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This paper provides critical insights into the contextual challenges of researching indigenous people in Vietnam's public sector organisations.

Drawing on a study of indigenous employee voice and inclusion in public sector organisations in three locations in the Central Highlands region, the researcher engages in self and methodological reflections to explain the challenges faced.

This paper identifies and discusses the challenging issues of political sensitivity, data access, availability and consistency of quantitative data, and characteristics of indigenous participants in the context of Vietnam.

This paper benefits directly those who are interested in researching Vietnam's indigenous people in future. Further, it contributes to the global conversation on the challenges of conducting indigenous research, particularly in reaching out to indigenous populations and obtaining reliable data in order to capture indigenous voice and experiences.

There is a dearth of knowledge of indigenous research in non-Western countries where indigenous people are not recognised officially by the government. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by focusing on cultural, political and societal issues of indigenous research from Vietnam.

Through a case study of the Po Klaong Girai temple in Vietnam, this paper explores how indigenous community perceive tourism benefit sharing (TBS) associated with their cultural tourism at sacred living-heritage sites and how this TBS enhances the equality and inclusion for indigenous community in the context of tourism in Vietnam.

This study employed ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with 35 indigenous Cham priests directly associated with managing and preserving the Po Klaong Girai temple.

This research found that Cham community perceive inequality and exclusivity on tourism benefit sharing at this religious site. While Cham Ahier priests face economic barriers in providing these services to the community, annual tourism revenue is allocated to local government budgets. Such economic pressure forces the priests to seek alternative economic avenues to support their families at the expense of their traditional commitments to communal, cultural and religious activities, significantly impacting sustainable heritage conservation. This has led to strained relations between the local community and local authorities.

This research provides evidence to improve living heritage management practices by proposing tourism development policies for equality and inclusion among stakeholders, especially minorities and disadvantaged groups. This can be an experiential and necessary lesson for “dealing” with sustainable heritage management in heritage living sites in other ethnic minority areas in Vietnam and globally.

The findings from this study address the knowledge gap on equitable revenue sharing in heritage tourism, where financial benefits from the commodification of minority cultures should be used to support local communities and the custodians of indigenous heritage.