Research as Respect: Elevating the Knowledge and Stories of Men at an Aboriginal-Controlled Residential Alcohol and Drug Recovery Service

This conversation between an Aboriginal Elder, an Aboriginal senior manager/practitioner, and a non-Aboriginal narrative therapist/groupworker centres on a social research project they undertook with men residing in an Aboriginal men’s alcohol and other drug recovery service in Melbourne, Australia. The men were invited to contribute accounts of what was important in their lives and the practices that supported positive developments in their time at the facility. The men, manager, and a community Elder directed a research process that prioritised the use of these accounts to contribute to the lives of other men. The men resident at the facility provided access to transcripts of narrative therapy counselling and groupwork sessions, which were then examined using a narrative inquiry methodology. The men described the importance to them of identities as Aboriginal men, fathers, and family and community members. They gave accounts of how the service had contributed to significant developments in these identities. Key themes included the Aboriginal-managed nature of the service, providing an environment free from judgment, supporting recovery, healing, and re-connection with culture. Relationships with staff differed from those experienced by the men in other services: including respect for culture, being “on the same level,” sharing of experiences, and different approaches to role boundaries. As an outcome of the research, training materials were produced from the words of participants to promote respectful support and therapeutic practices. The project also illuminated the contributions that people subject to therapy, casework, and research make to the professional and personal lives of practitioners and researchers. In the words of Elder Les Stanley, “In a research project like this, everyone changes.”