Call for participation

Indigenous Qualitative Inquiries (http://www.icqi.org/adiqi.html) at the Ninth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI) May 15-18, 2013 (http://www.icqi.org/index.html)

“As a site of struggle research has a significance for indigenous peoples that is embedded in our history under the gaze of Western Imperialism and Western Science. It is framed by our attempts to escape the penetration and surveillance of that gaze whilst simultaneously reordering and reconstituting ourselves as indigenous human beings in a state of ongoing crisis” (Smith, 1999, p. 39). Indigenous epistemologies have existed for a very long time and have managed to survive colonization, war, genocide and a host of government policies and practices. Yet, it is only recently that the academy has taken an interest in Indigenous methodologies and paradigms, in particular in the field of qualitative research. Indigenous researchers and allies are thus engaged in a process of creating space for indigenous ways of knowing and being within and outside of academia. As Russell Bishop (2005, 2011) discusses this struggle is one of freeing ourselves from neocolonial dominance in research “so that models of reform for the oppressed groups can be developed from within the epistemological frameworks of those groups, rather than from within the dominant.” (2011, p.xiii)

The Indigenous Qualitative Inquiry (IQI) Circle invites attendees to participate in our 2nd annual pre-conference day on Wednesday May 15th, 2013. We also invite submissions that explore the spaces and the places of Indigenous inquiries in the academy and particularly their relationship with qualitative research.

To support exchange and interaction among researchers working on common sets of issues, problems, or themes the Congress does allow and encourage alternative presentation formats to facilitate talking circles, roundtables, somatic sessions. Such sessions could include dance, movement, research sharing circles, storytelling/drama/music & song, and themed discussion circles.

The time-tabling of the alternative formats will follow the Congress block (1.5 hrs) schedule, however, the sessions will be fluid and dynamic allowing for opportunities for participants to engage for longer periods of time than the traditional 10 to 15 minute presentation. Please note that participants submitting papers to the IQI Circle should expect to present in IQI sessions that will occur in conjunction with regular congress sessions on the 17th and 18th of May respectively.

References

Bishop, R. (2005). Freeing ourselves from neocolonial domination in research: A Kaupapa Maori approach to creating knowledge. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 109-138). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, Inc.

Bishop, R. (2011). Freeing Ourselves. Boston: Sense Publishers

Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. New York, NY: Zed Books, Ltd.