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Indigenous Research Methodologies and Listening the Dadirri Way

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Ethical Responsiveness and the Politics of Difference

Abstract

Researchers who want to undertake projects that amplify First Nations perspectives face a range of complex methodological and ethical considerations. This chapter explores how some of these challenges can be addressed by working with Indigenous epistemologies. Dadirri is the language of the Ngangikurungkurr people of Northern Australia and also a foundational concept that involves deep listening and underpins how they live, act, understand, and feel. Engoori is a set of diplomatic protocols for resolving conflict that belong to the Mithaka people of South-West Queensland. The chapter concludes that working with Indigenous knowledge can not only shift ways of seeing and hearing, but the collaborations we form, the questions we ask, the findings we make, and the actions that flow from this.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Deficit Discourse in Indigenous Education project (IN1501000007) was funded by the Australian Research Council 2015–2017.

  2. 2.

    Personal communication with David Spillman, 3 August 2017.

  3. 3.

    ‘Remote’ appears in scare quotes throughout to problematise the Western centre/periphery assumption inherent in this term when applied to Indigenous communities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

    Lisa Waller

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  1. Lisa Waller
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Correspondence to Lisa Waller .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Tanja Dreher

  2. University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom

    Anshuman A. Mondal

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Waller, L. (2018). Indigenous Research Methodologies and Listening the Dadirri Way. In: Dreher, T., Mondal, A. (eds) Ethical Responsiveness and the Politics of Difference. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93958-2_13

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