This discussion paper explicates the concepts and application of a critically reflexive and transformative Indigenous Research Methodology (IRM) — Aboriginal Participatory Action Research (APAR) — designed to centre and increase Indigenous voice and ‘epistemic self-determination’ in Indigenous research and psychology. The intent is to justify and legitimate Indigenous knowledges and methodologies as
authentic, rightful, valued, and critical components of transformative research in Indigenous contexts to build self-determination in communities, strengthen Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) and Australian Indigenous psychology. This is an urgent and crucial project, given Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are seeking individual, family, and collective solutions to psychological distress and high suicide rates, which are the legacy of complex forms of trauma and dispossession inflicted by a
genocidal settler culture. This paper describes how by extending and Indigenising conventional Participatory
Action Research (PAR) principles, protocols and practice, APAR has been successfully applied to achieve Indigenous voice and epistemic self-determination, strengthen community SEWB and contribute to the development of a distinctive Indigenous psychology.