Conditions for Success: Indigenous Youth Reflections on Their Experiences with Canadian Education Systems

This paper brings forward the reflections of 30 Indigenous youth from across Canada and their first voice perspectives with Canadian education systems. A central component of the project was to obtain youths’ understandings of education in Canada and to seek their recommendations on ways to improve education for Indigenous youth. Accessing Indigenous youths’ experiences is important as their capacities to have successful and equitable educational experiences are strongly hindered by colonial settler policy and systemic institutional racism. Indigenous scholars have appealed for changes to education systems with a focus on challenging colonial relations of power and the multiple oppressions Indigenous youth experience when educated under Eurocentric practices. Our methodological framework is located within a relational paradigm as a mechanism to ignite dialogue and prioritize Indigenous voices in education. Our building of relations began with a sharing circle held at our Mount Saint Vincent University’s Wigwaum. Our Indigenous colleague and co-author, Jonathon MeDrano, explains how sharing circles provide equitable opportunities for people to share their ideas and respective worldviews. We then facilitated reflective journaling workshops with the youth. The young people’s reflections in this paper identify the compelling need to address systemic racism, stereotypes, and to challenge normative and colonizing structures that generate discrimination. Moreover, the young people soundly indicated that education systems in Canada require much larger integrations of Indigenous ways of knowing and being in all aspects of delivery (i.e. language, culture, Indigenous teachings), including more Indigenous counsellors to support their mental well-being.

Weaves of Wellness: Exploring the Experiences of Wellness and Imbalance in Indigenous Youth

This research, which takes place on Treaty 6 lands and involves an Indigenous and decolonized worldview, stems from a personal and professional exploration of what it means for me to be Indigenous. Using a Metissage research sensibility (Hasebe-ludt, Chambers, & leggo, 2009), the research weaves my own experiences in relation to the research participants, and in relation to the land, and other living and non-living beings. The purpose of this study is to better understand the emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental experiences of wellness and imbalance in Indigenous youth in public high schools, and to foster an understanding of the Medicine Wheel. This research ultimately asks, how do the experiences of youth fit within the Medicine Wheel? Participants will share their experiences of wellness and imbalance through storying, sharing circles, art, with the researcher using reflective journaling to reflect on the experience of listening. These stories will be audio or visually recorded. Participants will then place their experiences onto the Medicine Wheel into one or more of the four areas. Given that education and health systems are colonial tools oppression (Stewart, Moodley, and Hyatt, 2017), this research hopes to provide school staff, teachers, therapists, counsellors, health professionals and others with ways to meet the needs of Indigenous youth, in consideration of the Medicine Wheel and the Metissage conceptual trope. Hasebe-ludt, E., Chambers, C. M., & Leggo, C., 2009. Life writing, and literary Metissage as an ethos for our times. Peter Lang Publishing. Stewart, S. L., Moodley, R. & Hyatt, A. (2017). Indigenous cultures and mental health counselling. Four directions for integration with counselling psychology. Routledge.

Practical Application of an Indigenous Research Framework and Two Qualitative Indigenous Research Methods: Sharing Circles and Anishnaabe Symbol-Based Reflection

Practical Application of an Indigenous Research Framework and Two Qualitative Indigenous Research Methods: Sharing Circles and Anishnaabe Symbol-Based Reflection

Practical Application of an Indigenous Research Framework and Two Qualitative Indigenous Research Methods: Sharing Circles and Anishnaabe Symbol-Based Reflection

Practical Application of an Indigenous Research Framework and Two Qualitative Indigenous Research Methods: Sharing Circles and Anishnaabe Symbol-Based Reflection

Implementing Community-Engaged Participatory Research Methods in a Study of Cree Women’s Wellness: Describing Recruitment Processes and Outcomes

Background: In 2017, the Sohkitehew Group was funded to undertake research to identify wellness strategies adopted by mature women as they age in the rural Cree community of Maskwacis, Alberta. We describe our recruitment processes and outcomes for events from July 2017 to June 2018, the first phase of this research. Methodology: Data gathered from minutes of 36 Sohkitehew Working Group and two Elders Advisory Committee meetings were used to identify recruitment strategies, event characteristics and recruitment outcomes for two large community events and three Sharing Circles. Results:1. Recruitment strategies: Strategies were similar for community events and Sharing Circles: event posters were displayed throughout Maskwacis, and advertisements were broadcast by Hawk Radio and appeared in Band newsletters.2. Event Characteristics: Settings included a large community gymnasium for large events, and smaller community venues in different Bands for Sharing Circles. Traditional/cultural protocols were addressed by smudging meeting spaces, inviting community Elders to attend all events, and saying prayers. Healthy lunches were provided.3. Event attendance: The two larger community events attracted 96, and 37 participants, respectively. Sharing Circle attendance ranged from 8 to 23 participants. Conclusion: Recruitment strategies succeeded for the Sohkitehew events in Maskwacis. Prior trusting and respectful relationships with the community established over several years provided a firm basis for this research. Successful recruitment efforts required time, planning, flexibility, and careful attention to culture and tradition to meet objectives to attract participants. Similar strategies may be successful in other rural Indigenous communities if tailored for the specific needs and expectations of individual communities.

Exploring Indigenous Ways of Coping After a Wildfire Disaster in Northern Alberta, Canada

In May 2016, a wildfire devastated a northern region of Alberta, Canada, resulting in negative consequences on physical and mental stress, social relationships, and overall resilience among Indigenous residents. Research on coping and managing stress following a disaster has failed to incorporate unique characteristics from Indigenous perspectives. Sharing circles were held in urban and rural community settings to capture: (a) Indigenous perspectives of coping, (b) individual and collective strengths that helped Indigenous residents and communities to cope during and after the wildfire, and (c) intergenerational experiences of coping from stress among Indigenous residents. Indigenous residents’ experience with coping from the wildfire was shaped by: (a) heightened physical and emotional stress, (b) existing structural inequities, and (c) strong community cohesion and connection to culture. An unexpected outcome of this research was the therapeutic value of the sharing circles for participants to share their experience.

Inclusion of Indigenous workers in workplace mental health

PurposeThis paper highlights inclusion issues Indigenous people experience maintaining their mental health in the workplace.Design/methodology/approachUsing a grounded theoretical approach, five sharing circles were conducted with the Nokiiwin Tribal Council's community members to better understand inclusivity issues related to workplace mental health.FindingsFive themes emerged from the data related to enhancing inclusivity and workplace mental health for Indigenous workers: (1) connecting with individuals who understand and respect Indigenous culture; (2) respecting Indigenous traditions; (3) hearing about positive experiences; (4) developing trusting relationships and (5) exclusion is beyond the workplace.Research limitations/implicationsThe next step is to finalize development of the Wiiji app and evaluate the effectiveness of the app in helping Indigenous workers feel included at work and to improve workplace mental health. If effective, the Indigenous-developed e-mental health app will be promoted and its benefits for helping Indigenous workers feel included at work and also for providing accessible mental health resources, will be known. In the future, other Indigenous groups may be potentially interested in adopting a similar application in their workplace(s).Originality/valueThere is very little known about inclusivity issues related to Indigenous workers' maintaining their mental health. This paper identifies major issues influencing the exclusion and inclusion of Indigenous workers.

“They Do Not Care about Us Anymore”: Understanding the Situation of Older People in Ghana

While existing research acknowledges copious challenges faced by older adults (people aged 60 and over) in Ghana and most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, they fail to situate the lived experiences of this vulnerable group within the broader context of health geography and public health. This paper draws insights from ecological systems theory and the “geographies of older people” literature to examine the lived experiences of older people in Ghana. Data for the study were gathered using interviews (42) and sharing circles (10). Our findings reveal a complex mix of experiences consistent with the different levels of the environment. Dominant themes include access to social support, functional impairment and poor health status, social status, poor access to water and sanitation services, food insecurity, economic insecurity, and caregiving burden. These findings support the wide-held notion that the experiences of older people are complex and produced by the interplay of both individual and structural factors. Our findings demonstrate that sociocultural, economic, political, and climatic factors are important consideration in promoting elderly wellbeing and quality of life in Ghana.

Reactions to and explanations for the birth of a baby with albinism: a qualitative study in Busoga, Uganda

ObjectivesBabies born with the genetic condition albinism lack pigment in their hair, skin and eyes due to compromised melanin production. This leads to poor vision and the risk of early death due to skin cancer. In Uganda, one of the least developed countries in the world, their lack of pigmentation makes them very different in appearance within their communities. Local explanations of albinism include links to witchcraft and the supernatural. We aimed to explore reactions to the birth of a baby with albinism in Uganda.DesignSecondary analysis of birth stories derived from qualitative interviews and focus group discussions in sharing circles.SettingInterviews took place in the Busoga subregion (kingdom) in the eastern part of Uganda.ParticipantsSeventy-three (73) participants took part in eight sharing circles (n=56) and 17 individual interviews. Participants included people with albinism, parents of people with albinism and a range of other interested parties, including local leaders and teachers.ResultsReactions were generally those of shock and rejection, although cases of acceptance were also recorded. The varied explanations given to account for this unexpected event included accounts involving witchcraft, ghosts, animal familiars and religion, as well as genetics. In a framework surmising that someone must possess a dark skin to be intrinsically valued in African societies a baby with albinism does not fulfil this requirement of ‘personhood’. The mother was often blamed for having produced some ‘thing’ that is not a proper person.ConclusionsWe argue that a biomedical explanation, although unlikely to displace other understandings, helps to establish a baby with albinism as a real person with a genetic difference, and hence fosters greater acceptance.