Moving Forward Together in Aboriginal Women's Health: - Theses ...

Moving Forward TogetherJanet KellyChapter 5 Ethics & MethodsIn this chapter, I discuss the design of this research, which is underpinned bythe concepts of democratic two-way knowledge sharing, respectfulcollaboration and cultural safety as discussed in the previous chapter. Coresearchers,the Aboriginal Women’s Reference Group and Aboriginal mentorswere actively involved in the choice and development of the approach andmethods used. I begin by discussing the need for deeply respectful Aboriginalhealth research, underpinned by concepts of reciprocity, respect, equality andresponsibility. I discuss the priorities identified by the Aboriginal womeninvolved with this research, and how these were incorporated into the researchdesign. Using a post colonial, woman-centred approach, we adapted anexisting participatory action research to co-create a research approach that wasresponsive to local needs. The three phases of look and listen, think anddiscuss and take action enabled us to put into action the central concepts ofknowledge sharing, working together and addressing issues. Interviews, focusgroups, literature review and analysis were all developed in ways that wererespectful of these central themes, the women’s personal preferences, and theneed to counter colonising trends. Our emergent methodology developed anddeepened during the research. This chapter discusses both the process (cocreatingthe research approach) and the outcome (our PAR model). I begin bydiscussing the importance of setting up research in the ‘right way’; the wayspreferred by the Aboriginal women involved.Setting up ‘right way’ researchResearch itself is not a new concept for Aboriginal people. Christine Franks(2002) a well known Aboriginal researcher in rural South Australia, suggeststhat Aboriginal people have been conducting research for thousands of years.She says;It is evident the Aboriginal people have always done research…about theenvironment, where to go and when. They knew how to measure veryprecisely the numbers of people needed in groups for social, emotional,spiritual and physical well-being. It was very critical that research was109