Danger Is a Signal, Not a State: Bigaagarri—An Indigenous Protocol for Dancing Around Threats to Wellbeing
This paper describes the health and wellbeing applications of a protocol designed from a Gumbaynggirr Australian First People’s concept, Bigaagarri. The protocol reframes threats to health and wellbeing as part of a communicative system of environmental signals, rather than an individualised, behavi...
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MDPI AG
2025-01-01
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/1/27 |
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| author | Phillip Orcher Victoria J. Palmer Tyson Yunkaporta |
| author_facet | Phillip Orcher Victoria J. Palmer Tyson Yunkaporta |
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| description | This paper describes the health and wellbeing applications of a protocol designed from a Gumbaynggirr Australian First People’s concept, Bigaagarri. The protocol reframes threats to health and wellbeing as part of a communicative system of environmental signals, rather than an individualised, behavioural fight–flight–fear response. Developed by a Muruwari Gumbaynggirr researcher, the protocol enfolds Aboriginal perspectives of health values and the physicality of personal location in place and social context. It combines Indigenous standpoint theory and lived-experience narrative research methods to translate Indigenous practices into generally accessible modalities. The paper connects the first principles of this protocol to literature, then, using code-switching between academic and informal settler and Indigenous voices, it introduces personal lived experience narratives that include utilisation of the participatory and immersive protocol seen in the graphical abstract image to mitigate suicidal ideation. This approach unsettles Westernised conceptions of health and wellbeing research that privilege disease-specific, single-solution approaches. It contests the dominant social imaginaries and narratives embedded in standard service models, which perpetuate the ongoing recolonisation of Indigenous identities, and common exclusion of others outside of the neurotypical majority. The Bigaagarri protocol is a potential way forward to reimagine preventive health landscapes, decolonise support for suicide and mental health through the embedding of Indigenous knowledges to lead to holistic approaches for wellbeing. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ce2ce825093949ab9c73f1c9a7412937 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2076-0760 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| series | Social Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-ce2ce825093949ab9c73f1c9a74129372025-01-24T13:49:43ZengMDPI AGSocial Sciences2076-07602025-01-011412710.3390/socsci14010027Danger Is a Signal, Not a State: Bigaagarri—An Indigenous Protocol for Dancing Around Threats to WellbeingPhillip Orcher0Victoria J. Palmer1Tyson Yunkaporta2The ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, AustraliaThe ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, AustraliaIndigenous Knowledge Systems Lab, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC 3125, AustraliaThis paper describes the health and wellbeing applications of a protocol designed from a Gumbaynggirr Australian First People’s concept, Bigaagarri. The protocol reframes threats to health and wellbeing as part of a communicative system of environmental signals, rather than an individualised, behavioural fight–flight–fear response. Developed by a Muruwari Gumbaynggirr researcher, the protocol enfolds Aboriginal perspectives of health values and the physicality of personal location in place and social context. It combines Indigenous standpoint theory and lived-experience narrative research methods to translate Indigenous practices into generally accessible modalities. The paper connects the first principles of this protocol to literature, then, using code-switching between academic and informal settler and Indigenous voices, it introduces personal lived experience narratives that include utilisation of the participatory and immersive protocol seen in the graphical abstract image to mitigate suicidal ideation. This approach unsettles Westernised conceptions of health and wellbeing research that privilege disease-specific, single-solution approaches. It contests the dominant social imaginaries and narratives embedded in standard service models, which perpetuate the ongoing recolonisation of Indigenous identities, and common exclusion of others outside of the neurotypical majority. The Bigaagarri protocol is a potential way forward to reimagine preventive health landscapes, decolonise support for suicide and mental health through the embedding of Indigenous knowledges to lead to holistic approaches for wellbeing.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/1/27cultural protocolindigenous knowledge systemsindigenous standpoint theorynarrative and ethical theorydesignlived-experience research |
| spellingShingle | Phillip Orcher Victoria J. Palmer Tyson Yunkaporta Danger Is a Signal, Not a State: Bigaagarri—An Indigenous Protocol for Dancing Around Threats to Wellbeing Social Sciences cultural protocol indigenous knowledge systems indigenous standpoint theory narrative and ethical theory design lived-experience research |
| title | Danger Is a Signal, Not a State: Bigaagarri—An Indigenous Protocol for Dancing Around Threats to Wellbeing |
| title_full | Danger Is a Signal, Not a State: Bigaagarri—An Indigenous Protocol for Dancing Around Threats to Wellbeing |
| title_fullStr | Danger Is a Signal, Not a State: Bigaagarri—An Indigenous Protocol for Dancing Around Threats to Wellbeing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Danger Is a Signal, Not a State: Bigaagarri—An Indigenous Protocol for Dancing Around Threats to Wellbeing |
| title_short | Danger Is a Signal, Not a State: Bigaagarri—An Indigenous Protocol for Dancing Around Threats to Wellbeing |
| title_sort | danger is a signal not a state bigaagarri an indigenous protocol for dancing around threats to wellbeing |
| topic | cultural protocol indigenous knowledge systems indigenous standpoint theory narrative and ethical theory design lived-experience research |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/1/27 |
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