Paper short abstract:

This paper will examine art-based research methods 1) within a modern Indigenous research context; 2) as radical resistance to colonial research, and; 3) potential to harness Indigenous knowledge and consequently, generate an Indigenous psychological anthropology/cultural psychology scholarship.

Paper long abstract:

In response to the methodological limitations of psychological anthropology/cultural psychology (PA/CP; e.g., Euro-centric research methods that regulate and subjugate Indigenous peoples), Indigenous PAs/CPs have sought after a scholarship consonant with Indigenous perspectives and objectives (Garroutte, 2005). Rather than decolonizing research methods (e.g., the process of removing the colonial features of a given method), this form of scholarship is conducted within an anticolonial framework, which advocates for methods that are rooted in Indigenous epistemologies (i.e., ways of knowing) and ontologies (i.e., ways of being; Gone, 2019), and are thus, active efforts in resisting colonialism (Fish & Syed, 2020; Hartmann et al., 2019). While Indigenous PAs/CPs have proposed various anticolonial research methods that situate PA/CP phenomena in Indigenous knowledge (e.g., Blackfeet Indian culture camp, Gone & Calf Looking, 2015; Project Venture, Carter et al., 2007), there is one set of research methods that holds particular promise for anticolonialism, that is, art-based research methods (Fish & Syed, 2020; Straits et al., 2019). The purpose of this paper is to describe art-based research methods, including storytelling strategies (e.g., creative writing, story narration) and imagery (e.g., photographs, drawings), within a modern Indigenous research context. Moreover, this paper will discuss the potential such methods have to promote radical indigenist resistance in research (Garroutte, 2005). Specifically, the present paper will highlight how art-based research methods reassert and rebuild Indigenous knowledge from its own roots, towards the end of creating an Indigenous PA/CP scholarship that is for and by Indigenous peoples.