Journal Article

Research as Cultural Renewal

Hopkins, Carol, Fornssler, Barb, Hall, Laura, Mushquash, Christopher, Dell, Colleen A.

2015

Overview

This article explores the application of two-eyed seeing in the first year of a three-year study about the effectiveness of cultural interventions in First Nations alcohol and drug treatment in Canada. Two-eyed seeing is recognized by Canada’s major health research funder as a starting point for bringing together the strengths of Indigenous and Western ways of knowing. With the aim of developing a culture-based measurement tool, our team carried out an Indigenous-centred research process with our interpretation of two-eyed seeing as a guiding principle. This enabled us to engage in a decolonizing project that prioritized Indigenous methodologies and ways of knowing and knowledge alongside those of Western science. By concentrating on Indigenous governance in the research process, our project supported efforts at Indigenous cultural renewal. Two illustrations are offered, our team’s reconceptualization of Western derived understandings of data collection through Indigenous storytelling and our research grant timeframe with Indigenous knowledge gardening. This article contributes to the Indigenous research and policy literature which is lacking documentation about how Indigenous communities and research teams are benefitting from two-eyed seeing.

• Publisher: Western University,University of Western Ontario
• Subject: Addictions / Alcoholism / Behavioral Sciences / cultural interventions / Culture / cutural renewal / Data collection / Decolonization / Documentation / Drug abuse / Drug addiction / Drug Therapy / First Nations addictions treatment / First year / Gardens & gardening / Governance / Health research / Indigenous governance / Indigenous knowledge / Indigenous peoples / Intervention / Local knowledge / Measurement / Mental Health Programs / Native culture / Native North Americans / Networks / Periodicals / Renewal / Research projects / Storytelling / Substance abuse / Substance abuse treatment / Teams / Treatment outcomes / two-eyed seeing / Wellness