kazimierz. International Research in Geographical & Environmental Education, 11(4), 363–367.
Askell-Williams, H., Coughlan, M., Lawson, M. J., Lewis, F., Murray-Harvey, R., O’Donnell, K., et al. (2007). You can’t have one without the other—Transactions between education and wellbeing for Indigenous peoples. In I. Anderson, F. Baum, & M. Bentley (Eds.), Beyond bandaids: Exploring the underlying social determinants of Aboriginal health: Papers from the social determinants of Aboriginal Health workshop, Adelaide, July 2004 (pp. 55–76). Northern Territory: Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health.
Atkinson, J. (2002). Trauma trails: Recreating traditional song lines: The transgenerational effects of trauma in Indigenous Australia. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Spinifex Press.
Atkinson, J., Nelson, J., Brooks, R., Atkinson, C., & Ryan, K. (2014). Addressing individual and community transgenerational trauma. In Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice (2nd ed., pp. 289–306). Canberra: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet. (2016). Overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health status 2015. Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet, 1–92.
Bessarab, D., & Ng’andu, B. (2012). Yarning about yarning as a legitimate method in Indigenous research. International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, 3(1), 37–50.
Brereton, M., Roe, P., Schroeter, R., & Lee Hong, A. (2014). Beyond ethnography: Engagement and reciprocity as foundations for design research out here. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems.
Byrne, D. (2004). Partnerships in the heritage of the displaced. Museum International, 56(4), 89–97.
Calma, T., Dudgeon, P., & Bray, A. (2017). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing and mental health. Australian Psychologist, 52(4), 255–260.
Carr, G. (2012). Occupation heritage, commemoration and memory in Guernsey and Jersey. History & Memory, 24(1), 87–117.
Dean, C. (2010). A yarning place in narrative histories. History of Education Review, 39(2), 6–13.
Dudgeon, P., Bray, A., D’Costa, B., & Walker, R. (2017). Decolonising psychology: Validating social and emotional wellbeing. Australian Psychologist, 52(4), 316–325.
Dudgeon, P., Cox, A., Walker, R., Scrine, C., Kelly, K., Blurton, D., et al. (2015). Voices of the Peoples (ISBN: 978-1-74052-299-1). Retrieved from Canberra, Australia.
Dudgeon, P., Rickwood, D., Garvey, D., & Gridley, H. (2014). A history of Indigenous psychology. In P. Dudgeon, H. Milroy, & R. Walker (Eds.), Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice (2nd ed., pp. 39–54). Canberra: Commonwealth Copyright Administration.
Dudgeon, P., & Walker, R. (2015). Decolonising Australian psychology: Discourses, strategies and practice. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1), 276–297.
Farnbach, S., Eades, A.-M., & Hackett, M. L. (2015). Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-focused primary healthcare social and emotional wellbeing research: A systematic review protocol. Systematic Reviews, 4(1), 189–195. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-015-0180-6
Finlayson, J. (1991). Australian Aborigines & cultural tourism: Case studies of Aboriginal involvement in the tourist industry. In The Office of Multicultural Affairs (Ed.). The Centre for Multicultural Studies, University of Wollongong, Australia.
Fredericks, B. L., Adams, K., Finlay, S. M., Fletcher, G., Andy, S., Briggs, L., et al. (2011). Engaging the practice of yarning in action research. Action Learning and Action Research Journal, 17(2), 7–19.
Garvey, D. (2008). A review of the social and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous Australian peoples. Retrieved from Canberra, Australia.
Geia, L. K., Hayes, B., & Usher, K. (2013). Yarning/Aboriginal storytelling: Towards an understanding of an Indigenous perspective and its implications for research practice. Contemporary Nurse, 46(1), 13–17.
Gorman, D., & Toombs, M. (2009). Matching research methodology to Australian Indigenous culture. Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal, 33(3), 4–7.
Hamber, B. (2004). Public memorials and reconciliation processes in Northern Ireland. Paper presented at the Trauma and Transitional Justice in Divided Societies Conf, Airlie House, Warrington, VA, USA.
Hart, M. A. (2010). Indigenous worldviews, knowledge, and research: The development of an Indigenous research paradigm. Journal of Indigenous Voices in Social Work, 1(1), 1–16.
Hewitt, J. (2007). Ethical components of researcher—Researched relationships in qualitative interviewing. Qualitative Health Research, 17(8), 1149–1159.
Kovach, M. (2010). Conversational method in Indigenous research. First Peoples Child & Family Review, 5(1), 40–48.
Kovach, M. (2015). From resistance to resurgence. In S. Strega & L. Brown (Eds.), Emerging from the margins: Indigenous methodologies (2nd ed., pp. 43–65). Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.
Lavallée, L. F. (2009). Practical application of an Indigenous research framework and two qualitative Indigenous research methods: Sharing circles and Anishnaabe symbol-based reflection. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8(1), 21–40.
Laycock, A., Walker, D., Harrison, N., & Brands, J. (2011a). Indigenous frameworks and methods for research. In Researching Indigenous health: A practical guide for researchers (pp. 43–64). Melbourne, VIC: The Lowitja Institute.
Laycock, A., Walker, D., Harrison, N., & Brands, J. (2011b). Relationships in Indigenous health research. In Researching Indigenous health: A practical guide for researchers (pp. 65–102). Melbourne, VIC: The Lowitja Institute.
Leeson, S., Smith, C., & Rynne, J. (2016). Yarning and appreciative inquiry: The use of culturally appropriate and respectful research methods when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in Australian prisons. Methodological Innovations, 9, 1–17.
Loppie, C. (2007). Learning from the grandmothers: Incorporating Indigenous principles into qualitative research. Qualitative Health Research, 17(2), 276–284.
Manderson, L. (2008). Acts of remembrance: The power of memorial and the healing of Indigenous Australia. Adler Museum Bulletin, 34(2), 9–19.
Marschall, S. (2010a). Coming to terms with trauma: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and memorials to the victims of Apartheid violence. In Landscape of memory. Commemorative monuments, memorials and public statuary in post-apartheid South-Africa (pp. 59–94). Leiden: Brill Publishing.
Marschall, S. (2010b). Introduction. In Landscape of memory. Commemorative monuments, memorials and public statuary in post-apartheid South-Africa (pp. 4–18). Leiden: Brill Publishing.
Martin, K., & Mirraboopa, B. (2003). Ways of knowing, being and doing: A theoretical framework and methods for Indigenous and Indigenist research. Journal of Australian Studies, 27(76), 203–214.
Meskell, L. (2002). Negative heritage and past mastering in archaeology. Anthropological Quarterly, 75(3), 557–574.
Newton, D., Day, A., Gillies, C., & Fernandez, E. (2015). A review of evidence-based evaluation of measures for assessing social and emotional well-being in Indigenous Australians. Australian Psychologist, 50(1), 40–50. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12064
NHMRC. (2003). Values and ethics: Guidelines for ethical conduct in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research (1864962135). Retrieved from Canberra, Australia.
Read, P. (2000). Belonging: Australians, place and Aboriginal ownership. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Read, P. (2008). The truth that will set us all free: An uncertain history of memorials to Indigenous Australians. Public History Review, 15, 30–46.
Rynne, J., & Cassematis, P. (2015). Assessing the prison experience for Australian first peoples: A prospective research approach. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 4(1), 96–112.
Saunders, V., Usher, K., Tsey, K., & Bainbridge, R. (2016). If you knew the end of a story would you still want to hear it? Using research poems to listen to Aboriginal stories. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 29(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/08893675.2016.1133082
Scheyvens, R. (1999). Ecotourism and the empowerment of local communities. Tourism Management, 20(2), 245–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0261-5177(98)00069-7
Stewart, S. L. (2009). One Indigenous academic’s evolution: A personal narrative of Native health research and competing ways of knowing. First Peoples Child & Family Review, 4(1), 57–65.
Walker, M., Fredericks, B., Mills, K., & Anderson, D. (2014). “Yarning” as a method for community-based health research with Indigenous women: the Indigenous women’s wellness research program. Health Care for Women International, 35(10), 1216–1226.
Wilson, S. (2001). What is an Indigenous research methodology? Canadian Journal of Native Education, 25(2), 175–179.
Wilson, S. (2003). Progressing toward an Indigenous research paradigm in Canada and Australia. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 27(2), 161.
Zubrick, S. R., Shepherd, C. C. J., Dudgeon, P., Gee, G., Paradies, Y., Scrine, C., & Walker, R. (2014). Social determinants of social and emotional wellbeing. In P. Dudgeon, H. Milroy, & R. Walker (Eds.), Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice (2 ed., pp. 93–112). Barton, ACT, Australia: Telethon Institute for Child Health Research / Kulunga Research Network.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Forbes, M. (2020). Privileging the Voices of Australian Aboriginal Communities Marginalised by Colonisation. In: Mulligan, D.L., Danaher, P.A. (eds) Researching Within the Educational Margins. Palgrave Studies in Education Research Methods. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48845-1_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48845-1_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-48844-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-48845-1
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)