Research Ethics, Positive and Negative Impact and working in an Indigenous Australian Context

This paper will examine the notion of impact and how it overlaps with disciplinary considerations in applied ethnomusicology and research ethics in the context of
Indigenous Australia. I will refer specifically to my applied research undertaken with the Indigenous Lutheran Australian community of Hopevale, Northern Queensland, where I worked as a choral facilitator for a year. I did so at the community’s specific request, facilitating a community choir. The choir was affiliated to the local church in that most members were regular Lutheran worshippers, but was not specifically referred to as a church choir. As I will discuss, according to the ethical guidelines of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) pertaining to research undertaken in collaboration with Indigenous Australians, it is mandatory that researchers aim to achieve a positive impact and that research objectives reflect this. In the Australian context, AIATSIS guidelines argue, achieving positive impact should be an objective in itself, not simply the outcome of research processes.