*3.1. Framing Methodological Challenges*

Linda Tuhiwai Smith's landmark book *Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples*[4] profoundly affected Indigenous studies. The fashion of postcolonialism, in Smith's words, has become a strategy for re-inscribing or re-authorizing the privileges of non-Indigenous academics because the field of 'post-colonial' discourse "has been defined in ways which can still leave out Indigenous peoples, our ways of knowing and our current concerns" (p. 25). Referring to Smith's words, Sikes [43] argues that the applicability and meaning of the 'post' prefix, and particularly when it is hyphenated, is problematic. Not only does 'post' suggest a temporal linearity and a definite in-the-pastness which some (ex)colonized peoples may not experience or perceive, it perpetuates the 'othering' and emphasizes oppositions and binaries. A central task of projects of decolonization is, and should be, to go beyond such reductive polarizations (pp. 350–351).

The publication *Decolonizing methodologies* marked an important milestone for research with Indigenous peoples. However, it also requires careful consideration when responding to this framework and adapting it for use in different Indigenous settings. As noted by Smith herself [4], even the term 'Indigenous' is problematic in that it appears to collectivize many distinct populations whose experiences under colonialism and imperialism have been vastly different (p. 6). Rather than distinguishing and binarizing Indigenous people versus settlers, Mlcek [44] argues that decolonizing methodologies are about making the connections. The storytelling process both resists and intervenes to cocoon the individual in a state of protective and strengthening sustainability. The telling of personal stories is a powerful way to talk about life experiences within a socio-cultural context, especially when they relate to being "on the borders" [44] (pp. 85, 88). *Decolonizing methodologies* challenges researchers to think deeply of their own colonial and cultural contexts and provokes a nascent research paradigm embedded in specific cultural settings. However, Leslie [45] found that the label 'decolonizing' is not suitable in her own *Kamilaroi* cultural context. To avoid conflating a specific Indigenous context into a colonized/de-colonizing binary, through reflective thinking in *Kamilaroi* language, Leslie [45] developed her own *Wingangay* methodology. The root '*winanga*' is translated as 'hear' and the verb for *winanga*, *Winangay* goes beyond just hearing. In Leslie's *Kamilaroi* culture, like many oral cultures, "the ear is seen as the instrument or seat of intelligence and perception, therefore *winangay* goes beyond just hearing." (p. 203). This approach shifts the relationship between the privileged researcher and

their research subjects away from one of colonizing knowledge whereby knowledge is something to be possessed by the researcher and reframes the research relationship in very different ways.
