YARNING AS PROTECTED SPACE: principles and protocols

Abstract

Traditional methods of imparting knowledge are known as yarning to Australian Aboriginal Elders and talking circles to North American First Nations peoples. Yarning is a relational methodology for transferring Indigenous knowledge. This article describes an emerging research methodology with yarning at its core, which provides respect and honour in a culturally safe environment. Yarning is highly structured, with protocols and principles providing participants control over the process and their stories. The methodology is embedded in a yarning space, which is framed by six protocols and seven principles. The protocols are gift, control, freedom, space, inclusiveness and gender specificity, and the principles are reciprocity, responsibility, relationship, dignity, equality, integrity and self-determination—to protect participants, stories and data. This is ensured through respectful and honouring relationships, responsibility and accountability between participants. The key camps in which the yarning journey is segmented are the Ancestors, protocols, principles, connections, data, analysis, processing and reporting, and the wider community.

Yarning With Country: An Indigenist Research Methodology

“…We hope to honor and contribute to these conversations by focusing on the ways we attend to our relatedness. The Yarning methodology we discuss and practice in this article is based on Indigenous Australian practices of passing on Knowledge to the next generation (Barlo, in press). However, we suggest that intentionally cultivating respectful relationship with Country is relevant more broadly, particularly for researchers working within a relational framework.…”

“…The Yarning methodology we demonstrate here is grounded in Australian Indigenous ways of Knowing, Being, and Doing (Martin, 2003), specifically Yarning as a way of sharing Knowledge which is structured by principles and protocols (Barlo, in press; Terare & Rawsthorne, 2019; Yunkaporta, 2019). 1 We choose to share this process with you as a conversation between people and with Country because that is the way this kind of sharing takes place: in person, in real time, in Place, between beings.…”

“…Different levels of Yarning are structured by principles and protocols appropriate to the context and type of information being shared (Bessarab & Ng’andu, 2010; Terare & Rawsthorne, 2019; Yunkaporta, 2019). These principles and protocols ensure that participants and Knowledge are protected (Barlo, in press). In Bundjalung, there are six different words to denote the levels of Yarning; the process we describe in this article is based on Yahn.gawaymaliyah, the style of communication conducted by Elders when passing on Knowledge to the next generation (Barlo, 2020).…”

“…These principles and protocols ensure that participants and Knowledge are protected (Barlo, in press). In Bundjalung, there are six different words to denote the levels of Yarning; the process we describe in this article is based on Yahn.gawaymaliyah, the style of communication conducted by Elders when passing on Knowledge to the next generation (Barlo, 2020).…”

“… 1 For further reading on Yarning as a research method, see for example Barlo (2016), Bessarab and Ng’andu (2010), Dean (2010), and Walker et al (2014). For further reading on Yarning methodology, see Barlo (2020). In this article, we do not elaborate Yarning methodology generally, but instead focus on Yarning with Country . …”