First Nations Innovation - Publications

Conference Papers and Proceedings
#43 (2012)

Publication #43 2012, June - Co-creating community narratives: How researchers are engaging First Nation community members to co-write publications

Reference: Gibson, K., Thomas, L., O’Donnell, S., Lockhart, E., & Beaton, B. (2012). Co-creating community narratives: how researchers are engaging First Nation community members to co-write publications. Paper presented at the Qualitatives Analysis Conference, St. John’s, NL.

Abstract: Researchers working with First Nations have heard: “We have been researched to death.” Given this reputation for research, how can researchers working with First Nations turn this situation around? How can we collaboratively conduct respectful research and engage First Nations meaningfully? How can we ensure that the narratives we weave in research publications from interview transcripts strongly reflect the voices of community members, and that our publications meet the needs of communities? One way is for members of First Nation communities collaborating in the research to co-write research publications. The paper discusses some practical ways that researchers can do this, based on our experiences with conducting research about technology with rural and remote First Nation community collaborators. We discuss what has been successful and where we need to work harder to be more inclusive of the experiences and situations of community members.