Indigenous Research Methodologies for considering cultural values of water is a missing component in water management in Australia. On this dry, flat and ancient continent Traditional Ecological Knowledge has been passed on from generation to generation for millennia. This is a profound reliance of knowledge of surface and groundwater, has been critical to ensure the survival of Indigenous peoples in a dry landscape, through the role of traditional knowledge in finding, re-finding and protecting water. Indigenous Research Methodologies can provide a basis for the exploration of this knowledge in a way that that is culturally appropriate, and which generates a cultural safe space with Indigenous researchers and communities. This aims to shift the research paradigm away from Indigenous peoples being the researched under non-Indigenous research methodologies to becoming the researchers. Indigenous Research Methodologies are rooted in Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies and represent a radical departure from more positivist forms of research (Wilson 2001[1]). This allows the Indigenous researcher to derive the terms, questions and priorities of what is being researched, how the community is engaged, and how the research is delivered.
[1] Wilson, S. 2001 What is indigenous research methodology? Canadian Journal of Native Education; 2001; 25, 2; ProQuest Central pg. 175