Indigenizing Social Work Research: Using the Medicine Wheel in the Two-Spirit HIV/AIDS Wellness and Longevity Study (2SHAWLS) (WITHDRAWN)

Background and purpose: Community-based research with Canadian Aboriginal communities seeks to map Indigenous worldviews and develop anti-colonial research approaches.  However, less attention has focused on how Indigenous knowledges might influence data collection and analysis.  The Medicine Wheel (MW), a common North American Aboriginal symbol, represents an individual’s healing journey in balancing the four aspects of self (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual) with the interconnection to all things.  This presentation focuses on how MW teachings were used for data collection, analysis, and knowledge translation to understand the resiliency perspectives of two-spirit males living long-term with HIV/AIDS in Ontario, Canada.

Method: This collaborative project included a research team comprised of both Indigenous people and White settler academics and staff. Community-based research (CBR) principles were used throughout the study. Members of the research team and staff included Aboriginal men who identified as gay and/or Two-Spirit and who have been living with HIV long-term. A community advisory board included elders who were living with or familiar with HIV in the Aboriginal communities. These critical stakeholders ensured that the study was conducted in a way that was valuable and beneficial to HIV-positive Two-Spirit men. For data collection, Aboriginal sharing circles were used to gather data in three locations (Hamilton, Toronto, and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada). The sharing circles were similar to focus groups except that they were Indigenized in several ways including: (i) the use of a spiritual helper who provided Aboriginal teachings to the participants, (ii) a large Medicine Wheel floor piece was used in the center of each sharing circle to solicit dialogue focused on individual healing journeys living with HIV/AIDS, and (iii) the participants (n=14) were asked only one question: “What's allowing you to live well long-term with HIV?” Data analysis involved several stages: (i) Cross-cultural training on MW teachings and qualitative data analysis were provided to all team members, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal; (ii) once transcribed, all data expressing similar patterns were coded using NVivo 10; (iii) using participatory analysis, selected key quotes were mapped to the MW in areas expressing similar meaning by all team members; (iv) codes that expressed a relationship to one another were grouped and then labelled consistent with the teachings of the MW; and (v) data visualization was used to present findings using the MW. 

Results:  Culturally-bound symbols potentially provide attuned and structured ways to interpret and understand data and to develop knowledge consistent with Aboriginal worldviews. This potentially facilitates the goal of knowledge translation, exchange and uptake of research findings in communities of interest.

 

Conclusions and implications: The analytic process described above potentially shifts the way researchers come to understand, write, speak about and present scholarly work focused on Aboriginal HIV/AIDS resiliency through the world views of those most directly affected.