Under the Ontario government’s Aboriginal Sexual Violence Action Plan I was invited and hired by a provincial Indigenous organization to provide IE and mapping training to Indigenous community organizations, to assist them in identifying community-specific institutional issues, developing their projects, and to support them in their research and identifying changes that could help their communities. Dorothy joined me in providing a 2-day workshop with sponsoring provincial organizations, and later for three, 3-day trainings for the community researchers. These were 1) developing a research focus and direction, 2) interviewing, and 3) mapping. Trainings were 3 months apart with in-community working debriefing sessions between. Provincial ministry and overseeing stakeholders who attended the final mapping training were surprised to learn in detail the wide range of issues that Indigenous shelters, friendship centres and community organizations trying to support Indigenous victims of sexual violence faced daily in different parts of the province. Presentations of final findings to the overseeing organization showed how and where issues emerged concretely in 4 communities in Ontario for Indigenous people in hospital units, police investigations and sexual violence support services.
After this 4-year provincial project, government funding programs under the ASVAP were developed including for research into sexual violence and policing and services.
Ganohkwasra Family Assault Support Services of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory asked me to develop a proposal with them as partners in affiliation with the Six Nations Police Service. Our proposal was one of three funded in the province. The two proposals that also received funding were on the topic issues our teams had identified as where a range of problems emerged for Indigenous people in their communities. The provincial Indigenous organization that had gathered all community teams’ results received funds to look at urban police investigations, and a hospital research team received funds to address the Ontario hospitals’ sexual violence treatment and care units’ work.
The second IE co-research with Ganohkwasra resulted in significant outcomes and ongoing collaboration. See:
- Past Work: Six Nations of the Grand River Territory
- Turner and Bomberry, Building Change on and off Reserve: Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, in Palgrave’s Handbook of Institutional Ethnography (2021).