Relationships are essential but not always easy: The role of methodology in embedding Aboriginal community and Country in academic research
Our summary
This article is told as a story about how a project, Strong culture, healthier lifestyles, took steps towards decolonisation as an evolving methodological journey with Country. The story is primarily about how the research team's methodology moved from a Western model of ‘doing’ research, to the team being part of the research process, as team members with Country and the participating local community members: a methodology of partnership.
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First, the research team provides a general overview of the initial project to set up how they came to understand their disconnection to community and Country. Second, they unpack the storying approach as methodology that is bound with the local Country: Yuin on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Third, using the storying approach, the research team reflects through Country and the community to discover ways forward in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal knowledge partnerships.
The research team shares their story in an attempt to limit colonial practice (decolonisation) and replace it with a reculturalising approach; the re-connecting of Country as a source of interconnectedness into the research process. Country includes all the living communities of nature, and they explore how this relationship in the human element (community) impacted and developed their methodology of partnership.