Framework for Aboriginal-guided decolonizing research involving Métis and First Nations persons with diabetes

Abstract

This paper documents the process of implementing an Aboriginal-guided research approach to examining the lived experiences of Métis and First Nations peoples with diabetes in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. A newly developed Aboriginal-oriented process framework for decolonizing research includes, in order of application, the six processes of rationalizing, enabling, facilitating, experiencing, accepting, and enacting decolonizing research. We review the key methodological elements of our research as a basis for discussing this decolonizing process framework that challenges traditional western ways of doing research, and requires the reformulation of underlying assumptions and methods. Aboriginal-grounded decolonizing research processes have implications for health researchers and health service providers who work with Indigenous peoples worldwide and are particularly useful for developing culturally grounded, community-based health promotion programs for Indigenous peoples suffering from health-related problems, including diabetes.

Introduction

In North America, Aboriginal peoples are descendants of the original inhabitants of the continent (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 2002). The Canadian Constitution Act 1982 recognizes three groups of Aboriginal people—Indians (now called First Nations), Métis, and Inuit peoples. First Nations describes all Aboriginal people in Canada who are not Inuit or Métis. Métis are a people from mixed European and Indian ancestry. Inuit are Aboriginal people of far northern Canada. These three peoples maintain unique heritages, languages, cultural practices and spiritual beliefs, as well as unique current and historical relationships with Canada. It has been pointed out that many worldwide Indigenous peoples face severe problems such as poor health, health-compromising behaviors, and poverty (Iwasaki, Bartlett, & O’Neil (2004), Iwasaki, Bartlett, & O’Neil (2005); Renfrey & Dionne, 2001; Rock, 2003). In Canada, such problems experienced by Aboriginal populations stem from wrenching cultural, social, economic, and political disruptions created by forced acculturation and failed assimilation policies (Bartlett, 2003). Dealing with these problems among Indigenous populations is considered a top priority in research, policy-making, and service-provision (Kirmayer, Brass, & Tait, 2000). Globally, there is also a distinct historical and cultural chasm between Indigenous communities and non-Indigenous regions (Sunday, Eyles, & Upshur, 2001). Some scholars even suggest that Indigenous peoples live in the fourth world (O’Neil, 1986), distinguishing it from the third world, which refers to developing countries. While Indigenous populations demand that research give appreciation and expression to their voices, visions and cultural orientations, Native American (Duran & Duran, 2000) and Maori (Tuhiwai Smith (1999), Tuhiwai Smith (2000)) researchers are calling for decolonizing methodologies. Hence, there is an urgent need for the perspectives of Indigenous peoples to be adopted and valorized in the research process.

Aboriginal peoples’ demands for appropriate and meaningful research that meets their needs resulted in a national Canadian workshop titled, “Dialogue on Research and Aboriginal Peoples” (SSHRC, 2004). Over 500 Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal individuals from a wide variety of Aboriginal community, academic, government, and non-governmental organizations across Canada identified “health and social dimensions” (pp. 22–23) as one of several urgent Aboriginal research priority themes. Topics within this theme include diabetes, mental health, and cultural differences, Indigenous definitions and indicators of health, wellness and well-being, effective ways to spur individual and community healing, and factors that identify or promote healthy and resilient Aboriginal individuals and communities.

Participants also identified urban issues as a high priority Aboriginal research theme. Historically, most research involving Aboriginal peoples has been conducted in rural or reserve settings (Hallett et al., 2000; Manitoba Bureau of Statistics, 1997). However, migration to cities from rural towns, villages and reserves is increasing in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2003). For example, in 2001, 55% of the Métis population in Manitoba lived in Winnipeg, and for Canada as a whole, 50% of the First Nations population lives in large urban settings (Bartlett et al., 2004).

Partly due to this urban migration trend, Aboriginal individuals who live in large metropolitan centers tend to show evidence of “hybrid” ways of thinking and knowing (Lawrence, 2004) as a result of their daily exposure to Western influences on thought and behavior. Whether they experience balance or conflict between Western and Aboriginal ways of thinking and knowing is more likely to be revealed by a decolonizing approach to inquiry that does not privilege Western constructs and impose Western conceptions of matters of health and illness upon the research participants.