Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to interrogate practice of research and discursively problematise the role of the researcher in relation to the ways in which knowledge is constructed and represented in and as a centre/periphery relation. It considers the ways in which research practices can refocus attention on claims made about knowing and speaking about the lives of Others and within the academe. Design/methodology/approach: Underlying this interrogation is Spivak's (1998) work "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Methodologically, I reflect on, and address my experiences of research in the context of re-reading ontology as a signifying presence from which to address, contest and rearticulate the methodological norm in qualitative enquiry. Findings: The paper suggests that it is relevant to attend to the ways, in which qualitative researchers, in the process of making the Other culturally intelligible and subsequent representation, acknowledge the process and product as a contested epistemic space. Originality/value: The paper problematizes the notion of "giving voice" to ontological understandings of being and speaking as a unified subject.