Indigenous led research

 

AIATSIS and NHMRC guidelines assert that research about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues must be community-driven, and meet priorities that communities set, rather than researchers. 

 

Relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people or organisations are key. 

 

This ensures Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are not only subjects or participants but leaders who provide culturally safe governance, insights, skills and connections with others. This recognises the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be seen as being ‘free and equal to all other peoples and individuals’ (UNDRIP, Article 2).   

 

Given Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are a minority population in Australia and there are larger proportions of young people, with the median age being 23 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2018), there may not always be availability or capacity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to join others’ research or evaluation teams. Research and evaluation must not continue without meeting ethical requirements including community control, leadership and participation.

 

Building relationships to develop trust and demonstrate reciprocity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations or communities is necessary at the beginning of any proposed project.  Keeping research on track II provides a list of questions to ask the research team and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants and communities that will assist in ensuring the research will be conducted ethically and in a way that builds relationships of trust. 

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Indigenous perspectives and participation

 

Sometimes criminology and criminal justice researchers will identify what looks to them to be an important topic to investigate. To meet ethical guidelines, they must seek partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations or other structures in communities such as Elders groups. 

 

A research proposal outlining why the research idea or evaluation is important will be required. Writing according to guidelines of AIATSIS and/or the NHMRC, as well as that of local organisations or peak bodies in the jurisdiction is helpful upfront, and will also be required later for ethical clearance to conduct the research.

 

A realistic timeframe must be allocated for developing mutual agreement about the scope of the research or evaluation, how the research or evaluation will be conducted, and what outputs will be produced is required. This should be detailed in a written agreement, letter of support or governance document, which is necessary in funding and ethics applications.

 

Thought should be given to good governance of projects, and clear details and a visual representation produced to convey information to diverse audiences. 

 

Governance documents should include material on how to negotiate and resolve disputes, who to include as continuing advisors or stakeholders, and how the results of research will be owned by the various stakeholders.   

 

Reaching and formalising an understanding about these issues is important for criminology and criminal justice research and evaluation to achieve human rights, avoid discrimination, and avoid dominance of western sciences and theories further entrenching the continuing harmful practices of colonisation.

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Indigenous knowledge and data 

 

For criminology and criminal justice research and evaluations that involve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting data should be negotiated with relevant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations. This ensures methods and findings are culturally relevant.

 

These sorts of negotiations should reflect principles of Indigenous data sovereignty, which provides for ‘Indigenous decision-making across the data ecosystem; from data conception to control of access to and usage of data’ (Walter & Suina, 2019, p. 237). 

 

Any contributions made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to the research must be acknowledged in research outputs, with intellectual property being carefully negotiated at the commencement of the project.