Indigenous Health Research

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Culture and context are important factors to identify and address when carrying out Indigenous Health research and self-determination is a key principle for effective research with Aboriginal peoples (Blackstock, 2011) due to the history of colonization. In addition, Indigenous people often experienced “helicopter research” wherein researchers get information from the community and leave without using the information to positively transform the community and address their needs. There is also a history of assigning problems to Indigenous people in research which is often a colonial attempt to control Indigenous peoples by tactically realigning the focus away from the role of Western institutions and systems creating the problem in the first …show more content…

This shows respect to Indigenous peoples’ knowledge systems, customs and codes of research. Again, it makes sure that the distinct world views of Indigenous peoples are represented in every phase/step of the research. In addition, engaging with the community and aligning research to the codes and practices such as the ownership of, control of, access to, and possession (OCAP) that addresses issues of privacy, intellectual property, data custody and secondary use of data (Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, 2010) in Indigenous communities will enhance a balance in the relationship between researchers and …show more content…

Linear thinking as seen in quantitative research are not seen in Indigenous way of knowing rather, concepts like circularity, oneness, and connectedness are common among Indigenous peoples (Struthers & Peden-mcalpine, 2005). As such, decolonizing research is a process and an orientation to research that must be consciously attended to in Indigenous research by paying careful attention to the research approach and being ready to acknowledge and make appropriate changes when Western methods or theories are not appropriate (Simonds & Christopher, 2013). Mixed methods in Indigenous research invite different voices to participate in a dialogue that embraces all cultures and promotes the social validity of the research, hence from this perspective, there cannot be an Indigenous research without mixed methods (Chilisa & Tsheko, 2014). Therefore, mixed methodology in Indigenous research is informed by relational sets of practices aimed at building relationships to promote collective action and social change, driven by Indigenous research protocols and uses a combination of Indigenous data collection tools and other qualitative and quantitative methods (Chilisa & Tsheko, 2014).

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