From Reflection to Resurgence: Co-Researching Through Storymaking and Truthtelling With Urban Indigenous Women

Source: PubMed Central Open Access, NCBI / U.S. National Library of Medicine

In the context of a community–university partnership, we reflect on the co-development of a research process centred on urban Indigenous women’s leadership, cultural resurgence, and collective well-being. Together, Indigenous and university-based co-researchers created spaces for participants in a grassroots leadership programme to reflect on and enhance their roles through storywork, relational accountability, and cultural teachings. We share three examples of how we enacted Indigenous research principles, through sharing circles, storytelling and tea, and storymaking as a method of analysis and explore key learnings that emerged through these collaborations. In this account, we centre the experiences of the urban Indigenous women leaders among us, illustrating how re-awakening of ancestral knowledge and reclamation, grounded in matriarchal values, can inform ethical, relational research practices and support ongoing transformative impacts in both community and academic contexts.