Transforming Indigenous / Non-Indigenous Research Partnerships

A comic for use by researchers, students and teachers of methods interested in effective partnerships.

A comic perspective on transforming Indigenous/Non-Indigenous Research Partnerships

Our project team is delighted to announce the publication of a comic resource exploring the challenges and opportunities that exist in the development of effective partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers.

The comic has been produced as part of this project, and is in itself a collaboration between Indigenous researchers Helen Moewaka Barnes from New Zealand, Deborah McGregor from Canada and Ros Edwards and Tula Brannelly from the UK.

The researchers worked with comic artist Olivia Hicks to develop the storyline and images.

Project lead Ros Edwards said:

We are delighted with how this fantastic resource has come together. It has been a real labour of love and a testament to what good collaborative working between Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers looks like.

We hope this great resource will be used by students, teachers and researchers around the world who might like to work with Indigenous researchers and peoples but are unsure how to approach the idea and are looking for tips and ideas on how to achieve effective collaborations that will really benefit communities and the people who live in them.

Helen Moewaka Barnes added:

We worked hard to present a story that raised some common issues but didn’t have all the answers. We hope the comic will stimulate people to think about their context and explore what it means to them, rather than thinking ‘this is how you do it‘.

Deborah McGregor said the fun side of producing a comic was also key to engaging others in important discussions around good collaborations:

This resource offers a fun and visual way to learn more about the opportunities and challenges in engaging in Indigenous-non-Indigenous collaborative research.  We hope this comic presents an enjoyable way for people to learn about engaging in respectful and ethical research relationships.