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METHODS article

Front. Sociol.
Sec. Race and Ethnicity
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1372727

Visitation, Communication, and Participation: An ethical and respectful strategy for engaging Australian South Sea Islander communities when sharing their lived experiences

Provisionally accepted
Francis Bobongie-Harris Francis Bobongie-Harris 1*Zia Youse Zia Youse 2Gordon Quakawoot Gordon Quakawoot 2
  • 1 School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education, Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
  • 2 The University of Sydney, Darlington, New South Wales, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This article examines the experiences of three Australian South Sea Islanders from the same community who are part of a larger research team scheduled to engage in an archaeological research project in Mackay, Queensland, in 2021. The project aimed to highlight Australian South Sea Islander knowledges, voices, and lived experiences. However, due to COVID and persistent lockdowns in Queensland and New South Wales, the project faced significant delays.The timeline was adjusted, with plans to reintroduce the project to the community after an 18month hiatus, aiming to rekindle interest and encourage participation. This article focuses on designing a community engagement strategy that builds on established protocols for researchers working with Australian South Sea Islander communities. The strategy includes three key steps: visitation, communication, and participation. By integrating the Tok Stori methodology-an Indigenous research approach from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatuthe strategy supports the decolonisation of the collaborative research process, enabling the sharing of Australian South Sea Islander lived experiences in a culturally safe manner. The authors provide contextualised reflections, offering insights from an Australian South Sea Islander perspective.

    Keywords: Australian South Sea Islanders, Decolonising Methodologies, Tok stori, engagement strategy, Archaeology

    Received: 18 Jan 2024; Accepted: 15 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bobongie-Harris, Youse and Quakawoot. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Francis Bobongie-Harris, School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education, Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.