Considering culturally relevant practices and knowledge-sharing when creating an activity-promoting community research agenda

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the article is to discuss and reflect upon a process of building relationships and conducting community consultations to co-create a relevant community-based participatory research agenda exploring Indigenous youth activity-promoting programming. Four consultations were conducted with approximately 30 community members in Edmonton, Alberta to relevantly and respectfully engage Indigenous Peoples and community members in discussions about Indigenous youth activity-promoting programming. A research question was created from the community consultations to inform relevant knowledge generation. A research agenda was also created with community members to inform future community engagement in the research. We reflect upon our process and discuss the strengths, challenges and recommendations of incorporating culturally relevant practices and sharing knowledge within and outside of the community group. This work contributes to literature enhancing relevant and respectful methodological- and relational-research practices with Indigenous Peoples and communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous youth
• physical activity
• community-based participatory research
• health
• community consultation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Susan Sinclair and the participants in this project for sharing their knowledge and experiences.

Notes

1 The term ‘Indigenous' is capitalized when referring to Indigenous Peoples, who are native to a land (NAHO, http://www.naho.ca/publications/topics/terminology/) and represent a population (e.g. youth).

2 The term ‘Aboriginal' is used when the Indigenous population referred to is native to Canada.

3 The larger CBPR project was a multiphase project exploring how to support Indigenous youth health programs in Alberta, Canada.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Interdisciplinary Health Research Academy, University of Alberta.