Enhancing Indigenous Health Promotion Research Through Two-Eyed Seeing: A Hermeneutic Relational Process

Abstract

The intention of this article is to demonstrate how Indigenous and allied health promotion researchers learned to work together through a process of Two-Eyed Seeing. This process was first introduced as a philosophical hermeneutic research project on diabetes prevention within an Indigenous community in Quebec Canada. We, as a research team, became aware that hermeneutics and the principles of Haudenosaunee decision making were characteristic of Two-Eyed Seeing. This article describes our experiences while working with each other. Our learning from these interactions emphasized the relational aspects needed to ensure that we became a highly functional research team while working together and becoming Two-Eyed Seeing partners.

Keywords: Indigenous research methodologies; Montreal Quebec Canada; diabetes prevention; health promotion; philosophical hermeneutics; qualitative reseach; two-eyed seeing.