Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the auto-ethnographic aspect of my methodology that was employed and theoretical framework that underpins my recently submitted DCA exegesis and film documentary on socially conscious Hip-hop in Australia, JustUS:What Hip-hop Wants You to Know. (https://vimeo.com/561269114)

Paper long abstract:

It was not until much later in my research- based practice (making a Hip-hop film) that I discovered that the best academic articulation for my research methodology, apart from being practice-led, was inherently Auto-ethnographic. Also, as an indigenous person who identifies with the Hip-hop community, my identity very much informed my style of questioning, observation and reflexivity; where I chose to conduct interviews, when it was appropriate to conduct research, who I chose to question or in a metaphysical sense who chose to be interviewed by me. It is these decisions on who, what, where and when to research that are ultimately made through subjective choices. Alternatively, auto-ethnography is not only transparent about subjectivity, it “accommodates subjectivity, emotionality, and the researcher's influence on research, rather than hiding from these matters or assuming they don't exist” (Ellis, Adams and Bochner 2010, p. 2). Autoethnography is “a tool with which Indigenous people can decolonise research practices and representations of themselves. This is possible with Indigenous autoethnography because the researcher is the subject, the key informant and the expert” (Pratt quoted in Houston 2007, p. 48). For instance, my own scholarly resistance is evident in my editing process; juxtaposing news media accounts of Aboriginal so-called “rioting” against the alternative truth behind Aboriginal uprisings. As the key informant and expert sharing this alternative knowledge with my participants, I have been able to provide not only alternative information relating to these events, but also new meanings that can enhance existing understandings of Australian Hip-hop.