Knowledge Dialogues on Violence against Indigenous Women: Methodological Approaches to Intercultural Research

The existing inequalities between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples, and between men and women, are made visible by the results obtained from a research process.

The need to collect and use data obtained from real life and from the voices of women living situations of violence is directly connected to the fulfilment of the human rights of women.

Indigenous Peoples and Women experience violence and discrimination on a daily basis, but they find it is difficult to document, report and prevent the situation. Indigenous Women’s organizations face the challenge of training their own indigenous researchers to study their own reality and to develop their own conceptual frameworks and methodologies to address issues such as discrimination, racism, exclusion and violence.

The manual that we share below is designed to support the training of indigenous researchers by offering research methodologies and techniques aimed at gathering better evidence. In addition, it aims to encourage activist Indigenous Women to take the tools of intercultural research as their own to empower their work, generating new and better data about the violence experienced by Indigenous Women. Such evidence, based on the ethical principles that support intercultural research, rather than remaining locked in a filing drawer, should be used to advocate for public policies that actually generate social change and offer better living conditions for Indigenous Women.