ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the premise that there is a connection between theory, research and policy. In reflecting upon unexamined theory in an Indigenous context, we see that more often than not outsider theorizing in research and policy has diminished rather than upheld Indigenous peoples. Theory in qualitative research is a certainty, but like the intangible wsahkchk that moves with a maverick's covertness, theory in research can perplex. Research and policy impacting Indigenous communities have never been a political, nor have they been a theoretical. Alertness expands and responsive intensifies. wsahkchk the transformer has entered the room. wsahkchk has the potential to trouble even the most theoretically complacent researcher and in doing so, changes things. The shrewd transformer interrupts the habitual and makes space for us to pause, reflect, think and think again. And in the often stagnant, deficit theorizing of Indigenous peoples in research and policy discourse, both thinking again and changing things couldn't hurt.
