Wilson to present on building Indigenous knowledge

Nipissing University’s Office of Aboriginal Initiatives and the Office of the Vice-President Academic and Research welcome Dr. Shawn Wilson to campus for a presentation titled, Building Indigenous Knowledge through Indigenist Research, on Wednesday, January 18, from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. in room A228. The presentation describes an Indigenist research paradigm developed by Indigenous people in Australia and Canada, and illustrates how this paradigm can be put into practice to build Indigenous knowledge via the metaphor of research as a ceremony.

Wilson, an Opaskwayak Cree from northern Manitoba, is currently building research capacity with primary health care workers at the University Centre for Rural Health (UCRH) in Linsmore, Australia. The UCRH is a collaboration between the Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney, Southern Cross University, University of Western Sydney, University of Wollongong and the Northern NSW Local Health District. Wilson’s main area of expertise is in research methodology and epistemologies, particularly in ways of knowing and conducting research used by Indigenous peoples within the contexts of Indigenous education, counselling and counsellor education, Indigenous mental health and general Indigenous studies. His most recent book, Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods (2008) examines some of the similarities in philosophy underlying Indigenous peoples’ research methodologies in Canada and Australia.