Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Research in Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Towards Effective Engagement: A Scoping Review of Strategic Communication Mechanisms with Indigenous Communities
Sarmila Md Sum, Norasmah Othman, Radin Siti Aishah Radin A. Rahman, Shahril Mod Husin, Nurul Darsani Amat Darbis
ABSTRACT:
Effective communication has emerged as a crucial tool for fostering understanding, collaboration, and advancement among diverse communities in an increasingly interconnected world. There are approximately over 476 million indigenous individuals residing in around 70 countries worldwide. They uphold their distinctive traditions and maintain social, cultural, economic, and political traits that set them apart from the prevailing societies within their respective regions. Strategic communication with indigenous people is a complex and sensitive endeavor that requires a deep understanding of cultural, historical, and social contexts. This research aims to identify and analyse strategic communication mechanisms with indigenous people. It presents a recent review of the communication mechanism used to foster effective engagement between indigenous people and non- indigenous organization. Online articles from Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar and UKMLibrary were used. The terms used for reviewing the articles were strategic communication, communication mechanism, indigenous people, and Orang Asli. The scoping review protocol was used for this study. A total of 29 relevant articles published from 2003 to 2023 were filtered and grouped into three major themes for review: cultural sensitivity, community engagement and interpersonal connection. Findings suggested that although previous research had examined the communication mechanism with indigenous people, there was limited research on communication strategy among different indigenous communities. While overarching principles exist, each community possesses its own distinct values, languages, and communication preferences. Understanding these nuances is essential for tailoring communication strategies effectively. Additionally, strategic communication with indigenous people requires a deep understanding of cultural, historical, and social contexts.
keywords: strategic communication, communication mechanism, indigenous people, and Orang Asli