Negotiating and Exploring Relationships in Métis Community-Based Research

Abstract

Adding a Métis voice to the larger discourse on Indigenous (Métis, First Nation, and Inuit) health research, this work shares experiences and insights gained in relationship building from a community-based Métis research project entitled, Converging Methods and Tools: A Métis Group Model Building Project on Tuberculosis. A collaborative partnership between PhD student Amanda LaVallee, the Métis Nation – Saskatchewan (MN-S) Health Department and two independent health researchers, the project, conducted from 2010 to 2012, incorporated a System Dynamics participatory methodology called Group Model Building (GMB), with Métis research methods, ethics, and knowledge, to build a model of tuberculosis (TB) experience in Saskatchewan Métis communities. This article examines the co-author’s experiences with these collaborative methodologies and with the other partners in the research project, as well as the relational research stories that were essential to the practice of Metis community-based research. Moving beyond discussion of objectivity toward transparency about our presence within the research relationship, this work offers our collaborative experience as a success, and provides inspiration and insight on how to engage in ethical, competent, culturally appropriate, and relevant community-based research.

Keywords

• Métis research
• indigenous research
• relational research
• Métis communitybased research
• and Saskatchewan Métis Research