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

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kellyfindings are then considered within the wider context of health care andAboriginal women’s health and well-being.Story tellingStory telling was used in data collection and analysis, and in discussing resultsand interpretation of the findings. Story telling enables the women’sknoweldges, experiences and actions to be shared in their own words and/ or incontext of what was happening for them at the time, as described by Koch,Kralik, van Loon, and Mann (2006). In this study, many Aboriginal coresearchersand mentors stressed the importance of taking the time and effort torespectfully tell, hear and share the whole story in context rather than takingactions and meanings out of context, as that leads to misunderstanding,assumptions and judgements. For example, in the first Collaboration Areachapter, the Aboriginal community women’s stories and experiences are toldfrom their perspective, before the PAR process is discussed. This foregroundstheir understanding and experiences.Negotiated writing style for our collaborative researchFollowing concepts of Ganma knowledge sharing I endeavored to combine our(freshwater) collaborative research knowledge and experiences, with(saltwater) academic research writing styles, to produce an account (foam) ofour research that is meaningful for diverse co-researchers, stakeholders andexaminers. While many people advised me to write two documents, one acommunity report and the other a thesis, this option was unacceptable for manyof the co-researchers and Elder women. They said if you write it in academicways, how can we still read it and approve of it. In the interests of ethicalresearch, Ganma two-way knowledge sharing, and challenging the status quoof power dynamics as encouraged by postcolonial feminism, I thereforeendeavored to write the one document that combined different ways ofknowing and understanding together.Following data gathering and analysis, co-researchers were supported to planfor action based on the themes and priorities that they had identified in thethink and discuss phase. Recognising that one size fits all solutions based onexternal assumptions rarely meet local needs, co-researchers were supported to138