London: Zed Books, 2019. xii, 256 pp. US$45.95, paper. ISBN 9781786994608.
Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology presents a plethora of research that encapsulates the title of this book. The book opens with a foreword by Linda Tuhiwai-Smith, author of Decolonizing Methodologies (London: Bloomsbury, 2021). After decades of contribution to decolonizing methodologies, the editors, Jo-ann Archibald Q’um Q’um Xiiem, Jenny Bol Lee-Morgan, and Jason de Santolo, organized numerous contributions to this edited volume into three sections that focus on Indigenous storywork in Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Australia. Each section comprises an introduction written by one of the three editors to set up an historical backdrop from colonization to resistance. Collectively, these sections discuss intergenerational impacts of colonial legacies, such as forbading practices which facilitate(d) knowledge. This contextualizes storytelling not only as a reclamation, recovery, and revitalizing process, but also as a methodology such as was employed in the research examples within that section.
Archibald Q’um Q’um Xiiem introduces part 1 of the book, with brief synopses of Indigenous storywork as methodology in one case study, two dissertations, and one pedagogy research project. The case study implemented by Sara Florence Davidson (chapter 1) explores how identity tests and narrative writing could strengthen youth self-confidence by examining the song of k’aad ‘aww; this is a metaphor and story about the Haida dogfish mother of the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. Davidson’s work reveals authenticity of the self as a key feature of a methodology, emphasizing that no methodology is perfect nor does it prevent mistakes. According to Davidson, part of decolonizing research is to find a methodology that “allows us to be our authentic selves—that is, an extension of who we are as researchers and human beings” (38). Dorothy Christian’s doctoral research (chapter 2) explores how cultural knowledge informs behaviour. Georgina Martin and Elder Jean William enter into a reciprocal research partnership (chapter 3), one that reveals storytelling as a process, through words and as sounds, as resilience. In chapter 4, Archibald Q’um Q’um Xiiem, Cynthia Nicol, and Joanne Yavanovich share results from a long-term project on culturally responsive pedagogy through the methology of Indigenous storywork; incorporated storytelling as a pedagogical tool encouraging participants to engage holistically. Through storytelling, mutually beneficial research relationships grew between teachers and Indigenous community members in a small isolated town.
Lee-Morgan introduces the second part of the book with a clear summary of pūrākau (Māori traditional oral narratives/storytelling) and the multiplicity aspect of this Māori narrative. The section contains chapters 5 through 9, each describing a different form of pūrākau. Each case study demonstrates how this methodology contributed to decolonization practices within communities, governments, and individuals and how pūrākau fostered understanding a variety of contexts, applied across disciplines, or shared for different purposes. Chapter 5 discusses “pūrākau as an expression of agency” in the context of gender imbalances in Māori societies. Chapter 6 investigates Maori names as starting a story or a title for a story; the author describes it as “story our names” and “name our stories” as well as speaking back, conscientization, and decolonization (91). Chapter 7 shows pūrākau as a tool for knowledge production and understanding in approaches to, and applications of, Māori law to a variety of issues faced by Māori. Chapter 8 applies pūrākau as Indigenous pedagogy to children as a way to rejuvenate connections between people, their land, and history.
De Santolo introduces part 3, “Indigenous Storywork in Australia.” This section comprises five chapters that celebrate Indigenous epistemologies and storywork as a form of resistance, a tool for cultural revitalization, healing, and filling gaps in Western traditions and the North Atlantic academy. Chapter 10 highlights the role of honesty with one’s self that storytelling lends to it as methodology because of the generations of knowledge hosted in the stories. As Behrendt describes Indigenous storywork, it is opposite Western tradition in that it recognizes one’s viewpoint as having a significant role in one’s worldview. Chapter 11 approaches literary theory, recognizing a significant limitation of Western literature in that it tends to reinforce ideas about the “other” and asserts that unsettling these Western colonial literary practices offers a mode for inquiry and inclusion of the “other” in the literature base. Similarly, Chapter 12 exposes the dangers of Western desires for the “right” story, in terms of worldview and how to engage with oral histories and with each other. Chapter 13 emphasizes storytelling as an Indigenous perspective that offers reconnection to Indigenous culture and country as well as solutions to problems in ways that livelihoods and governments cannot inform, such as land management. Chapter 14 delves into ancient song renewal as Indigenous storytelling that has decolonizing properties to cope with mining issues. In each of these chapters, the reader can see how Indigenous storywork provides an interrelated perspective that can be applied to human challenges, from decolonization of the mind to mitigation of negative effects of Western practices.
Each of the chapters builds upon the seven Indigenous storywork principles (respect, responsibility, reverence, reciprocity, holism, interrelatedness, and synergy) developed by Jo-ann Archibald (“An Indigenous Storywork Methodology,” in Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples, and Issues, eds. J. Gary Knowles and Arda L. Cole, Los Angeles: Sage, 2008) and the respectful nature of relational accountability. A central theme to this book is Indigenous relationality. The authors and editors highlight the importance of the relational aspect of storytelling. This methodology focuses on research infrastructure that fosters understanding between the listener and storyteller while also exemplifying how authentic approaches to research can yield depth in understanding the results. This book offers a strong foundation for storytelling as methodology. The storytelling principles, pedagogies, and methodologies shared in this collection of case studies, research, and applications can be seen in some of the ethnographic research conducted with other Pacific Island nations.
Ashley Meredith
FSM Office of National Archives, Culture, and Historic Preservation, Kosrae