Indigenizing Practice: Spirituality, Service, Agency, Vision, and Innovation Collective-Individual Approach to Pasifika Research in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

This Case Study promotes use of the spirituality, service, agency, vision, and innovation (SSAVI) collective-individual (C-I) approach to the holistic analysis of Indigenous research findings. This study draws on use of the SSAVI C-I model across four studies that were carried out within Indigenous diaspora communities. The strengths of the SSAVI C-I approach are that it first acknowledges the holistic nature of Indigenous communities and the importance of opening dialogue to capture Indigenous voices on various aspects of their holistic ways of life. Second, the SSAVI C-I method empowers Indigenous people through the retelling of narratives using their concepts, language, and sense making, ensuring that what has been analyzed and recorded is true for Indigenous peoples. Third, the SSAVI C-I method builds researcher efficacy in working with Indigenous communities and contexts, beyond their own experiences and understandings, because it relies on a culturally responsive community-led approach of research design, data collection, and analysis. Therefore, this Case Study highlights how the SSAVI C-I method can assist in better informing researchers about the holistic contexts of Indigenous communities as well as build an effective relationship between researchers and Indigenous peoples in the co-creation of new knowledge and the acknowledgment of Indigenous knowledge holders. For these important reasons, SSAVI C-I is building research excellence.