Indigenous Wellbeing Gathering Conference 2024
Conference Abstracts
Supporting Indigenous Graduate Student Health Research Capacity: Mentorship through a Provincial Health Research Network
Tara Erb, Krista Stelkia
The British Columbia Network Environment for Indigenous Health Research (BC NEIHR), funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, is an Indigenous-led network that supports the research development and knowledge sharing of Indigenous communities, collectives and organizations and Indigenous graduate students in BC. To understand how we impacted the health research journey of Indigenous graduate students, we conducted a critical analysis of our annual evaluation reports and offer a reflective narrative of our operations. In this article, we share our Indigenous mentorship model and describe how we supported and enhanced Indigenous-led research among Indigenous graduate students in BC by: addressing common challenges related to financial costs of pursuing health research; prioritizing cultural and land-based learning opportunities; providing exceptional academic and professional development opportunities; and promoting Indigenous cultural safety, equity, and self-determination by creating systems-level change through partnerships. We conclude that as we work toward systems change, the BC NEIHR offers a promising approach towards enhancing Indigenous health research capacity through mentorship.
Seven Generations of Food: Indigenous Foodways Reclamation in Practice in an Urban Métis Community
Sarah Buffett, Cheryl Dodman, Carol Fraser, Brad Dahl
Food is a central part of daily life for all and holds particular significance within Indigenous communities. Yet mounting socio-economic pressures in recent generations have appreciably altered our relationships with food. Rising food prices and increasing urbanization for many Indigenous communities mean conversations regarding food security and food sovereignty are crucial at this time. In the summer of 2023, an urban Métis community in British Columbia embarked on a journey of Community Participatory Action Research (CPAR) in which seventeen participating community members explored their individual and shared food stories, considered their current priorities and challenges around food security and sovereignty, and co-created future pathways to reclaiming their communal Métis foodways. 'Seven Generations of Food' asked participants to focus on themselves as the midway point of a seven-generation cycle and to consider three generations behind and three generations beyond themselves regarding their food story. Following a full year's journey through transformative healing through storytelling, discovering common threads, and building a community foodways practice through collective action, this presentation will center narratives from participating community members and leaders alongside renewed collective understandings of (1) place-based local Métis traditional foodways, (2) mapping of current western and traditional food systems, (3) gaps and opportunities to reinvigorate traditional food knowledge, and (4) a collective visioning toward future food sovereignty.
Indigenous Dawn Breakers: The Journey of Indigenous Undergraduate and Graduate University Students
James Shawana
A growing number of Indigenous people have successfully obtained an undergraduate and/or a graduate degree on their educational journey. Indigenous communities have more Indigenous people attending post-secondary institutes seeking Western Knowledge, as this is what is offered. Indigenous undergraduate and graduate students can transcend the colonial imposition that exists in Canada and in universities by pursuing a western education as a tool of empowerment. Those who arise at dawn, when the sun rises, are known as Dawn Breakers and Daybreak People. In contemporary times, they are ones who have sought a new path of undergraduate and graduate studies and have gone on to create this new path for future generations of Indigenous scholars. This presentation combines my Master's level research on undergraduate Indigenous students and my Doctoral level research on Indigenous graduate students. Both studies took into consideration that there are few universities in a First Nations community and Indigenous students often have to move to an urban environment, as this is where the majority of universities are located. The research focused on the challenges and successes of Indigenous students on their educational journey at a university.
Reclaiming Cities: Indigenous Strategies for Asserting Sovereignty for the Health and Well-Being of Community
Victoria Bomberry (Co-Authors: Chantelle Richmond)
Urban centres are attractive spaces for many to live in due to the abundance of opportunities and amenities they offer, including diverse employment, education, healthcare, and social services. Yet, Canadian cities are the manifestation of settler-colonialism ideology, which depends on the diminishment of Indigenous identity, rights, and sovereignty. For Indigenous peoples, living in urban centres creates distinct challenges and complexities. While cities can offer improved access to jobs, education, healthcare and amenities, Indigenous peoples often face systemic barriers and discrimination within these spaces. Despite these challenges, urban centres have become critical sites of resilience and revitalization of Indigenous identity, culture, and sovereignty. Leveraging opportunities for advocacy, cultural exchange and formation of networks and communities, Indigenous urban leaders are navigating complex colonial government and bureaucratic landscapes to secure funding and resources for Indigenous urban health and wellbeing. This presentation is a literature review of my proposed doctoral research examining how Indigenous urban leaders transform urban environments and governance to improve the health and well-being of diverse Indigenous communities. My research draws from Environmental Repossession theory, which examines the processes, practices, and outcomes associated with the re-establishment of Indigenous presence, culture, and sovereignty over their environments.
Rethinking Urban Wellness: Bridging Traditional Wellness for Urban Indigenous Youth
Keyara Brody (Co-Authors: Gabrielle Legault, Skye Barbic, Liisa Holsti)
Acknowledging culture as a central protective factor for Indigenous people’s health and wellness, cultural identity, connectedness and traditional wellness are being promoted as a means of reducing the health inequities Indigenous youth experience. However, culture and wellness are deeply connected to the Land for Indigenous Peoples and can be increasingly difficult within urban settings given colonial conceptualizations of nature and thus Land being a distinct entity, removed from urban spaces. Thus, there is a need to address what traditional and cultural wellness practices look like in urban settings in order to provide better access to care that increases connections to Land, community and culture. Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore the perspectives of urban Indigenous youth and community leaders pertaining to access of traditional practices and wellness in urban spaces. This presentation shares current understandings of traditional wellness, and explores avenues for re-conceptualizing what this looks like within urban spaces as a means to better wellbeing outcomes for urban Indigenous youth.
Experiencing Mino-Bimaadiziwin in Urban Places and Spaces
Michelle Hogan
This paper asserts that healthy and vibrant Indigenous communities can thrive in urban areas, even in the face of significant challenges faced by some urban relatives. The concept of Mino-Bimaadiziwin, meaning the 'Good Life,' embodies a life of well-being, balance, and harmony. This paper explores how Indigenous people in urban environments seek and experience Mino-Bimaadiziwin. They do so by maintaining connections to their rural communities and the natural environment, adapting and preserving cultural traditions within cityscapes, and supporting and participating in urban Indigenous communities. These strategies help to sustain their cultural identity and foster a sense of belonging, within urban spaces. By examining these practices, the paper highlights the ways in which Indigenous individuals and communities navigate and flourish in urban settings, achieving a holistic and balanced life amidst the complexities of urban living.
Time to Play: Celebrating Children as Critical Knowledge Collaborators in Indigenous Health
Kîsik Fiddler, Zury Martell, Lindsay DuPré
Discussions about Indigenous health are often held within spaces that by design—sometimes purposefully, sometimes unknowingly—prevent us from being able to actually embody Indigenous well-being. Even with recent institutional interest in Reconciliation and Indigenization, and Indigenous/Indigenist scholars working diligently to utilize Indigenous methodologies in community based research, there continues to be limitations in how we are engaging with Indigenous Knowledge (IK) through the academy. Recognizing kinship as an integral dimension of Indigenous health and knowledge systems, this session will create space for IK to emerge differently through an example of intergenerational collaboration. Led by five year old Kîsik Fiddler (Cree and Métis) and nine year old Zury Jane Martell (Cree), with support from their mom and auntie Lindsay DuPré, this session will celebrate the role of Indigenous children in Indigenous health work. The children will share some of their perspectives on Indigenous health while leading the group in creative and play-based activities. This engagement will challenge power imbalances, encouraging adults to replace paternalistic views that children are passive consumers of knowledge with understanding that they are pivotal collaborators. We will demonstrate that by attentively playing and collaborating with children in our everyday lives we can nourish more authentic and joyous relationships with Indigenous Knowledge that can generate healthier ways of life.
Indigenous Wellbeing and Public Health: Past, Present and into the Future
Evan Adams, Gabrielle Legault, Carol Hopkins
Each year, the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, Dr. Theresa Tam, provides a report on the state of public health in Canada. The 2025 CPHO report will focus on how wellbeing frameworks and approaches can be used to help advance intersectoral action on the conditions for wellbeing now and into the future. Promoting health equity and Canada’s commitment to implementing the rights of Indigenous Peoples are key CPHO priorities that will be reflected in the report. The office of the CPHO will be collaborating with Indigenous leaders and experts in wellbeing during report development. This includes partnering with Dr. Evan Adams, Deputy Chief Medical Officer of the First Nations Health Authority, to bring together a working group of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis leaders in wellbeing promotion to support the collaborative development of report content. To contribute to this work, we propose hosting a panel discussion or other knowledge sharing session on the theme of Indigenous wellbeing and public health, to be led by Dr. Adams and the CPHO’s Indigenous Working Group. The goal is to build and share knowledge around Indigenous wellbeing, with a focus on priority public health actions that can improve the conditions for wellbeing and support wellbeing promotion led by First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities. The Indigenous Wellbeing Gathering Conference provides a unique opportunity learn from a range of perspectives and approaches to wellbeing promotion to inform a CPHO report that has relevance and meaning for diverse Indigenous communities.
Reimagining family roles in the context of population health
Logan Burd, Lisa Knox, (Co-Authors: Katrina Plamondon, Dr. Sana Shahram )
Child, youth and family health is an urgent priority. Indigenous leaders are calling increasingly upon health systems leaders to recognize and respond to foundational and long-term impacts of misunderstanding concepts of child, youth, and family health. In this presentation, we will share two examples of how reimagining these concepts can shift solutions toward meaningful inclusion of the distinct voices of those affected, including: (1) mothering in the context of substance use and (2) life promotion in the context of Métis youth. The first example is embedded in The Mothering Co/Lab Project, which, under the leadership of Grandmothers from the Seven Interior Regions of British Columbia (BC), is 'learning by doing.' Through processes of connecting, we are exploring how to use perinatal substance use monitoring as a justice-serving process for mothers, their families and communities. The second example is embedded in The CLARITY Project, a community-based research program focused on upstream approaches to youth suicide prevention through advancing community resilience in BC's Central Okanagan. Both examples unpack and interrogate conflicts and convergences between health systems and Indigenous understandings of relationships: one through mother-baby relationships and the other through community relationships among Métis youth. Unpacking normative assumptions about family roles and dynamics and interrupting how these concepts manifest in data collection or monitoring practices demonstrate foundational steps to reorienting health systems toward equity. Attending to the complex, intersecting ways in which structural determinants of health and equity affect families and communities, these community and Nation-led partnerships are disrupting colonial institutional policies.
Auntie-Establishment: Fostering Indigenous Generational Healing in the Face of Settler-Colonial Ideologies
Vanessa Mitchell
As colonial systems are gradually exploring how to move beyond empty rhetoric, to take real action toward reconciliation and cultural safety, demands for training and education to support organizational and system transformation are increasing. My research is about the decolonization and mitigation of risks that inevitably arise when contemporary colonial institutions, including those in the fields of health and education, ask Indigenous peoples to fix the harms inflicted and caused by Euro-white-settler coloniality. I argue the path towards decolonization and mitigation of risk is based upon (re)connecting to the concept and essence of “Auntie”. “Auntie” has deep resonance within Indigenous families and communities and is a concept that is not clearly understood or amply written about outside Indigenous circles. The central question of my doctoral research is thus: “How can Auntie and Auntie-ism foster and maintain cultural confidence for Indigenous women during a time of increased pressure and demand placed upon them by non-Indigenous settlers looking to advance cultural safety and reconciliation within colonial spaces?” My research approaches centres on Indigenous principles of storywork (Archibald, 2008) and the sqilxʷ methodology of enowkinwixʷ (Armstrong, 2009). Through visiting and conversational dialogue circles, my research explores what it means to embrace the essence of Auntie as an Indigenous woman leader navigating colonial systems.
The hopeful pedagogical approach
Desiree Marshall-Peer
While subject specific silos of curriculum are part of a colonial and industrial model of education, many educators are moving towards a holistic approach to teaching within their classrooms. Using Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being alongside the First Peoples Principles of Learning allows a more relational space to explore the world and learning opportunities in a way that is gentler, less competitive, and applicable. Teachers are opening to alternative ways of teaching and learning, through pedagogy and assessment strategies. Teachers using IWOKB are finding successes where they did not expect to see.
Community Research Liaisons; Building Bridges Between Indigenous Communities and Universities
Peter Hutchinson (Co-Authors: Gabrielle Legault, Karlyn Olsen, Mariko Kage, Haley Cundy)
In conducting Indigenous community-based research, researchers rely on a community connection that transcends transactional relationships. How research transcends a transactional relationship often requires being embedded within the community. Embedded researchers have a unique role in navigating university-based research and community priorities. This panel presentation will highlight the work of two community research liaisons (CRL) who skillfully navigate creating effective relationships within the community and with the university. These relationships strengthen and build new relationships within the community. The panel discussion will review the role of a CRL, identify how CRLs support relations between community and university, what relational accountability looks like to a CRL, and how CRLs are an integral part of realizing a project. Panelists will discuss how to ensure that relationships are built in a way that is not transactional. The CRLs will share examples of successes and challenges with respect to relationship building, supporting relations between community and university, the importance of language, making language accessible and involving the community in decision-making at different stages of research. This discussion will lead to how CRLs can play a role in securing long-term funding for the programs they support and what role CRLs can play in a long-term research strategy within communities.
Ktunaxa Understandings of Community Wellbeing: Findings from the xaȼqanaǂ ʔitkiniǂ Project
Christopher Horsethief, Alex Kent (Co-Authors: Bernie Pauly, Smokii Sumac, Shaunee Keyes, Kris Murray, Jen Driscoll, Sana Shahram)
Since 2018, the Ktunaxa Nation Council, Interior Health, University of Victoria, and University of British Columbia- Okanagan have formed a Nation-led partnership to learn from Ktunaxa understandings of healthy communities to inform health systems transformation. The xaȼqanaǂ ʔitkiniǂ (Many Ways of Working on the Same Thing) research project has been conducting community-driven, culturally-grounded research to facilitate community dialogues around Ktunaxa approaches to promoting and restoring community wellbeing. The presentation will share findings from a series of dialogues between 2018 (Phase 1) and 2023 (Phase 2) that took place in Ktunaxa communities. The dialogues engaged Ktunaxa citizens in facilitated discussions around questions such as: What would a healthy community look like? What are Ktunaxa understandings of substance use and healing? And how do we help people make healthy connections? The dialogues engaged 133 people in total with sufficient diversity to reduce small sample bias. This included representation from across Ktunaxa communities and across generations, with participation from Nation administration, Band Council leadership, health service providers, language speakers, residential school survivors, and youth. Data collection and analysis were conducted using three Ktunaxa methodologies grounded in millennia-old protocols for problem solving: ʔa·kwiti̓s ktunaxa (the wing model of culture), ʔuk̓iniǂwitiyaǂa (a group thinking with one heart), and xaȼqanaǂ ʔitkiniǂ (many ways of doing the same thing) (Horsethief, 2021). Qualitative data from the dialogues demonstrate colonial disconnection within the health system as a major barrier to equitable healthcare. Data also highlight cultural connection as a source of resiliency and a key facilitator of community wellbeing.
Decolonizing Eating Disorders through Indigenous Perspectives
Maureen Plante
Eating disorders have been studied and understood primarily through a Westernized perspective, which guides treatment. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada 94 Calls to Action (TRC), stipulates the need for culturally appropriate training when working with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. Many Indigenous scholars argue that Eurocentric ideas of healing that are imposed on Indigenous people are harmful and perpetuate disease. What tends to be in the literature is that researchers are in agreement that Indigenous people are underrepresented in ED research, intervention, and prevention. Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Therapy (IFOT) is a holistic approach to health and well-being that is strengths-based, historically sensitive, and culturally relevant for Indigenous peoples. IFOT was developed by a Metis knowledge keeper who is a registered therapist. The cultural perspective are the voices of the three women who are Cree/Métis, Métis, and a woman of the Skatin Nation (Stl’atl’imx) who are practicing Indigenous therapists and will inform this work and provide their knowledge and perspectives on decolonizing eating disorders. This presentation will highlight considerations based on the lens of IFOT when working with Indigenous peoples struggling with eating disorders and will provide some helpful tips for facilitating healing through an Indigenous therapeutic approach.
“Our bodies are sacred.. the information we share with healthcare providers is sacred”: Culturally safe healthcare in BC
Chelsey Perry, Logan Burd (Co-Authors: Sasha Askarian, Dionne Paul, Brittany Bingham)
Amplify is a community-based participatory action program of Indigenous research that aims to privilege Indigenous voices to directly inform culturally-safe and equitable health for Indigenous women, gender diverse, and Two-Spirit Peoples. The Amplify team organized workshops for participants to learn and create traditional and universal forms of Indigenous art as a method for storytelling. The workshops fostered a safe, therapeutic and empowering space for researchers and community partners to use art as a critical way of knowing. Learning artistic techniques of moccasin-making. Coming together in sharing circles dialogue, participants shared their dreams of what they envision the future of culturally-safe healthcare to look and feel like. Themes were produced from the sharing circle, including: 1. Connecting to our ancestral knowledge; 2. Cultural safety, humility, and anti-racism; 3. Our bodies, identities and health are sacred; 4. Relationality; And 5. Envisioning the future. These stories, dreams and desires are essential to informing key recommendation for better access culturally safe services and supports for Indigenous women, gender diverse, and Two-Spirit Peoples.
Visual Journalling: A prescription for wellness.
Lisa Boivin
Join Dr. Lisa Boivin for an hour of visual journalling. This arts-based workshop seeks to provide a robust understanding of how wellness can take place in personal and professional spaces. The exercise in this workshop nurtures, reflection, self-care, and honor, personal and collective needs for healing and wellbeing.
Nanâtawihowin (Healing & Finding Place) through Economic Self-determination
Lightning Round Presentations
Dante Carter
This research explores economic abuse among nehiyawak women and 2S folx in Onion Lake Cree Nation, examining their resilience against this form of intimate partner violence. With Indigenous women and 2S folx experiencing disproportionate rates of economic insecurity and IPV, the study uses nehiyawak 'peoplehood methodology' to highlight cultural resurgence and healing. By collaborating with the Onion Lake Healing & Wellness Centre, it aims to amplify diverse voices through sharing circles and narrative analysis, informing future generations about economic practices to foster cultural continuity amidst colonial economic challenges.
Black and Indigenous Relations and Place-making on the Prairies
Savannah Kosteniuk
My graduate research considers the relationship between Indigenous and Black communities in my hometown, Regina, located on Treaty Four Territory in Saskatchewan. The relationships between Black and Indigenous communities on the Prairies, in particular potential practices of co-resistance and re-imagining, have received little scholarly attention and existing scholarship is often theoretical or abstract. Through fieldwork and arts-based methods, I hope to understand the nuanced meanings of “good relations” in a specific place and time, with a particular focus on the role of art in social change and imagining alternative, coalitional futures.
Supporting Indigenous Sovereighty through Research Facilitation
Hanna Paul
Understanding one's positionality, or looking within oneself, is vital in supporting Indigenous sovereignty within academia. Many colonial post-secondary institutions and federal agencies hyper-focus on Truth and Reconciliation goals. However, colonial incentivization approaches worsen paradoxical desires for hollow decolonization. As a UBC staff member, I will discuss meaningful shifts from a self-image and reputational approach for decolonial initiatives to an internal self-reflective approach. Self-curiosity and critique of the foundational aspects of academia help destabilize Western positivistic assumptions in colonial institutions. Moving away from performative decolonial goals includes looking within to unpack complicity in systemic violence and, instead, centring Indigenous sovereignty.
Shaping the Path toward Miyomahcihowin (good health) within Health Care
Geraldine Manossa
The presenter will share an update on her current stage as a second-year PhD student. Her PhD focuses on developing and implementing meaningful health reconciliation approaches with Indigenous communities, including creating a framework to inform an Indigenous Culture-as-Health model. Her update will focus on sharing critical insights into the transformative role of Indigenous knowledge systems within primary healthcare, guided by principles and approaches that underpin the fundamental relationships between the natural environment, community and health.
40 Days of Dreams: Weaving Indigenous and Western Psychological Research Methods
Victor Villa, Rodney Noskiye
We are trying to weave together Indigenous and Western psychological sciences by exploring our experiences with dreams. I, Victor Villa, have recorded my dreams for 40 consecutive days. I invited friends, family, and students to join me in dream exploration. We meet weekly and discuss our experiences, our learning, and build relationships with each other. The five theories of dreams found in most Psychology books in North America have a Eurocentric bias; we hope to enrich our understanding of dreams by applying suggestions, knowledge, and axis mundi found especially in: Shawanda and Manitowabi (2023), Anishinaabe Dream Methodology.
Mashkwa Healing Grounds
Nikki McCrimmon, Diana Solowan
MCSBC will share our plans to develop Mashkwa Healing Grounds, a space to access Traditional Healing, Land Based Teachings and Food Sovereignty. The need for traditional healing among urban Indigenous people in the Central Okanagan and across British Columbia is significant due to limited access. Traditional healing practices, which encompass a range of spiritual, physical, and cultural practices, are essential for the well-being and cultural continuity of Indigenous communities. Addressing this gap involves increasing the availability of traditional healers and creating spaces for traditional practices.
Cultural Harm Reduction and First Nations Crisis Response
Kyle Christiansen, (Co-Auhtors: Tabatha Mckeown)
This presentation will briefly outline our current strategy to supporting wellness in our community. Engagement, culturally appropriate crisis response, harm reduction equipment, medicines and ceremony, prioritizing those most at risk, food security, education, creating and maintaining strong community partnerships, staff wellness and development. These are all part of our current wellness approach. The Crisis Response program in partnership with Cultural Harm Reduction Outreach aims to create a feeling of trust within the community by being consistent, remaining teachable, responding promptly and placing community at the center of our work.
Indigenous Land-based healing from the effects of Criminalized and Institutionalized Trauma
Denica Bleau
My research is focused on co-developing an Indigenous led, community, and Land-based program framework with the Splatsin community. A Community Research Agreement (CRA) has been established with the Splatsin Kukpi7 & Tkwamipla7 (Chief & Council), and a Community Advisory Committee (CAC) has been developed. The research prioritizes the identity, health, and wellness of individuals who have experienced trauma from incarceration and criminalization (being arrested or detained). The program framework will focus on healing from the trauma that is from colonization, institutionalization and criminalization.
Indigenous Knowledge and Changing Environments: Epistemic Nurturance and Protection Through Home
Lindsay DuPré, Kîsik Fiddler
This presentation will provide an overview of Lindsay DuPré's (Métis) doctoral research investigating how Cree and Métis families are nurturing and protecting traditional knowledge within their home environments. The project examines how cultural protocols and traditional knowledge transmission processes are being adapted in response to rapidly changing environmental, technological, and social contexts. The study combines the researcher’s own experiences with the perspectives of Elders/Knowledge Keepers from Waterhen Lake First Nation, a Plains Cree community in Saskatchewan where many families also have close Métis kinship ties.
Food is Medicine
Kristi Christian
Food is medicine. Medicine for the body, spirit, and mind. My name is Kristi Christian and I am the Indigenous Food Security Lead with Interior Health. Within this new role, I am building relationships with Indigenous partners and supporting food security work that is happening on a community level. Connecting around food is ceremony and community wellness. Food also plays a huge role in our identity, and by revitalizing Indigenous food systems, we are revitalizing Indigenous culture. How can we work together to strengthen ourselves and these systems?
Sptékʷł / Ancestral stories for Guiding Supports for Nłeʔkepmx Children with Disabilities
Sue Sterling-Bur
This research presentation shares the crucial role of Nłeʔkepmx family members, elders, and knowledge keepers in supporting children with disabilities through ancestral stories and sharing circles. It examines Nłeʔkepmx Sptékʷł ancestral stories guiding community support, ethical considerations, cultural frameworks for disability identification, and family roles in fostering inclusive practices. By centering family and community voices, this study underscores traditional knowledge's role in supporting children with disabilities, honoring Nłeʔkepmx culture, and strengthening community bonds.
Dakelh Midwifery Past and Present: Indigenous Implementation Science
Marion Erickson
No Dakelh Midwives practice in Dakelh territory. Removal of Dakelh women as midwives from birth work is an outcome of Euro-western colonial biomedical domination. Colonization has led to less knowledge transmission about birthing and decreased safety in the predominantly rural residing Dakelh communities. Timely health research evidences Indigenous-led, trauma-informed Doula care is proactive in advancing rural birth culture and outcomes. The social impacts of colonization, birth evacuation policies, the opioid epidemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the needs for rural Indigenous women to have autonomy and investments in community-based perinatal care. This research is focused on revitalizing Dakelh midwifery through the implementation of a Dakelh Doula training curriculum to enhance perinatal health outcomes in the Dakelh nation. This research seeks to identify strategies that can optimize the implementation process, address potential challenges, and maximize the long-term impact of the curriculum. This research seeks to make advancements particularity as it pertains to the restoration of Dakelh midwifery practices the enhancement of perinatal health outcomes in Dakelh communities. This research aligns with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, supporting Dakelh-led certification and the right to improve health and vocational training. Through collaboration with Dakelh knowledge holders and integration into traditional governance structures, this research seeks to systematically enhance a community-led Doula training.
Indigenous Health PhD Journey - Lessons and Insights
Casey Hewes
A PhD in Indigenous Health is not just an academic endeavour but a commitment to culture, and community strength. It offers a platform for Indigenous scholars to lead and innovate in ways that resonate deeply with their cultural identities and community aspirations. In this session we will discuss the steps, lessons learned Steps to Pursuing a PhD in Indigenous Health 1. Preparation and Application 2. Developing a Research Proposal 3. Conducting Research 4. Writing and Dissemination Lessons Learned 1. Building Trust 2. Respecting Indigenous Knowledge 3. Navigating Dual Worlds 4. Advocacy and Empowerment 5. Personal Growth Key Experiences 1. Mentorship and Peer Support 2. Reflective Practice A PhD in Indigenous Health is a profound commitment to advancing cultural, social, and health equity. It provides a platform for Indigenous scholars to lead transformative research that honors their heritage and strengthens their communities. By navigating the steps, embracing the lessons learned, and immersing in key experiences, scholars can contribute meaningfully to the well-being and empowerment of Indigenous populations.
Returning to Our Teachings: How I use Mino Bimaadiziwin to Guide my Research in Indigenous Restorative Justice
Kelsey Darnay
Indigenous peoples are over-represented in the Canadian justice system because of colonization. Colonization has replaced longstanding governance and legal practices that are fundamental to the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples and forced colonial legal systems upon them that punishes indigeneity, separates individuals from their communities, and reinforces historical traumas. While Canada’s Criminal Code has been amended to include section 718.2(e) to alleviate over-representation, incarceration rates of Indigenous peoples continue to rise. The loss of traditional ways of living and practices takes away fundamental determinants of Indigenous peoples’ health that are essential to their well-being, and IRJ aims to reconnect individuals back to traditional ways. In collaboration with the Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre (FENFC), using talking circles, this research examines nation-specific IRJ practices to develop a framework for a localized IRJ program that focuses on land-based healing. The Niagara Region is a part of the Dish With One Spoon Treaty between Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Peoples. This relationship was developed through Mino Bimaadizwin, which encompasses Anishinaabe worldview and philosophy, relating to balance and well-being through healthy relationships, cultural identity, and connection to the land. Knowing that Indigenous communities have always had their own, place-based, ways of governing, including ways of seeking and achieving ‘justice,” this presentation will focus on how I use Mino Bimaadizwin in my research and return to our teachings.
Language, Land, and Stories
Leah Meunier, Cheyenne Cunningham, Abigail Cunningham, Kaitlyn Cunningham
In our stories we explore traditional, ecological, and cultural, knowledges; learned from archival resources, family, and community. Our language connects us and other Katzie people to places, and spaces within our traditional territory. Through these connections we share knowledge of place names, flora, fauna and harvesting practices, which is directly linked to ours and our people’s social, emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being. Stories woven together from traditional knowledge and new knowledge document language and culture for current and future generations. In the absence of fluent speakers in our communities, we have worked with fluent elders from our sister dialects and archival recordings to support language revitalization efforts. Our relationships with neighbouring nations, and the reciprocity between our sister dialects, halq’eméylem and hul’qumi’num’, have been instrumental for the success of this work. These collective efforts are essential to revitalize the hən̓q̓əmín̓əm̓ language for future generations of the Katzie and hən̓q̓əmín̓əm̓ speaking people. To date the knowledge explored, learned, and shared through this work has contributed to educational curriculum for use in language programming for all ages. We have been learning language, teaching, taking classes and taking part in language revitalization projects for many years. Our work allows us to engage our students and fellow language learners through our shared stories.
Beading as part of the research ceremony
Christina Lennox
Honouring traditional Métis knowledge systems within contemporary research is one method of envisioning the future of Indigenous-led research. Through Beadworking, Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island offer the academic space their own research ceremony. Beadworking, Métis ways of knowing, and reflexive thematic analysis were used to interpret, understand, and disseminate the stories of participants in the study Miyo-atoskâta: Weaving Métis Wisdom into Higher Education. A flat stitch flower bud pin was designed and beaded to interpret, understand and disseminate participant stories. The flower bud itself represents the potential of higher education spaces surrounded by foliage representing the themes of fostering a sense of identity and reconciliation. Materials to create this beadwork include Indigenous harvested and processed smoked moose hide, gifted vintage glass beads, contemporary Czech and Japanese beads, wool, synthetic thread, and beeswax.