Drinking Coffee
Spending time together with people in a way that allows for informal ways of getting to know each other, provides for much better circumstances to start building relationships than the conditions provided by more conventional research methods like conducting interviews. Making these videos together with people from the community allowed us to also talk about things that were not directly related to the research, or even the films that we were shooting.[1]
These activities were often preceded with drinking a cup of coffee, or invitations to come over after after the shooting was done. Especially Kathy and Janet, as women more closely to my age, became people I started to spend casual time with for the remained of my visit. Danny Aaluk, who had been drawing the art for the "Voices of Thunder" documentary, likewise, became a person I ended up spending a lot more time with outside of the research requirements.
- ↑ See also Castleden, H., Morgan, V. S., & Lamb, C. (2012). “I spent the first year drinking tea”: Exploring Canadian university researchers’ perspectives on community‐based participatory research involving Indigenous peoples. The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien, 56(2), 160-179.
Giving Rides[edit]
Besides drinking coffee and talking, I would sometimes offer assistance to the people that I met with little chores or rides around town. Bringing people to the grocery store, or uptown to the co-op express. Getting gas, or picking someone up from the airport. Having the privilege of a research project vehicle to my disposal would allow me to do so, while I would simultaneously get a better understanding of the community layout. Such an understanding is crucial to making your way across town, both logistically and socially. My understanding of where people lived within the hamlet, and how much family support they would have, proved very helpful during the final workshops, for example, in terms of knowing who would require what kind of assistance would to allow them to participate.