Skip to main content
Intended for healthcare professionals
Restricted access
Research article
First published February 2007

Learning From the Grandmothers: Incorporating Indigenous Principles Into Qualitative Research

Abstract

In this article, the author describes the process she undertook to incorporate Indigenous principles into her doctoral research about the midlife health experiences of elder Aboriginal women in Nova Scotia, Canada. By employing qualitative methods within the context of an Indigenous worldview, she gained knowledge of and developed competence in Aboriginal health research. The emergent partnership among Aboriginal community research facilitators, participating Mi'kmaq women, and the researcher provided many opportunities for the researcher to incorporate the paradigmatic and methodological traditions of Western science and Indigenous cultures. The application of these principles to this study might provide a useful example for other health researchers who are attempting to incorporate diverse methodological principles.

Get full access to this article

View all access and purchase options for this article.

1. The Mi'kmaq are one of the Indigenous peoples of eastern Canada. The traditional territory of the Mi'kmaq people includes Nova Scotia, eastern New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and parts of Quebec (Prins, 1996).
2. The term Aboriginal refers to First Nations (formerly referred to as Indians), Inuit (formerly referred to as Eskimos), and Métis peoples of Canada. (Statistics Canada, 1993).
3. Indigenous peoples are defined as “those who have a historical continuity with the pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories” (Summit on Indigenous Peoples, 2003, para. 1).
4. The Mi'kmaq Health Research Group (MHRG) represents a collaboration of members of the Confederacy of Mainland Mi'kmaq, the Union of Nova Scotia Indians, and the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs, as well as Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal faculty members from Dalhousie University. The goal of the MHRG is to improve educational opportunities and strengthen the research base relevant to the health concerns of the Mi'kmaq communities in Nova Scotia.
5. “The Mi'kmawey L'nui Skmaqn, or Mi'kmaw Ethics Watch, was established to review proposals for research conducted among and with Mi'kmaw people using the Mi'kmaw Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Mi'kmaw Heritage and People. These principles and protocols include the expectation that researchers will follow the highest standards of research with sensitivity and respect to protocols appropriate to Mi'kmaw people and their communities” (Mi'kmaq Ethics Watch, 1999, p. 1).
6. Health directors are employees of individual First Nations who are responsible for coordinating primary health care services and programs on the reserve.
7. Grandmother is a term used by many Indigenous cultures, in the context of their unique communities, to address older women in a respectful manner. Within many of these Indigenous traditions, younger people listen carefully to senior women, taking their advice seriously and looking to them as role models (Dickason, 2000).

References

Battiste, M. (2000). Reclaiming indigenous voice and vision. Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press.
Battiste, M. (2002). Indigenous knowledge and pedagogy in First Nations education: A literature review with recommendations. Ottawa, Canada: National Working Group on Education and the Minister of Indian Affairs, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
Bell, S. (1987). Changing ideas: The medicalization of menopause. Social Science and Medicine,24, 535-542.
Berg, B. (1995). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences (2nd ed.). Toronto, Canada: Allyn and Bacon.
Berger, G. (1999). Menopause and culture. London: Pluto.
Beyene, Y. (1989). From menarche to menopause: Reproductive lives of peasant women in two cultures. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Bowles, G., & DuelliKlein, R. (Eds.). (1983). Theories of women's studies. New York: Routledge Kegan Paul.
Brant, C. (1990). Native ethics and rules of behaviour. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry,35, 534-539.
Brant Castellano, M., Davis, L., & Lahach, L. (2001). Aboriginal education: Fulfilling the promise. Victoria, Canada: University of British Columbia Press.
Burger, H., & Boulet, M. (Eds.). (1991). A portrait of the menopause: Expert reports on medical and therapeutic strategies for the 1990s. Park Ridge, NJ: Parthenon.
Canadian Institutes of Health Research. (2005). CIHR guidelines for health research involving Aboriginal peoples. Ottawa, Canada: Author.
Castellano, M. (2000). Updating Aboriginal traditions of knowledge In G. Dei, B. Hall, & D. Rosenberg (Eds.) Indigenous knowledges in global contexts (pp. 21-36). Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Cook, J., & Fonow, M. (1991). Beyond methodology: Feminist scholarship as lived research. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Cruikshank, J. (1990). Life lived like a story: Life stories of three Yukon Native elders. London: University of Nebraska Press.
Davis, D. (1983). Blood and nerves: An ethnographic focus on menopause. St. John's, Canada: Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University, Newfoundland.
Dickason, O. (2000). Aboriginal grandmothers' experience with health promotion and participatory action research. Qualitative Health Research,10, 188-213.
Dickson, G. (1990). A feminist post-structuralist analysis of the knowledge of menopause. Advances in Nursing Science,12, 15-31.
Glesne, C., & Peshkin, A. (1991). Become qualitative researchers: An introduction. New York: Routledge.
Guba, G., & Lincoln, Y. (1989). Forth generation evaluation. London: Sage.
Guba, E., & Lincoln, Y. (1994). Competing paradigms in qualitative research. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.),Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 105-117). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Gunn Allen, P. (1986). The sacred hoop: Recovering the feminine in American Indian traditions. Boston: Beacon.
Hardy, R., & Kuh, D. (2005). Social and environmental conditions across the life course and age at menopause in a British birth cohort study. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,112(3), 346-354.
Henderson, J. (2000). Ayukpachi: Empowering Aboriginal thought. In M. Battiste (Ed.). Reclaiming indigenous voice and vision (pp. 248-278). Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press.
Jackson, T. (1993). A way of working: Participatory research and the Aboriginal movement in Canada. In P. Park, M. Brydon-Miller, B. Hall, & T. Jackson (Eds.),Voices of change: Participatory research in the United States and Canada (pp. 47-64). Toronto, Canada: OISE.
Kirby, S., & McKenna, K. (1989). Experience research social change: Methods from the margins. Toronto, Canada: Garamond.
Klein, L., & Ackerman, L. (Eds.). (1995). Women and power in Native North America. London: University of Oklahoma Press.
Lather, P. (1991). Getting smart: Feminist research and pedagogy with/in the postmodern. New York: Routledge.
Leavitt, R. (1995). Malliseet and Micmac: First Nations of the Maritimes. Fredericton, Canada: New Ireland.
Lock, M. (1993). Encounters with aging: Mythologies of menopause in Japan and North America. London: University of California Press.
Loppie, C. (1997). The climacterium: Women's attitudes, sources of information and experiences. Unpublished master's thesis, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
McIsaac, E. (2000). Oral narratives as a site of resistance: Indigenous knowledge, colonialism, and western discourse. In G. J. Dei, B. L. Hall, & D. G. Rosenberg (Eds.),Indigenous knowledges in global contexts (pp. 89-101). Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
McMillan, A. (1995). Native peoples and cultures of Canada: An anthropological overview (2nd ed.). Toronto, Canada: Douglas & McIntyre.
Mi'kmaq Ethics Watch. (1999). Mi'kmaq research principles and protocols. Chapel Island, Nova Scotia: Author.
Miles, M., & Huberman, A. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Mish, F. (Ed.). (1989). The new Merriam-Webster dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
National Aboriginal Health Organization. (2002). Who's doing what: An environmental scan of select provincial, national, and international health-related organizations/initiatives that may influence Aboriginal health policy. Ottawa, Canada: Author.
Patton, M. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Posey, D. (2004). Indigenous knowledge and ethics: A Darrell Posey reader. New York: Routledge.
Prins, H. (1996). The Mi'kmaq: Resistance, accommodation, and cultural survival. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace. Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. (1996). Perspectives and realities (Vol. 4). Retrieved April 11, 2006, from http://www.ainc.inac.bs.ca/ch/rcap/sh/sj1_e.html
Simpson, L. (2000). Indigenous knowledge and Western science: Towards new relationships for change. In J. Oakes, R. Riewe, S Koolage, L. Simpson, & N. Schuster (Eds.),Aboriginal health, identity and resources. (pp. 186-195). Winnipeg, Canada: Native Studies Press.
Smith, L. T. (2000). Kaupapa Maori research. In M. Battiste (Ed.),Reclaiming indigenous voice and vision (pp. 225-247). Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press.
Smith, L. (2005). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. London: Zed.
Schnarch, B. (2004). Ownership, control, access, and possession (OCAP) or self-determination applied to research: A critical analysis of contemporary First Nations research and some options for First Nations communities. Journal of Aboriginal Health,1(1), 80-95.
Statistics Canada. (1993). Language, tradition, health, lifestyle and social issues: 1991 Aboriginal Peoples Survey (Catalogue No. 89-533). Ottawa, Canada: Queen's Printer.
Stotland, N. (2002). Menopause: Social expectations, women's realities. Archives of Women's Mental Health,5(1), 5-8.
Summit on Indigenous Peoples. (2003, March). Resolution 1.2: Canadian International Model United Nations Conference. Ottawa, Canada:Assembly of First Nations. Retrieved November 24, 2006, from http://www.canimun.org/english/CANIMUN_2003/Resolutions/ind_ENG_1.2.pdf
Wadsworth, G. (2000). Hearing midlife voices: Assessing different methods for researching women's experience of menopause and midlife. Women's Studies International Forum,23, 645-654.
Waldram, J., Herring, A., & Young, T. (1995). Aboriginal health in Canada: History, culture and epidemiological perspectives. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

Cite article

Cite article

Cite article

OR

Download to reference manager

If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice

Share options

Share

Share this article

Share with email
EMAIL ARTICLE LINK
Share on social media

Share access to this article

Sharing links are not relevant where the article is open access and not available if you do not have a subscription.

For more information view the Sage Journals article sharing page.

Information, rights and permissions

Information

Published In

Article first published: February 2007
Issue published: February 2007

Keywords

  1. First Nations
  2. Aboriginal peoples
  3. North American Indians
  4. qualitative research

Rights and permissions

Request permissions for this article.
PubMed: 17220397

Authors

Affiliations

Charlotte Loppie
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Metrics and citations

Metrics

Journals metrics

This article was published in Qualitative Health Research.

VIEW ALL JOURNAL METRICS

Article usage*

Total views and downloads: 1747

*Article usage tracking started in December 2016


Altmetric

See the impact this article is making through the number of times it’s been read, and the Altmetric Score.
Learn more about the Altmetric Scores



Articles citing this one

Receive email alerts when this article is cited

Web of Science: 69 view articles Opens in new tab

Crossref: 63

  1. Conducting research with Indigenous Peoples in Canada: ethical and pol...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  2. Nehiyawak (Cree) women’s strategies for aging well: community-based pa...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  3. An Indigenous and Western paradigm to understand gestational diabetes ...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  4. Involving families in the care of Indigenous infants: A philosophical ...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  5. Collectively Dreaming Toward Indigenized School Psychology Education a...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  6. Stitching Together My Anishinaabe Research Paradigm: An Approach to St...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  7. Nauiyu’s Cultural Colonisation: Truth-Telling with Dadirri
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  8. “Every day I grew stronger and stronger being there”.: empowerment thr...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  9. Storying and re-storying: Co-creating Indigenous well-being through Re...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  10. Age-Friendly Cities and Older Indigenous People: An Exploratory Study ...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  11. ‘I want to video it, so people will respect me’: Nauiyu community, dig...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  12. American Indian Behavioral Health Treatment Preferences as Perceived b...
    Go to citation Crossref Google ScholarPub Med
  13. Indigenous students’ experiences regarding the utility of university r...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  14. Are we walking the talk of participatory Indigenous health research? A...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  15. Meaningful Engagement With Aboriginal Communities Using Participatory ...
    Go to citation Crossref Google ScholarPub Med
  16. Rongomātau – ‘sensing the knowing’: An Indigenous Methodology Utilisin...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  17. Cultural Humility
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  18. Cathedrals of the Spirit: Indigenous Relational Cultural Identity and ...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  19. Contextual factors associated with depression among Northern and Indig...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  20. “Do something with them!”: developing “comfortable” engagement with El...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  21. Msit No'kmaq: An Exploration of Positionality and Identity in Indigeno...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  22. Privileging the Voices of Australian Aboriginal Communities Marginalis...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  23. Indigenous works and two eyed seeing: mapping the case for indigenous-...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  24. Investigating the processes used to develop and evaluate the effective...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  25. Native Voices
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  26. Experiences of the HIV Cascade of Care Among Indigenous Peoples: A Sys...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  27. Decolonizing Research Paradigms in the Context of Settler Colonialism:...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  28. Addressing Contextual Challenges in Underserved Indigenous Spaces of t...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  29. Contemporary Practice of Traditional Aboriginal Child Rearing: A Revie...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  30. Pigeonholed, peripheral or pioneering? Findings from a national study ...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  31. “We’ve Been Researched to Death”: Exploring the Research Experiences o...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  32. Decolonizing Scoping Review Methodologies for Literature With, for, an...
    Go to citation Crossref Google ScholarPub Med
  33. What Touched Your Heart? Collaborative Story Analysis Emerging From an...
    Go to citation Crossref Google ScholarPub Med
  34. Grandmothers’ Pedagogy: Lessons for Supporting Native Students’ Attend...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  35. An Innovative Sequential Focus Group Method for Investigating Diabetes...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  36. Cultural Continuity as a Determinant of Indigenous Peoples’ Health: A ...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  37. Spirituality, drugs, and tourism: tourists’ and shamans’ experiences o...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  38. Preventing alcohol-exposed pregnancy among American-Indian youth
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  39. Aboriginal Women's Experiences With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  40. Relationality and Legitimacy...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  41. Stories of African HIV+ Women Living in Poverty
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  42. Research Done in “A Good Way”: The Importance of Indigenous Elder Invo...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  43. Honouring Stories: Mi'kmaq Women's Experiences with Pap Screening in E...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  44. Advocating beyond the academy: dilemmas of communicating relevant rese...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  45. Issues in Professional Training to Implement Evidence‐based Parenting ...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  46. Research on Indigenous Elders: From Positivistic to Decolonizing Metho...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  47. Rethinking Participatory Research with Indigenous Peoples
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  48. Contemporary Practice of Traditional Aboriginal Child Rearing: A Revie...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  49. Broken Heart Stories...
    Go to citation Crossref Google ScholarPub Med
  50. Indigenous Methodologies: Traversing Indigenous and Western worldviews...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  51. Songlines and Touchstones: A study of perinatal health and culture in ...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  52. Changes in pregnancy and childbirth practices in remote areas in Lao P...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  53. Rooting Inquiry in Tradition: The Health Baraza as a Tool for Social R...
    Go to citation Crossref Google ScholarPub Med
  54. Formative Assessment Using Social Marketing Principles to Identify Hea...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  55. Views of First Nation Elders on Memory Loss and Memory Care in Later L...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  56. The Indigenous Researcher as Individual and Collective: Building a Res...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  57. Mind over body: Physical and psychotherapeutic discourses and the regu...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  58. Practical Application of an Indigenous Research Framework and Two Qual...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  59. Shaping knowledge regarding occupation: Examining the cultural underpi...
    Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar
  60. Strategies to Support Recruitment and Retention of First Nations Youth...
    Go to citation Crossref Google ScholarPub Med

Figures and tables

Figures & Media

Tables

View Options

Get access

Access options

If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:


Alternatively, view purchase options below:

Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.

Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.

View options

PDF/ePub

View PDF/ePub