ABSTRACT
Ontology refers to the external influences or ‘realities’ that impact on and are part of the research process (and could be conceptualised as savoir). In this chapter I will make meaning of the multiple ‘realities’ of researching. In doing so, I will respond to the following questions. What are the ‘realities’ that are part of and that impact on the research process? How do they do so? How should researchers engage with the implications of these ‘realities’? These questions of ontology require consideration, in a research situation where there are recurrent allegations of feminisms on the island being fuelled by Western ideologies and funded by foreign interests (Chapters 1 and 7). It is my intention to address these stale and sour denouncements of feminisms by focusing on the ontological aspects of the issue: such as the politics of imported and indigenous knowledges, the multiple drivers of feminisms, ideology that masquerades as methodology, and interest representation and application.
