This article uses a conference attendee’s self-reflections, in the form of autoethnographic extracts from a personal journal and poetic responses to conference presentations, as devices to traverse the liminal space that exists between presenters and their audience, ethnographic researchers and their research participants, and the intrapersonal dimensions of the writer. In so doing the tensions that typify cross-cultural communication are made visible. These tensions underscore the politics of betwixt and between, and this concept of liminality assists us in seeing and experiencing these tensions and underlying power relationships that may otherwise be left unexplored. Between all people is a liminal space where two distinct entities are in the process of (re)negotiating their relationship. This interface is a place of power struggle and political intrigue. Liminality exists between all cultures and between all people within cultures, and arguably, within each of us. These “notes at a conference” reflect on these liminal spaces so that ethical cross-cultural ethnographic research can be collaboratively negotiated.
BishopR. (2008). Freeing ourselves from neocolonial domination in research: A kaupapa Maori approach to creating knowledge. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.), The landscape of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 145-183). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
2.
BoltonG. (2001). Reflective practice. writing and professional development. London: Paul Chapman.
3.
BoltonG.AllanH.DrucquerH. (2004). Black and blue: Writing for reflective practice. In BoltonG.HowlettS.LagoC.WrightJ. (Eds.), Writing cures: An introductory handbook of writing in counselling and psychotherapy (pp. 189-195). Hove, UK: Brunner-Routledge.
4.
BoltonG.LathamJ. (2004). “Every poem breaks a silence that had to be overcome”: The therapeutic role of poetry in writing. In BoltonG.HowlettS.LagoC.WrightJ. (Eds.), Writing cures: An introductory handbook of writing in counselling and psychotherapy (pp. 106-122). London, UK: Brunner-Routledge.
5.
Butler-KisberL. (2005). Inquiry through poetry: The genesis of self-study. In MitchellC.WeberS.O’Reilly-ScanlonK. (Eds.), Just who do we think we are? Methodologies for autobiography and self-study in teaching (pp. 95–110). London, UK: Falmer.
6.
ChangH. (2008). Autoethnography as method. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
7.
ConroyJ.C. (2004). Betwixt & between: The liminal imagination, education and democracy. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
8.
CramF. (2009). Maintaining indigenous voices. In MertensD. M.GinsbergP. E. (Eds.), The handbook of social research ethics (pp. 308-322). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
9.
DenzinN. K. (2010). A critical performance ethnography that matters. Paper presented at the Contemporary Ethnography Across the Disciplines Conference, Hamilton, Aotearoa/New Zealand.
10.
DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S.SmithL. T. (2008). Locating the field: Performing theories of decolonizing inquiry. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S.SmithL. T. (Eds.), Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies (pp. 21–29). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
11.
EllisC. (1999). Heartful autoethnography. Qualitative Health Research, 9(5), 669-683.
12.
EllisC. (2004). The ethnographic I: A methodological novel about ethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
13.
EtheringtonK. (2004). Becoming a reflexive researcher. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley.
14.
FitzpatrickK. (2011). Stop playing up! Physical education, racialisation and resistance. Ethnography, 12(2), 174-197.
15.
FrameA. (2002). Grey and Iwikau: A journey into custom. Kerei raua ko Iwikau: Te haerenga me nga tikanga. Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press.
16.
GramsciA. (1985). Selections from cultural writings. London, UK: Lawrence and Wishart.
17.
GubaE. G.LincolnY. S. (2008). Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.). The landscape of qualitative research (pp. 255-286). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
18.
HorvathA.ThomassenB.WydraH. (2009). Introduction: Liminality and cultures of change. International Political Anthropology, 2(1), 3.
19.
LangS. K. W. (2011). Bicultural responsiveness in Aotearoa New Zealand: An immigrant counsellor’s perspective. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
20.
LeibrichJ. (Ed.). (1999). A gift of stories: Discovering how to deal with mental illness. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago Press.
21.
NeutzeG. (1999). Dark out of darkness. Wellington, New Zealand: Steele Roberts Ltd.
22.
NortonA. (2004). 95 theses on politics, culture and method. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
23.
RamazanogluC.HollandJ. (2002). Feminist methodology: Challenges and choices. London, UK: SAGE.
24.
ReinharzS. (1992). Feminist methods in social research. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
SchonD. A. (1991). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York, NY: Basic Books.
27.
SmithL. T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous people. London, UK: Zed Books.
28.
SmithL. T. (2008). On tricky ground: Researching the native in the age of uncertainty. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.), The landscape of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 113-143). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
29.
SolzhenitsynA. (1968). The first circle. New York, NY: Harper & Row
30.
SpeedyJ. (2008). Narrative inquiry and psychotherapy. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
31.
ThompsonK. (2004). Journal writing as a therapeutic tool. In BoltonG.HowlettS.LagoC.WrightJ. (Eds.), Writing cures: An introductory handbook of writing in counselling and psychotherapy (pp. 72-84). Hove, UK: Brunner-Routledge.
32.
WrightJ. K. (2004). The passion of science, the precision of poetry: Therapeutic writing—a review of the literature. In BoltonG.HowlettS.LagoC.WrightJ. (Eds.), Writing cures: An introductory handbook of writing in counselling and psychotherapy (pp. 7-17). Hove, UK: Brunner-Routledge.
