Bringing our voices into the research world: lessons from the Kanyini Vascular Collaboration

e are a group of Indigenous Research Fellows (IRFs) involved in the Kanyini Qualitative Study (KQS), examining barriers and enablers to chronic disease care for Indigenous Australians.The KQS forms part of the Kanyini Vascular Collaboration (KVC), a health services research program established to reduce the burden and suffering of chronic disease (http:// www.kvc.org.au).The KQS was developed to explore five key issues:• What frames people' s decisions to access care?• What does it mean to be looked after properly?• What are participants' experiences of care?• What are the principal barriers and enablers to care?• How can these findings be used to build better systems?The research team, comprising Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, was located across four geographically diverse Aboriginal medical service sites, supported by senior researchers at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Alice Springs and the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney.The KQS methodology and design included a strong commitment to building research capacity among Indigenous people by engaging us (the IRFs) as key researchers, by providing us with training, and by including us at all stages as essential members of the team.As IRFs who were largely new to research when we began this process 4 years ago, we reflect here on what we have learnt through participation, and hope this may help other researchers build better ways of engaging Indigenous people within the research process.