Ground Up Inquiry: Questions and Answers About the Emergence and Development of a Northern Australian Tradition of Situated Research

Ground Up Inquiry is the name of a situated approach to researching used by the Contemporary Indigenous Knowledge and Governance (CIKG) team in CDU’s Northern Institute (Charles Darwin University, 2017a). The team partners with Indigenous researchers working under the authority of Elders in their home places. Many of our partner researchers offer research services through Indigenous Researchers Initiative (Charles Darwin University, 2017b). In the Northern Territory of Australia, Ground Up is often contract research and service delivery, but it is also increasingly recognised as an established research method where Indigenous and academic knowledge authorities work together as equals under the aegis of the modern university system. Composed as answers to questions, this paper revisits the origins of Ground Up, and gives an overview of this approach as situated research.