Shawn Wilson

University of British Columbia - Okanagan | UBC Okanagan · Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies

The inclusion of Indigenous cultures, known as the cultural determinants of health, in healthcare policy and health professional education accreditation and registration requirements, is increasingly being recognised as imperative for improving the appalling health and well-being of Indigenous Australians. These inclusions are a strengths-based res...

Preparing ourselves for the ceremony of research is akin to preparing ourselves to be in good relationship with Knowledge, and with whoever else participates in the research, including other human beings, more than human beings, and Country. In this article, I talk about the practice of cultivating the values and skills that make for good relations...

This paper will explain the concept of double perspective and the impact that this cultural understanding may have on the health of the Indigenous peoples of Scandinavia. In inter-cultural communication, one set of meanings may be discernible to the outsider while a whole extra set of restricted or underlying meanings are only accessible for those...

Indigenous peoples have always met colonization with active resistance. In recent years, there has been growing resistance to scientific methods and assumptions that contribute to ongoing violence and colonization. This chapter engages in a conversation about the epistemologies, ontologies, and axiologies that characterize Indigenist ways of knowin...

This article highlights the perceptions and expectations of knowledge that many people, including educators and policy makers, take for granted. Our focus of understanding is Indigenous studies and gender studies. Our aim is to show how modern education undermines these fields of studies. We use an autoethnographic method, reflecting more than 75 y...

Australia’s local, state, territory and federal governments have agreed that the 10-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians will be closed by 2031. However, annual Closing the Gap reports tabled by the various prime ministers in the Australian Parliament (for the past 12 years) have consistently indicated that the...

This article uses an Indigenous Research Methodology known as Storywork. Following Indigenous protocols and pedagogy through the telling of stories, the reader and listener is introduced to an Indigenist paradigm and research standpoint. Through describing my standpoint, the stories demonstrate the centrality of my Indigeneity in my methodology whi...

In this article, we open up Yarning as a fundamentally relational methodology. We discuss key relationships involved in Indigenous research, including with participants, Country, Ancestors, data, history, and Knowledge. We argue that the principles and protocols associated with the deepest layers of yarning in an Indigenous Australian context creat...

The goal of this article is to explain the concept of double perspective and the impact this may be having on the health of Indigenous people. In inter-cultural communication, there are sets of meanings that are discernible to anyone, and an extra set of underlying meanings that are only accessible for people who have the cultural knowledge to disc...

Traditional methods of imparting knowledge are known as yarning to Australian Aboriginal Elders and talking circles to North American First Nations peoples. Yarning is a relational methodology for transferring Indigenous knowledge. This article describes an emerging research methodology with yarning at its core, which provides respect and honour in...

In Australia, an evidence gap exists for governments and policymakers about what it means when the cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are included in public policies. Specifically, when the cultures of Indigenous Australians have been incorporated in a public health policy like the Australian Government's National Aboriginal a...

European colonization of Indigenous nations has severely impacted the health of Indigenous peoples across the globe. Much of the burden of ill health suffered by Indigenous people today can be traced directly back to colonization. Indigenous peoples of all first world nations where colonization has occurred are experiencing epidemic proportions of...

European colonization of Indigenous nations has severely impacted the health of Indigenous peoples across the globe. Much of the burden of ill health suffered by Indigenous people today can be traced directly back to colonization. Indigenous peoples of all first world nations where colonization has occurred are experiencing epidemic proportions of...

This paper describes an eight-month community-based participatory research project to introduce and evaluate the implementation of an asset-based approach to Tuberculosis (TB) leadership groups in three villages in Flores Island, Indonesia. An asset-based intervention that emphasized discovering, mobilizing, and strengthening the capacities of loca...

Background The community’s awareness of Tuberculosis (TB) and delays in health care seeking remain important issues in Indonesia despite the extensive efforts of community-based TB programs delivered by a non-government organisation (NGO). This study explored the knowledge and behaviours in relation to TB and early diagnosis before and after an ass...

Providing culturally competent treatment and care for Aboriginal people with renal failure requiring haemodialysis within mainstream renal services remains complex, challenging and poorly informed. This paper reports recommendations for improving cultural competence within renal units which emerged from a renal nurses' doctoral study conducted in r...

2 Private Practice, 3 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation, 4 Mid North Coast Local Health District, NSW Health, and 5 Social and Emotional Well-being and Mental Health, Galambila Aboriginal Health Service Inc. Previous cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) training studies have suggested that therapists who practice CBT strategie...

The purpose of this article is to identify issues affecting the clinical supervision of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental healthcare workforce, and propose alternative supervision models. Participatory Action Research (PAR) was the primary methodology used to elicit and analyze the reflections of five Aboriginal counselors. The data...

W e raise a question for contemplation regard-ing the article by Amrita Roy that seeks to reframe epidemiological research methodol-ogy to overcome incongruence with Aboriginal worldviews (Roy, 2014). We ask if this article is a 'Trojan Horse' – an alluring gift on the outside but lurking with danger within? Many readers will open their minds to th...

Objectives Australian Aboriginal people have at least eight times the incidence of end-stage kidney disease, requiring dialysis, as the non-Aboriginal population. Provision of health services to rural Aboriginal people with renal disease is challenging due to barriers to access and cultural differences. We aimed to describe the experiences of Abori...

‘They put funerals and family in front of their dialysis’: A qualitative study of service provider’s perspectives on service delivery for Aboriginal people receiving haemodialysis in rural New South Wales Background Providing renal services to rural dwelling Aboriginal people is challenging due to access and cultural issues. This study describes s...

Chronic kidney disease has a higher prevalence in Indigenous populations globally. The incidence of end-stage kidney disease in Australian Aboriginal people is eight times higher than non-Aboriginal Australians. Providing services to rural and remote Aboriginal people with chronic disease is challenging because of access and cultural differences. T...

Case studies and semi-structured interview prompts used to guide health care provider interviews.

Context: Reflexivity is crucial for non-Aboriginal researchers working with Aboriginal people. This article describes a process of ’reflexive practice’ undertaken by a white clinician/researcher while working with Aboriginal people. The clinician/researcher elicited Aboriginal people’s experience of being haemodialysis recipients in rural Australia...

ABSTRACT Introduction: Researchers are challenged to publish or perish. However, a range of barriers to writing can result in sub-optimal productivity, particularly for early career researchers. Researchers in rural areas may face additional challenges of distance and limited access to colleagues. Implementing strategies to address some of these ob...

Context: Reflexivity is crucial for non-Aboriginal researchers working with Aboriginal people. This article describes a process of 'reflexive practice' undertaken by a white clinician/researcher while working with Aboriginal people. The clinician/researcher elicited Aboriginal people's experience of being haemodialysis recipients in rural Australi...

Introduction: Researchers are challenged to publish or perish. However, a range of barriers to writing can result in sub-optimal productivity, particularly for early career researchers. Researchers in rural areas may face additional challenges of distance and limited access to colleagues. Implementing strategies to address some of these obstacles w...

The objective of the study was to investigate whether cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) might be an effective therapeutic approach for enhancing the mental health of Aboriginal Australians. Five university-educated Aboriginal counsellors received in-depth training in CBT. Over the following year they used CBT strategies with their clients, and me...

We appreciate the valuable commentaries that have been provided for our paper “Can CBT be effective for Aboriginal Australians? Perspectives of Aboriginal practitioners trained in CBT.” The international authors identify how CBT, with adaptations by culturally responsive practitioners can be of value for non-Western and Indigenous peoples. The comm...

Providing services to rural dwelling minority cultural groups with serious chronic disease is challenging due to access to care and cultural differences. This study aimed to describe service providers' perspectives on health services delivery for Aboriginal people receiving haemodialysis for end-stage kidney disease in rural Australia. Semistructur...

Indigenous researchers must move beyond merely assuming an Indigenous perspective on non-Indigenous research paradigms. An Indigenous paradigm comes from the fundamental belief that knowledge is relational, is shared with all creation, and therefore can not be owned or discovered. Indigenous research methods should reflect these beliefs and the obl...