Indigenous Boarding Experiences: International Connections: Paper presented at Indigenous Teacher Education Conference (AIITEC), Flagstaff, Arizona, United States.

Few studies have primarily addressed Indigenous girls’ experiences in contemporary boarding schools in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, mainland United States or Hawai’i. In response, I have collaboratively designed Indigenous research projects in conjunction with boarding schools with Indigenous students, to highlight Indigenous student voices regarding their boarding school experiences. In this paper, I discuss our collaborative research: with Aboriginal boarding students in Australia, Mãori boarding students in Aotearoa New Zealand, Kanaka Maoli students in Hawaii, and Native American students attending Sherman Indian High School in California. An Indigenous research method termed ‘photoyarn’ was developed as a method students could use to drive and control their own research, on their own experiences, using student photography, the Aboriginal Australian method, yarning, and yarning circles. Underpinned and viewed through the lens of Martin’s (2008) relatedness theory, this research also drew on Indigenous methodologies centred on connectedness and relatedness, such as storywork. Photoyarn allowed participants to lead their own research in ways that many other methods could not, through participant-led data collection, analysis and dissemination. This method grew and changed throughout the research projects that emerged in Aotearoa New Zealand (pikitiakorero), Hawaii (photostory) and in California, talking circles were used as the method. This paper shares findings from these international contexts, regarding contemporary Indigenous girls’ boarding experiences