Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods

Shawn Wilson, author

Shawn Wilson is Opaskwayak Cree from northern Manitoba. In his professional roles as community psychologist, researcher and educated Cree, he has spent much of his life straddling the Indigenous and mainstream worlds. Shawn works part-time for the Northern Rivers University Department of Rural Health in Lismore, NSW Australia, building research capacity with primary health care workers. Travelling and meeting people from other nations and cultures has been a big part of his life, as has his work with traditional Healers, Elders and Knowledge Keepers. In his previous book, Gwitch’in Native Elders: Not Just Knowledge but a Way of Looking at the World, Shawn documents his ideas about just what an Elder is and how they can be supported. In addition to further articulating Indigenous philosophies and research paradigms, his research focuses on the inter-related concepts of identity, health and healing, culture and wellbeing.