Walking in Circles: Self-Location in Indigenous Youth Violence Prevention Research

Abstract

Four student researchers applied self-location, an Indigenous research method, to understand violence prevention research in which they are engaged with First Nations, Inuit, and Metis youth in Ontario and Saskatchewan. The framework ‘looking twice’ (Absolon & Willet, 2005) was used by the authors who share examples of their own process of self-locating. The use of this framework permitted the researchers to locate themselves, and by doing so, develop deeper understandings and heightened consciousness of the socio-economic and political conditions of violence with which Indigenous youth in Canada interact. By foregrounding the researchers’ self-location, a space was opened for dialogue that positions Indigenous and decolonizing knowledges and research methods within the greater discourse of violence prevention and the authors found ways to expand their concepts of and commitments to violence prevention research.