Richard Violette

I am a non-Indigenous French-Canadian with my cultural roots firmly planted in the boreal forests and lakes of the Témiscamingue region of north-western Québec, the unceded lands of Kebaowek First Nation, one of ten distinct First Nations that make up the Algonquin Nation.

Initially trained as a sociologist, I built a decades long career as a research professional with expertise in planning, coordinating, implementing, and evaluating health service and health system research in several leading Canadian research institutions and government agencies, including: OPEN Ontario Pharmacy Evidence Network (University of Waterloo); PROPEL Centre for Population Health Impact (University of Waterloo); Agence de la Santé et des Services Sociaux du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (Public Health Surveillance, Research and Evaluation Branch, Government of Québec); CHU de Québec (Planning, Programs, and Research Office, Departments of Surgery, Perioperative, Medicine, and Geriatrics); the MGSS McGill Group for Suicide Studies, and the Douglas-Bell Brain Bank (Douglas Mental Health University Institute Research Centre, McGill University).

Etuaptmumk/Two-Eyed Seeing (Mi’kmaq Elders Albert and Murdena Marshall, Eskasoni First Nation, Unama'ki)

In 2019 I moved to Meanjin (Brisbane) to complete my PhD in Human Services at Griffith University. My PhD "Practice at the research interface: Two-Eyed Seeing, community-engaged research practice, and non-Indigenous collaboration in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research" proposed an operationalizable dialectical model of community-engaged research practice as a strength-based lever to meaningfully support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander self-determination in health research. Guided by my Aboriginal mentors Kerry (Kuku Thaypan/Kuku Warra/Lama Lama) and Michael (Kullilla/Muruwari), we engaged in Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing) to explore how to do research differently, how to foster genuine collaborations with community, and most importantly, how to meaningfully support communities to self-determine their involvement in research.

Since conferral, I have worked as a Senior Research Assistant at the Centre for the Business and Economics of Health (CBEH) at the University of Queensland, and then as a Research Fellow at the UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health.

I am currently the Senior Academic Lead Research at the Murtupuni Centre for Rural and Remote Health, located on Kalkadoon country in Mount Isa.