Working With Indigenous Elders in Narrative Inquiry: Reflections and Key Considerations

Abstract

The Canadian research context shifted with the adoption of the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its focus on considerations of Indigenous peoples. Drawing on multiple years of working together, this article explores the experiences of members of a research team that includes Indigenous Elders. The authors revisit three significant research encounters: engaging in teachings of “silent walking,” engaging in teachings through the processes of drum making with youth, and engaging in teachings on the importance of language. Three important considerations for working in research teams with Elders are the importance of continuing to find ways to be in relation, to live reciprocity beyond the rhetoric often associated with Indigenous research, and to see our work as marked by mutuality.