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Indigenous Research

Indigenous Research. Tribal Opioid/Substance Use Conference Indigenous Approaches to Building Capacity & Resiliency to Substance Use Disorder Tennille Larzelere Marley, PhD, MPH (White Mountain Apache) Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies Arizona State University.

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Indigenous Research

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  1. Indigenous Research Tribal Opioid/Substance Use ConferenceIndigenous Approaches to Building Capacity & Resiliency to Substance Use Disorder Tennille Larzelere Marley, PhD, MPH (White Mountain Apache) Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies Arizona State University

  2. Presentation Overview • Sovereignty • Sovereignty and Research • Cast Study • Indigenous Research Methodologies • Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance • Indigenous Data Collection Examples

  3. Tribal Sovereignty What does tribal sovereignty mean to you?

  4. Tribal Sovereignty • AI nations have sovereignty that is older than the US Constitution • AI nation sovereignty is derived from the people, the land, and their relationships • Not a gift from any external government • Limitations on tribal sovereignty • Based on treaties, acts of congress, Executive Orders, federal administrative agreements, and court decisions • Sovereignty should be defined, affirmed and asserted by AI nations themselves • It is up to each AI Nation to decide on the degree they assert their own definition of sovereignty

  5. What does sovereignty have to do with research?

  6. A long history of abuses…. • 17th and 18th centuries • Military doctors collected American Indian body parts from battle sites and army hospitals • Phrenological studies: pseudoscientific study of the shape and protuberances of the skull in the discredited belief that skulls could reveal character and mental capacity • 1990—2010. Havasupai Blood Case • Tribal members gave DNA samples to university researchers hoping to find genetic clues to diabetes • Blood samples used for other things

  7. Case Study The Barrow Alcohol Study

  8. The Barrow Alcohol Study Native leaders and city officials in Barrow, Alaska, worried about drinking and associated violence and accidental deaths in their community invited a group of researchers to assess the problem and work with them to devise solutions. At the conclusion of the study researchers formulated a report entitled “The Inupiat, Economics and Alcohol on the Alaskan North Slope” which was released simultaneously at a press release and to the Barrow community. The press release was picked up by the New York Times, who ran a front page story entitled Alcohol Plagues Eskimos by Dava Sobel on January 22, 1980. The following is an excerpt from that article: “The Inupiat Eskimos of Alaska’s North Slope, whose culture has been overwhelmed by energy development activities, are ‘practically committing suicide’ by mass alcoholism… researchers said here yesterday. The alcoholism rate is 72 percent among the 2,000 Eskimo men and women in the village of Barrow, where violence is becoming the most frequent cause of death as a result of ‘the explosive and self-destructive abuse of alcohol,’ the researchers said. ‘Offshore oil development is expected to peak in 2010 or 2015’ … one of the researchers, said at a news conference. ‘We don’t see the Eskimos surviving till then. This is not a collection of individual alcoholics, but a society which is alcoholic, and therefore facing extinction.’” The depiction of the community in the article implied to the people of Barrow that they had been labeled a problem. They felt stigmatized. Many of the people of Barrow and in the statewide Native community felt that the researchers had violated their trust by failing to share all results with them first and by not allowing them the opportunity to comment on the results. This led many in Alaska Native communities to doubt that research on alcohol would result in respectful treatment of their communities and created a continuing distrust of researchers and the research process. From: http://www.uaf.edu/irb/readings/BAS_Case_Study.pdf

  9. The Barrow Alcohol Study Discussion Questions • What is troubling to you about this case? • What are the responsibilities of researchers to their study participants? • What are the responsibilities of researchers to their participant communities? • Could/Should this happen today? What, if anything, can be done to prevent this from happening again?

  10. Indigenous Research Methodologies

  11. Important Questions to Consider re: Research In Our Communities Why is the research being done? Who will benefit from It ? Whose research is it? Who will formulate the research questions, decide on the methodology, the way the data is analyzed and the report should be carried out?

  12. Research Methodology vs. Methods • Methodology: theory and analysis of how research proceeds • Frames questions being asked • Determines data collection & analysis • Methods: technique for gathering evidence (data collection)

  13. Why an Indigenous Methodology? • Legacy of colonialism/imperialism • Western authorship often understood as normative (scientific, objective, empirical) • Privileging of knowledge types & sources • Insider/outsider research • Self/Other duality • Indigenous researchers & Indigenous agency • Focus on people not on objects of enquiry - foreground respect & reciprocity • Contemporary forms of colonialism (neo-colonialism)

  14. Research and Tribal Critical Race Theory Indigenous peoples have a desire to obtain and forge tribal sovereignty, tribal autonomy, self-determination, and self-identification The concepts of culture, knowledge, and power take on new meaning when examined through an Indigenous lens

  15. Research and Tribal Critical Race Theory Tribal philosophies, beliefs, customs, traditions, and visions for the future are central to understanding the lived realities of Indigenous peoples, but they also illustrate the differences and adaptability among individuals and groups Stories are not separate from theory; they make up theory and are, therefore, real and legitimate sources of data and ways of being

  16. Indigenous Research How can we conduct research that impact positively on the quality of life of our communities? How can we conduct research without using Only Western academic constructs and terminologies? How can we minimize the intrusion of terms in our research reports that may culturally and contextually lack contingency with our experiences? Can academic languages accurately communicate our experiences ?

  17. Indigenous Research • Research that draws from: • Indigenous Knowledge • Histories • Languages • World views • Political Structures • Research that: • Enables • Heals • Educates • Strengthens • Sovereignty • self-determination • self-sufficiency • human rights

  18. Characteristics of Indigenous Research • Participatory and targets local phenomenon • Does not use Western theory to identify and define a research issue • Privileges oral history and traditional knowledge • Context sensitive • Creates locally constructs, methods and theories • Derived from local experiences and Indigenous Knowledge • Can be integrative, combining Western and Indigenous theories

  19. Your Community’s Research Related to your Indigenous nation Connected to your Indigenous nation’s philosophy and principles Assumes the validity and legitimacy of your Indigenous nation, the importance of your Indigenous language, and culture Concerned with the struggle for autonomy over your community’s own cultural well-being

  20. Indigenous People and Research • Kovach’s (2010) “paradigmatic approach” to research with Indigenous Peoples. IP should have a say in: • “the choice of methods (i.e. why a particular method is chosen), • how those methods are employed (i.e. how data are gathered), • and how the data will be analyzed and interpreted” (p. 42).

  21. Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance

  22. UnitedNations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Article 31 Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions

  23. Indigenous Data Sovereignty The right of Indigenous peoples to determine the means of collection, access, analysis, interpretation, management, dissemination and reuse of data pertaining to the Indigenous people from whom it has been derived, or to whom it relates. Centers on Indigenous collective rights to data about our peoples, territories, lifeways, and natural resources (Kukutai & Taylor 2016)

  24. Indigenous Data Refers to information or knowledge, in any format, inclusive of statistics, that is about Indigenous people and that impact Indigenous lives at the collective and/or individual level

  25. Indigenous Data Data on Our Resources/Environments land, history, geological information, titles, water information Data About Us Demographic or social data – legal, health, education, use of services, including our own data Data from Us Traditionalcultural data, archives oral literature, ancestral knowledge, community stories

  26. Too Much and Too Little Data Data frequently collected from us, but rarely drawn value from our own data When our data is used, the benefits of that use are largely defined according to non-Indigenous values and beliefs Abundance of “official” statistics (Census, health data, etc.) about us, but they largely focus on socio-economic and health inequalities

  27. Data Matters • Data is just not data • Data is not neutral • Data are human artefacts whose data echo what questions are asked, why, how and who is doing the asking • We generally do not do the asking, the why, and how and who • Alienated from the political processes that determine our life circumstances • Alienated from the collection and application of data that “evidence” those processes This is why it is important that we are involved in the research process

  28. Data Outcomes vs. Indigenous Data Needs “Dominant” Data Indigenous Data Needs Lifeworld Data to inform a comprehensive, nuanced narrative of who we are as peoples, of our culture, our communities, our resilience, our goals and successes Blaming • Too much data contrasts Indigenous/non-Indigenous (White the “norm”) data

  29. Data Outcomes vs. Indigenous Data Needs “Dominant” Data Indigenous Data Needs Disaggregated Data Data the recognizes our cultural and geographical diversity to provide evidence for community-level planning and service delivery Aggregate Data • Data are aggregated at the national, and/or state level implying Indigenous cultural and geographic homogeneity

  30. Data Outcomes vs. Indigenous Data Needs “Dominant” Data Indigenous Data Needs Contextualized Data Data inclusive of the wider social structural context/complexities in which disadvantage occurs Decontextualized Data • Data are simplistic and decontextualized focusing on individuals and families outside of their social/ cultural context

  31. Data Outcomes vs. Indigenous Data Needs “Dominant” Data Indigenous Data Needs Priority Data Data that measures beyond problems and addresses our priorities and agendas Deficit Data • Data reprises deficit linked concepts that service the priorities of outside researchers, governments, etc.

  32. Indigenous Data Sovereignty through Indigenous Data Governance How do we move from a data landscape that problematizes and blames us to data that meets our needs, aspirations, and objectives? “Dominant” data  Indigenous data needs  data governance

  33. Indigenous Data Sovereignty through Indigenous Data Governance • Indigenous data governance is NOT • An advisory group or panel • Being consulted about Indigenous matters • Attending or presenting at workshop/discussion around Indigenous data  These activities all operate to give an impression of engagement largely at the expense of gaining any actual say in outcomes

  34. Indigenous Data Governance Decision making Power to decide how and when Indigenous data are gathered, analyzed, accessed, and used Ability to construct data framework that reinforce goals and ambitions Capacity to collect data that reflects Indigenous priorities, values, culture, and life worlds

  35. Indigenous Data Collection Examples

  36. Photovoice • Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) method • Goals • to assist individuals with recording and reflecting on select community issues • to encourage group dialogue on these issues • to influence policy-makers. • Used for: • Activity-focused research • Needs assessment • Problem-finding • Problem-solving • Evaluation • Solution implementation activity • Project analysis and evaluation

  37. Conversational Method • Method of gathering knowledge based on oral story telling tradition • Congruent with an Indigenous paradigm • Collaborative and dialogic • purpose of sharing story as a means to assist others • Purposeful • Relational • Accompanied by particular protocol consistent with tribal knowledge identified as guiding the research • Informal and flexible • Reflexive

  38. Storytelling Story and the act of storytelling are important in many Indigenous societies Qualitative in nature Participants describe answers orally rather than on questionnaires Ideal method for integrating nonhuman elements (e.g., animals, water, wind) into their data collection and analysis Can be useful in the dissemination of knowledge uncovered in the data collection and/or analysis phases

  39. Yarning • “A conversational process that involves the sharing of stories and the development of knowledge. • It prioritizes indigenous ways of communicating, in that it is culturally prescribed, cooperative, and respectful” (Walker, Fredricks, Mills, & Anderson, 2014) • Can help to ensure that the research paradigm is culturally safe • May enhance the validity of data • Equalizes researchers and participants • Useful when conducting research across cultures • Allows participants to guide the conversation that serves as data collection

  40. Talking Circles • Approach to focus groups • Participants are gathered together to discuss the research topic for the purpose of data collection • group information sharing and discussion • focus on cooperation within the group • Sacred meaning [Sharing Circles] • Growth and transformation bases for the participants • Act of sharing all aspects of the individual—heart, mind, body, and spirit • Rebalances the power dynamic in the researcher–participant relationship • Participants grant the researcher permission to use the dialogue generated in the Circle for research purposes

  41. Can you think of a method of collecting data that aligns with your community and culture?

  42. Questions? Contact Information: Tennille L. Marley Tennille.marley@asu.edu (480) 965-3634

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