Practical guidelines for Indigenous research: lessons from a case study exploring data literacy in our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community

This article presents an Indigenous research methodology developed in the context of a case study to better understand data literacy within our local Indigenous Australian community. For too long Indigenous peoples have been the subjects, rather than the producers, of data-focused research. By adopting this approach in our case study, we identified practical guidelines for conducting best-practice Indigenous research in our own local community. Researchers must build genuine relationships with Indigenous Peoples and communities, understand community priorities and cultural protocols, maintain good Indigenous data governance and include Indigenous Peoples at all stages of research. This article also considers the positionality of the Aboriginal researchers in the study’s design, conduct and ethical considerations. Adopting these guidelines allowed for insights to be collected and interpreted through an Indigenous lens and ensured that the case study met the needs of and benefitted our local Indigenous Australian community.