Promoting First Nations sovereignty in community-engaged research: Yarning and relationship building with Children’s Ground in Central Australia

• Main Authors: Gorey, Amunda, Sunderland, Naomi, Apps, Kristy, Lorains, Jen, Bartleet, Brydie, Gregg-Rowan, Callisha, Anderson, Purina, Williams, Genise, Doolan, Veronica, Children’s Ground Governance Committee Ingkerrekele Arntarnteareme
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: SAGE Publications 2024
• Subjects: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music and performing arts; Global Indigenous studies health and wellbeing; Indigenous methodologies; First Nations
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10072/431775; https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529687088

This Diversifying and Decolonizing Research article explores how you can achieve First Nations sovereignty and human rights through research partnership building and yarning interviews. Yarning is a special Australian First Nations term for qualitative interviews that are conducted in relational, conversational, and culturally safe ways. When done well, yarning can lead to elevated research data and relationships. Yarning can also produce personal and professional transformation for all people involved, including researchers. Achieving First Nations sovereignty in research requires coupling decolonising methods (yarning) with local First Nations leadership at all levels of research, from approval of research through to design, data collection, analysis, reporting, and translation. This case study describes how university researchers worked in partnership with Arrernte First Nations traditional custodians and researchers at Children’s Ground Central Australia (Arrernte language translation-Ampe-kenhe Ahelhe) to colead a community case study within the international research project titled The Remedy Project: First Nations Music as a Determinant of Health. We share stories and experiences about researcher attributes, values, principles (First Nations and non-First Nations). We share enabling processes within the research and offer practical examples to guide your future research practice.