Paper short abstract:

This paper draws on my experience developing collaborative research with Lumad Indigenous communities in the Philippines. It uses a case study to highlight the difficulty of ensuring that research is of communal benefit, particularly when engaging policy spheres and persistent colonial structures.

Paper long abstract:

Throughout the last decade, research with Indigenous communities has experienced a methodological shift from exploitation to collaboration in which research aims to be both academically significant and of benefit to the community. Whilst this shift has rightly been celebrated, collaborative methodologies pose a number of often-unacknowledged challenges. This paper elaborates on some of these challenges, drawing on my experience working with Lumad Indigenous communities in the Philippines. It examines how I strove to use the privileged position of a United Kingdom based Anglican Mission Agency, the United Society Partners in the Gospel, to ensure community benefit, talking up to policy spaces and advocating for international pressure to be placed on the Filipino government for its persistent and systemic abuses of human rights.

The paper discusses the challenge of engaging with policy spheres that only communicate in English, through written reports, based on verifiable facts with communities presented as homogenous. It highlights the impact of political priorities and provides an example of how the researcher's position within colonial structures can result in 'research benefit' conforming, rather than challenging the exploitation and violence on which colonial structures are built. Finally, the paper reflects on the impact of differing time scales and individual priorities on definitions of community benefit. In conclusion, it argues that, whilst well-intentioned, collaborative research methodologies with Indigenous communities remain at risk of colonial distortion, particularly when the researcher is situated within enduring colonial systems and structures.