Book Review: Working with Aboriginal Communities

Reviewed by Karl Hele
Working with Aboriginal Communities In Places of Higher Learning is an interesting and brief volume aimed at faculty, administrators, and students in universities. Michell’s intent within the volume is to offer advice and direction to those individuals and institutions who are seeking to truly engage with Indigenous Peoples. Rather than focus on the negative, Michelle offers both timely and insightful suggestions to his readers, directing them when seeking to engage with a community to be humble, helpful, respectful, honourable, and ethical while being guided and informed. Simply, he advises all researchers entering a community to learn about it as much as possible before hand, not to come with a set project, and be willing to follow the community’s lead in terms of the project and research. He even offers a list of ways in which someone can engage with a community based on the researcher’s skills and training. Additionally, Michell reminds scholars that one can always decline a project for a variety of reasons, because taking on a task without interest or skill can also cause harm. The volume also offers administrators at universities guidelines and suggestions for evaluating and valuing community-based research and engagement. Specifically, the author notes that there is more to working with communities than academic publications. He even offers guidelines to both researchers and administrators on how to demonstrate community evolvement, something that is often seen as intangible. I liked Michell’s practical guide because of its down-to-earth tone and avoidance of a heavily detailed examination of ethics. He does state that following ethics are a must, but his work is about offering concrete suggestions to working with Indigenous Peoples at a practical level. Overall, this small volume really needs to be read by new and established academics (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) currently working or seeking to work with Indigenous communities, as well as administrators seeking to promote and evaluate this work. Communities seeking to successfully engage and guide researchers would also benefit by reading this book. The volume is a wonderful guide to concretely, ethically, and usefully engaging with Indigenous Peoples and Communities.

Herman J. Michell. Working with Aboriginal Communities in Place of Higher Learning. Vernon, B.C.: Jcharlton Publishing Ltd., 2013.