This project explores yarning as a methodology for understanding health and wellness from an indigenous woman's perspective. Previous research exploring indigenous Australian women's perspectives have used traditional Western methodologies and have often been felt by the women themselves to be inappropriate and ineffective in gathering information and promoting discussion. This research arose from the indigenous women themselves, and resulted in the exploration of using yarning as a methodology. Yarning is a conversational process that involves the sharing of stories and the development of knowledge. It prioritizes indigenous ways of communicating, in that it is culturally prescribed, cooperative, and respectful. The authors identify different types of yarning that are relevant throughout their research, and explain two types of yarning-family yarning and cross-cultural yarning-which have not been previously identified in research literature. This project found that yarning as a research method is appropriate for community-based health research with indigenous Australian women. This may be an important finding for health professionals and researchers to consider when working and researching with indigenous women from other countries.

Optimal home self-management in young children with asthma includes accurate symptom identification followed by timely and appropriate treatment. The objective of this study was to evaluate a home-based asthma educational intervention targeting symptom identification for parents of children with asthma. Two hundred twenty-one children with asthma were enrolled into an ongoing home-based clinical trial and randomized into either a standard asthma education (SAE) or a symptom/nebulizer education intervention (SNEI). Data included home visit records and parent's self-report on questionnaires. Symptom identification and self-management skills significantly improved from preintervention to postintervention for parents in both groups with the exception of checking medications for expiration dates and the frequency of cleaning nebulizer device and equipment. However, significantly more parents of children in the SNEI group reported treating cough symptoms as compared with the SAE group (p = 0.05). Of concern is that only 38% of all parents reported having an asthma action plan in the home. A targeted home-based asthma education intervention can be effective for improving symptom identification and appropriate use of medications in children with asthma. Home asthma educational programs should address accurate symptom identification and a demonstration of asthma medication delivery devices.

This paper explores a decolonizing approach to research about Indigenous women's health in Australia. The paper identifies the strengths of decolonizing methodologies as a way to prioritize Indigenous values and worldviews, develop partnerships between researchers and the researched, and contribute to positive change. The authors draw on Laenui's (2000) five-step model of decolonization to describe their work in the Indigenous Women's Wellness Project in Brisbane, Queensland. They argue that Laenui's model presents a valuable framework for conducting decolonizing research projects about women's health with Australian Indigenous women. The authors demonstrate that working within a decolonizing framework offers autonomy and sustainability for women's wellness activities, while continuing to improve a community's health and wellbeing outcomes.

Personal or nonessential information may be redacted at the editor's discretion.