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Indigenous young people around the world suffer poorer mental health outcomes than their non-Indigenous peers. Currently, how culture matters for health, what cultural practices are used in community to support health and well-being, and how culture is passed on in Aboriginal contemporary life in southeast Australia--the region most affected by settler-colonisation--is not well understood. This paper presents findings from yarns with a representative sample of 44 Indigenous participants working in the field of health and well-being that explored how culture interleaves with health and well-being. It uses grounded theory as the overarching methodology with community participation in all aspects of the project. Participants were nominated through snowball sampling and screened by a governing board of Elders. They included men and women of varied ages with half residing in urban areas and half in rural Victoria, Australia. They had declared affiliations to 31 traditional tribal groups. The yarns were held over Zoom videoconferencing between an Indigenous research assistant who was part of the community, and each participant. Each yarn was recorded, transcribed, coded and analysed by a multi-perspectival team. Culture was viewed as central to individual and communal life and passed on through relationships with people and Country itself. Community members used a wide variety of cultural practices to aid and maintain health and wellbeing in profound ways. Myriad extant obstacles to health and well-being were also described, from experiences of disconnection through to barriers for accessing services. These findings have the potential to shape future holistic care and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades researchers have been exploring new hybrid methodologies to decolonise Indigenous mental health research. Grounded Theory with Community Participatory Action Research (CPAR), often using Indigenist methods, is the most common. Grounded Theory's claim to rigour is its transparent, organised process of sifting and theme finding, while CPAR respects Indigenous self-determination and Indigenous ways of knowing doing and being, involving Indigenous research participants in all stages of the research from data collection to analysis. On the surface it would seem to be the ideal methodological approach to navigate the cultural divide. However, this article will argue that Grounded Theory's inherent weakness is in the process of thematic analysis, which uses consensus during the analysis phase to find dominant themes. Drawing on the social systems theory of Niklas Luhmann and the political theory of Chantal Mouffe, this article will argue for a group process of "agonistic pluralism" instead. Searching for shared truths has a tendency to smooth out differences. The article proposes an approach for configuring a research team and conducting team analysis that struggles with, and accounts for, dissonances, disagreements and differences. Furthermore, it argues these differences should be recorded as important findings along with agreed themes. The approach has been developed to explore community perspectives on the relationship between culture and health, and in turn, to develop culturally appropriate mental health therapies for First Nations young people within a Western paediatric hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Urban Threads” was an architectural installation that explored the ways in which those without land, money, and power shape the urban fabric, in particular the private territories that are staked out in the public realm and the spatial practices that connect them. All creative works in the installation were produced by women who were homeless in the context of a support group, TimeOut @ The Place, run by a collaboration of welfare agencies in Melbourne. Nine sites, located in minor lanes and alcoves in Melbourne’s Central Activities District, each housed “bedrooms” and “WAR(d)robes,” a “dining room,” and a “Living Room.” The “Path of Most Resistance (and Least Distance)” was marked out between them. The installation was conceived of and curated by the author as part of a PhD by Creative Works. The question “to what extent can architecture be ‘tactical’ (de Certeau’s definition)” is at the basis of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]