Embracing Vulnerability: The Critical Practice of Reflexivity as a Non-Pacific Researcher Using Indigenous Methodologies

Abstract

This article focuses on the challenges I have encountered during my PhD journey regarding positionality and the complexities of being an insider–outsider researcher. I am originally from the global North, living in the global South and conducting research with communities in Samoa, my home of 30 years, though geographically located in New Zealand due to border closures. This autoethnographic reflection elaborates the complexities of being both an insider and outsider engaging in research focused on competitive swimming in Samoa, using Pacific methodology of talanoa. The article aims to highlight my competing identities and how I negotiated these within the data collection process. It concludes that it is necessary for non-Pasifika researchers to be cautious if using indigenous methods as there are ever-changing dynamics within cross-cultural fieldwork that requires adopting an intentional vulnerability within the research space.