Characteristics of evidence produced from Indigenous methodologies compared with traditional Western methodologies used by dominant cultures
| Towards Indigenous methodology | Towards a dominant Western methodology |
| Knowledge is produced through an anti-colonial/decolonising /sovereign/self-determining lens (emancipatory) | Knowledge is produced towards a colonial lens (surveillance and management) |
| Interrogates systems of power | Maintains systems of power |
| Knowledge is from lived experience, based on realities of people who experience them | Knowledge is produced from observation, measured and quantified |
| Knowledge is subjective, and based on values and opinions of those who create it | Knowledge is objective presented as a single truth |
| Considers knowledge to be socially produced, including as a means of oppression or emancipation | Considers knowledge is presumed to be/presented as neutral and impartial |
| Knowledge is collective, all are knowers | Qualified Individuals (researchers) are knowers |
| Narrative (storying, yarning) methods are highly legitimate ways to produce knowledge | Knowledge is obtained by method, with quantifiable methods considered as highly legitimate ways of producing knowledge |
| Challenges dominant discourses, traditions, beliefs or assumptions of understanding | Relies on dominant discourses, traditions, beliefs or assumptions as a starting point for understanding, does not make these explicit |
| Self-representation can capture Indigenous excellence, strength and survival of both people and culture and issues of importance to communities including racism and colonisation | Outsider representation may focus on the deficits and problems of Indigenous people and culture |
| Considers contexts specific to Indigenous people | Social–cultural–medical–political–historical experiences are de-contextualised and Western experiences normalised |
| Evidence is political it is generated for Indigenous advancement and change | Evidence has the purpose of solving or responding to identified problem/s and can be profited from |
| Oriented to Indigenous ways of understanding (holistic) | Oriented towards Western understandings (disease/problems) |