top of page

Indigenous Methodologies

Part of the Orange Book / Libru Laranja

The Merlionsman

Bibliography

The Merlionsman Indigenous Methodologies Bibliography is an ongoing effort to collect and showcase indigenous research methodologies and frameworks from around the world that can serve as robust alternate ways of conceiving and organising reality.

Last updated 19 June 2024

The Bibliography is an ongoing effort and will be updated periodically. Please let me know via the Get in Touch form or via merlionsman [at] gmail [dot] com if there are articles, books or other reference material that I should include, or if there are any errors below. I am also happy to include methodologies that have not yet been documented in Western academia or research.

General work on indigenous methodologies

Allen, Chadwick (2012). Trans-Indigenous: Methodologies for Global Native Literary Studies. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.

 

Barnhardt, Ray & Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley (2008). Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Alaska Native Ways of Knowing. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 36(1), 8-23.

 

Botha, Louis (2010). Mixing methods as a process towards indigenous methodologies. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 14(4), 313–325. 

 

Chilisa, Bagele (2011). Indigenous Research Methodologies. Los Angeles, California: SAGE Publications.

Denzin, Norman K., Yvonna S. Lincoln & Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2008). Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications.

Fast, Elizabeth & Margaret Kovach (2019). Applying Indigenous Research Methods: Storying with People and Communities. Milton Park, United Kingdom: Routledge.

Foley, Dennis (2018). Indigenous methodology: Is it invented or is it legitimate? Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues 21(3), 20-38.

Gone, Joseph P. (2019). Considering Indigenous Research Methodologies: Critical Reflections
by an Indigenous Knower. Qualitative Inquiry 25(1), 45-56.

Goulet, Linda & Keith Goulet (2015). Teaching Each Other: Nehinuw Concepts and Indigenous Pedagogies. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press.

Hermes, Mary (1999). Research Methods as a Situated Response: Towards a First Nations' Methodology. Northfield, Minnesota: Carleton College.

Kite, Elaine & Carol Davy (2015). Using Indigenist and Indigenous methodologies to connect to deeper understandings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ quality of life. Health Promotion Journal of Australia 26(3), 191-194.

Kovach, Margaret (2018). Doing Indigenous Research: A Letter to a Research Class. In Norman K. Denzin & Yvonna S. Lincoln (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, pp. 214-234. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications.

Kovach, Margaret (2010). Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Kurtz, Donna L. M. (2013). Indigenous Methodologies: Traversing Indigenous and Western worldviews in Research. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 9(3), 217-229.

Louis, Renee Pualani (2007). Can You Hear us Now? Voices from the Margin: Using Indigenous Methodologies in Geographic Research. Geographical Research 45(2), 130-139.

MacDonald, Katherine (2017). My experiences with Indigenist methodologies. Geographical Research 55(4), 369-378.

 

Martin, Brian (2017). Methodology is content: Indigenous approaches to research and knowledge. Educational Philosophy and Theory 49(14), 1392–1400.

Martin, Karen & Booran Mirraboopa (2003). Ways of knowing, being and doing: A theoretical framework and methods for indigenous and indigenist re‐search. Journal of Australian Studies 27(76), 203–214. 

Nakamura, Naohiro (2010). Indigenous Methodologies: Suggestions for Junior Researchers. Geographical Research 48(1), 97-103.

Nicholls, Ruth (2009). Research and Indigenous participation: critical reflexive methods. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 12(2), 117-126.

 

Porsanger, Jelena (2004). An essay about Indigenous methodology. Nordlit 15, 105-120.

Pidgeon, Michelle & Tasha Riley (2021). Understanding the Application and Use of Indigenous
Research Methodologies in the Social Sciences by Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Scholars. International Journal of Education Policy & Leadership 17(8), 1-17.

Ray, Lana (2012). Deciphering the "Indigenous" in Indigenous Methodologies. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 8(1), 85-98.

Rigney, Lester-Irabinna (1999). Internationalization of an Indigenous Anticolonial Cultural Critique of Research Methodologies: A Guide to Indigenist Research Methodology and Its Principles. Wicazo Sa Review 14(2), 109-121.

Ryder, Courtney, Tamara Mackean, Julieann Coombs, Hayley Williams, Kate Hunter, Andrew J. A. Holland & Rebecca Q. Ivers, (2019). Indigenous research methodology – weaving a research interface. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 23(3), 255–267.

Smith, Linda Tuhiwai (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples. London, United Kingdom: Zed Books.

Smith, Linda Tuhiwai (2005). Building a Research Agenda for Indigenous Epistemologies and Education. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 36(1), 93-95.

Steinhauer, Evelyn (2002). Thoughts on an Indigenous Research Methodology. Canadian Journal of Native Education 26(2), 69-81.

Strega, Susan & Leslie Brown (2015). Research as Resistance: Revisiting Critical, Indigenous and Anti-Oppressive Approaches. Toronto, Canada: Canadian Scholars' Press & Women's Press.

Walter, Maggie & Chris Andersen (2013). Indigenous Statistics: A Quantitative Research Methodology. Milton Park, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.

 

Wilson, Shawn (2001). What is an indigenous methodology? Canadian Journal of Native Education 25(2), 175-179.

Wilson, Shawn (2008). Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Nova Scotia, Canada: Fernwood Publishing.

Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Beginsel Nasentarera: Reflecting on Kovach (2015) and its relevance to the Singapore Kristang context. In Kevin Martens Wong (ed.), Libru Laranja / The Orange Book (Chapter 571), pp. 5307-5312. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.

Anishinaabe

Kaandossiwin

Absolon, Kathleen E. / Minogiizhigokwe (2011). How We Come to Know: Indigenous Re-Search Methodologies. Fernwood Publishing. Nova Scotia, Canada: Fernwood Publishing.

 

Coast Salish

Storytelling & Storywork

 

Archibald, Jo Ann / Q'um Q'um Xiiem (2008). An Indigenous Storywork Methodology. In J. Gary Knowles & Andra L. Cole (eds.), Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research, pp. 371-384. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications.

Qwul'sih'yah'maht / Robina Anne Thomas (2015). Honouring the Oral Traditions of the Ta't Mustimuxw (Ancestors) through Storytelling. In Susan Strega & Leslie Brown (eds.), Research as Resistance: Revisiting Critical, Indigenous and Anti-Oppressive Approaches (Chapter 7), pp. 177-198. Toronto, Canada: Canadian Scholars' Press & Women's Press.

Cree

Keeoukaywin / The Visiting Way

Gaudet, Janice Cindy (2019). Keeoukaywin: The Visiting Way—Fostering an Indigenous Research Methodology. Aboriginal Policy Studies 7(2), 47-64.

Hawaiian

Meyer, Manulani Aleli (2008). Indigenous and Authentic: Hawaiian Epistemology and the Triangulation of Meaning. In Denzin, Norman K., Yvonna S. Lincoln & Linda Tuhiwai Smith (eds.), Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies, pp. 217-232. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publishing.

Indigenous Heuristic Action Research

Kahakalau, Kū (2004). Indigenous Heuristic Action Research: Bridging Western and Indigenous Research Methodologies. Hūlili: Multidisplinary Research on Hawaiian Well-Being 1(1), 19-33. 

Japanese

Nakamura, Naohiro (2010). Indigenous Methodologies: Suggestions for Junior Researchers. Geographical Research 48(1), 97-103.

Kristang

Osura Krismatra / Uncertainty Thinking / Dreaming Thinking

Wong, Kevin Martens (2022). Transcending the transcendent function: Articulating the principles behind a new, extended individuation theory of the human psyche. In Kevin Martens Wong (ed.), Libru Laranja / The Orange Book (Chapter 2), pp. 22-51. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.

Wong, Kevin Martens (2022). The dialogue within: Transforming metacognitive writing instruction through individuation theory in a pre-tertiary Singaporean language and argumentation classroom. In Kevin Martens Wong (ed.), Libru Laranja / The Orange Book (Chapter 3), pp. 22-51. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.

Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Island of Individuation: Teaching With a New, Dynamic Approach to the Development of the Human Psyche in the Singapore Context. In Proceedings of the Third Southeast Asian Conference on Education, February 10-13, 2023, pp. 1-7. Singapore: Singapore Management University & IAFOR.

Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). A Merlionsman for His Majesties: Reclaiming the gay, non-binary monster within through the Osura Pesuasang, a new Kristang creole/indigenous theory of the human psyche developed in Singapore. In Kevin Martens Wong (ed.), Libru Laranja / The Orange Book (Chapter 160), pp. 1658-1670. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.

Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Osura Diseideza: The Kristang Interdisciplinary Hexadecimal Framework for Literary Analysis. In Kevin Martens Wong (ed.), Libru Laranja / The Orange Book (Chapter 345), pp. 3318-3328. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.

 

Wong, Kevin Martens (2024). Erodi sa Linggu: Excavating the uses of the performance of Nusantaran-Sundalander irreverence or Erodi Krisamar through Kristang culture, identity and language. In Kevin Martens Wong (ed.), Libru Laranja / The Orange Book (Chapter 614), pp. 5735-5743. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.

Sunyeskah / Dreamfishing

Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Roda Mundansa: Excavating and revitalising a creole-indigenous approach to deep time in Singapore Kristang. In Bhawna Vij Arora (ed.), Unearthing Past in Present & Future, pp. 35-56. New Delhi, India: Asian Press.

Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Roda Ardansa: Unpacking the Roda Mundansa, the Kristang reclaiming of the lost history of the world, as excavated from myth, legend, science fiction and fantasy. In Kevin Martens Wong (ed.), Libru Laranja / The Orange Book (Chapter 155), pp. 1565-1617. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.

Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Sunyeskador Famosa: Reflecting on Noel Felix’s practice of dreamfishing as documented by Margaret Sarkissian. In Kevin Martens Wong (ed.), Libru Laranja / The Orange Book (Chapter 405), pp. 3832-3836. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.

Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Pra Insinyah Sunyeskah: Reflecting on concerns arising from the teaching of dreamfishing in Kodrah Kristang classes. In Kevin Martens Wong (ed.), Libru Laranja / The Orange Book (Chapter 572), pp. 5313-5317. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.

Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Onsong sa Sunyeskah: Articulating a first indigenous Kristang epistemological understanding of dreamfishing. In Kevin Martens Wong (ed.), Libru Laranja / The Orange Book (Chapter 573), pp. 5318-5330. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.

Wong, Kevin Martens (2023). Lembransa Sunyeskah: Schematising dreamfishing through Practice-as-Research. In Kevin Martens Wong (ed.), Libru Laranja / The Orange Book (Chapter 574), pp. 5331-5354. Singapore: Merlionsman Coaching & Consulting.

Māori

He awa whiria

Martel, Rhiannon, Matthew Shepherd & Felicity Goodyear-Smith (2021). He awa whiria—A “Braided River”: An Indigenous Māori Approach to Mixed Methods Research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research 16(1), 17-33.

Kaupapa Māori Theory

Haitana, Tracey, Suzanne Pitama, Donna Cormack, Mauterangimarie Clarke, & Cameron Lacey (2020). The Transformative Potential of Kaupapa Māori Research and Indigenous Methodologies: Positioning Māori Patient Experiences of Mental Health Services. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 19

 

Taitimu, Melissa, John Read & Tracey McIntosh (2018). Ngā Whakāwhitinga (standing at the crossroads): How Māori understand what Western psychiatry calls “schizophrenia”. Transcultural Psychiatry 55(2), 153-177.

Mātauranga

Reweti, Angelique, Felicity Ware & Hoani Moriarty (2023). A tangata whenua (people of the land) approach to conceptualising Māori health and wellbeing. Global Health Promotion 30(2), 11-18.

 

Smith, Linda Tuhiwai, Te Kahautu Maxwell, Haupai Puke & Pou Temara (2016). Indigenous knowledge, methodology and mayhem: What is the role of methodology in producing indigenous insights? A discussion from mātauranga Māori. Knowledge Cultures 4(3), 131-156.

Mauri Model

Morgan, Te Kipa Kepa Brian (2006). Waiora and Cultural Identity: Water quality assessment using the Mauri Model. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 3(1), 42-67.

Rongomātau

Dell, Kiri (2021). Rongomātau – ‘sensing the knowing’: An Indigenous Methodology Utilising Sensed Knowledge From the Researcher. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 20.

Te Kupenga

Heke, Deborah M. (2024). Te Kupenga – Reflecting on the Purposeful Collection, Interpretation, and Stor(y)ing of Māori Women’s Knowledges. Journal of Indigenous Research 12(2), 1-12.

Métis

Métissage

Bishop, K., C. Etmanski, M.B. Page, B. Dominguez & C. Heykoop (2019). Narrative métissage as an innovative engagement practice. Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Learning 5(2), 1–117.

 

Burke, S. & R. Robinson (2019). Reflections on métissage as an Indigenous research praxis. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 15(2), 150–157.

Chambers, Cynthia (2004). Research that matters: Finding a path with heart. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies 2(1), 1–19.

 

Chambers, Cynthia & Erika Hasebe-Ludt with Dwayne Donald, Wanda Hurren, Carl Leggo & Antoinette Oberg (2008). Métissage: A Research Praxis. In J. Gary Knowles & Andra L. Cole (eds.), Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research, pp. 141-154. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications.

Cox, R. D., M. Dougherty, S. Lang Hampton, C. Neigel & K. Nickel (2017). Does this feel empowering? Using métissage to explore the effects of critical pedagogy. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 8(1), 33–57.

Donald, D. T. (2009). Forts, curriculum, and Indigenous Métissage: Imagining decolonization of Aboriginal-Canadian relations in educational contexts. First Nations Perspectives 2(1), 1–24.

Donald, D. T. (2012). Indigenous Métissage: A decolonizing research sensibility. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 25(5), 533–555.

Giguere, L., L. MacLeod, & J. McBride (2019). The transformative possibility of literary métissage: An action research report. AJARj 25(1), 31–64.

Hasebe-Ludt, Erika, Cynthia Chambers & C. Leggo (2009). Life writing and literary métissage as an ethos for our times. Lausanne, Switzerland: Peter Lang.

Hasebe-Ludt, Erika, & Jordan, N. (2010). Opening—May we get us a heart of wisdom: Life writing across knowledge traditions. Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 7(2), 1–4.

Lowan-Trudeau, G. (2015). From bricolage to métissage: Rethinking intercultural approaches to indigenous environmental education and research. Lausanne, Switzerland: Peter Lang.

Scott, Bryanna (2023). Métissage methodology for qualitative research. Journal of Indigenous Research 11(1), 1-11.

Worley, V. (2006). Revolution is in the everyday: Métissage as place of education. Discourse 27, 515–531.

Mi'kmaw
Two-eyed seeing

Roy, Selvi & Barbara Campbell (2015). An Indigenous Epistemological Approach to Promote Health Through Effective Knowledge Translation. Journal of Indigenous Research 4, 1-10.

 

Nauiyu

Dadirri

Ungunmerr-Baumann, Miriam-Rose, Rachel A. Groom, Emma L. Schuberg, Judy Atkinson,  Caroline (Carlie) Atkinson, Ruth Wallace & Gavin Morris (2022). Dadirri: an Indigenous place-based research methodology. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 18(1), 94-103.

Noongar

Cooperative Inquiry

Wooltorton, Sandra, Len Collard, Pierre Horwitz, Anne Poelina & David Palmer (2020). Sharing a place-based indigenous methodology and learnings. Environmental Education Research 26(7), 917-934.

Roviana

Lauer, Matthew & Shankar Aswani (2009). Indigenous Ecological Knowledge as Situated Practices: Understanding Fishers’ Knowledge in the Western Solomon Islands​. American Anthropologist 111(3), 317-329.

Intersectional, Regional and/or Supra-community approaches and critiques

Aboriginal Dreaming (Australia)

Foley, Dennis (2018). Indigenous methodology: Is it invented or is it legitimate? Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues 21(3), 20-38.

Australian Indigenous Women's Standpoint Theory (Australia)

 

Moreton-Robinson, Aileen. (2013). Towards an Australian Indigenous Women’s Standpoint Theory: A Methodological Tool. Australian Feminist Studies 28(78), 331–347. 

Indigenous Epistolary Methodology (Chicana & North America)

 

Cisneros, Nora Alba (2017). ‘To my relations’: writing and refusal toward an Indigenous Epistolary Methodology. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 31(3), 188–196.

LifeWorld (General)

 

Walter, Maggie & Michele Suina (2019). Indigenous data, indigenous methodologies and indigenous data sovereignty. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 22(3), 233-243.

Mandala (Southeast Asia)

Dellios, Rosita (1996). Mandalas of Security. Culture Mandala: The Bulletin of the Centre for East-West Cultural and Economic Studies 2(1), 1-20.

Mahadevan, Jasmin (2012). The Mandala Model of Power and Leadership: A Southeast Asian Perspective. In Gregory P. Prastacos & Klas Eric Soderquist (eds.), Leadership through the Classics: Learning Management and Leadership from Ancient East and West Philosophy, pp. 363-374. Berlin, Germany: Springer. 

Spirit-based Research (North America)

 

Lucchesi, Annita Hetoevėhotohke'e (2019). Spirit-Based Research: A Tactic for Surviving Trauma in Decolonizing Research. Journal of Indigenous Research 7(1), 1-4.
 

Storytelling (General)

Chan, Adrienne S. (2021). Storytelling, Culture and Indigenous Methodology. In Alan Bainbridge, Laura Formenti and Linden West (eds.), Discourses, Dialogue and Diversity in Biographical Research: An Ecology of Life and Learning, pp. 170-185. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill.

Datta, Rajan (2018). Traditional storytelling: an effective Indigenous research methodology and its implications for environmental research. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 10(1), pp. 1-10.

Sweetgrass Method (North America)

Baez, Mark Standing Eagle, Patricia Isaac & Carla Allison Baez (2016). H.O.P.E. for Indigenous People Battling Intergenerational Trauma: The Sweetgrass Method. Journal of Indigenous Research 5(2), 1-15.

Baez, Mark Standing Eagle, Carla Allison Baez, Brittany Lavallie & Whitney Spears (2022). Sweetgrass Method: A Culturally Responsive Approach among American Indian and Alaska Native K-12. Journal of Indigenous Research 10, 1-20.

bottom of page