Indigenous Rights

This chapter focuses on the mental health factors that impact student success for Indigenous youth within the higher education landscape in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). It emphasizes the need to address these mental health factors by strengthening cultural identity to support the success of students in higher education. The authors explain how Indigenous rights can be used to address legacies of genocidal colonialism and how implementing Indigenous-based curriculum for effective student learning may provide pathways to improve academic and mental health outcomes. Several programs in Saipan that underscore the significance of reinforcing cultural identity to help mitigate and alleviate these negative outcomes are discussed. The authors conclude by providing examples of how cultural identity can be strengthened through the implementation of Indigenous rights-based legislation, thereby simultaneously safeguarding mental health and academic success for Indigenous youth in the CNMI.

Etuaptmumk - two-eyed seeing: Bringing together land-based learning and online technology to teach Indigenous youth about food

In 2019 we began an intergenerational Land-based learning program with the goal of engaging a group of Mi’kmaw youth from a rural community in Nova Scotia with their Traditional Foodways. When COVID-19 and the physical distancing restrictions hit Nova Scotia, however, this changed how we implemented the project. We decided to bring youth together virtually and encourage self-directed Land-based learning. This paper describes the dilemmas we faced as we considered what initially seemed like a paradoxical relationship- using online technology to promote Land-based learning. Our aim is to not only draw attention to what we believe to be the centrality of the Land in understanding Indigenous foodways, but also the potential for online technology to enhance youth engagement on and with the Land. We begin by exploring Land-based learning and how it supports teaching about Traditional foodways and Indigenous culture, as well as the challenges and opportunities related to implementing Land-based pedagogy in a virtual environment. Using Etuaptmumk-Two Eyed Seeing as our lens, we argue that online technologies can support Land-based learning, providing principles of local culture are respected and the technology is compatible with community values.

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.

Toward an Indigenizing, Anti-Colonial Framework for Adolescent Development Research

As a means to disrupt the historical and present narratives of adolescence and adolescent development, which often build upon and reify settler colonialism and white supremacy, this article calls for theoretical and methodological reconsiderations of colonial-centered developmental science, particularly regarding Native American youth. Thus situated, this article has two purposes. The first is to illuminate the constitutive nature of settler colonialism, white supremacy, and the constructs of adolescence and adolescent development—and the ways these continue to adversely impact Indigenous youth. From this exigency, the second purpose is to articulate a framework designed to inform developmental science’s anti-racist aims, especially related to disrupting ongoing settler colonialism, engaging in culturally humble inquiry with Native youth and communities, and supporting Indigenous (youth) futurity. To elucidate this framework, this article brings together Native youth-focused developmental research, Indigenous methodologies scholarship, and experiences gained and lessons learned from a long-term research project with Native youth.

Introduction: IJCAR - Volume 8

Dear readers, I am pleased to introduce the 2021 Issue of IJCAR, the International Journal of Child and Adolescent Resilience, addressing various aspects of youth resilience. We also have a thematic section focused on resilience in Indigenous and multicultural populations. This issue includes five regular articles on different aspects of resilience. First, Lafrenaye-Dugas et al. document the sources of distress of adolescent boy victims of physical violence within their romantic relationships. Then, Martinez and her colleagues examine the effect of disclosure on resilience in adult female victims of childhood sexual abuse. In the following paper, Dr. Medico proposes a theoretical model of trans affirmative approaches for trans and non-binary youth based on Axel Honneth's ethics of recognition model (2000; 2006). Richard et al. investigate the role of perceptions of harm and perceived peer and parental attitudes towards substance use in the association between adverse childhood experiences and substance use in adolescents. Finally, Villate and her colleagues document the subjective experiences of emerging adults who have a parent with a mental disorder and suggest ways to support their resilience in the transition to adulthood. In addition to these regular articles, we also have a commentary on the 5th World Congress on Resilience by Dr. Ionescu and a thematic section focused on resilience in Indigenous and multicultural populations. This section presents five articles on the effects of the Lantern|Awacic sexual violence prevention program training for workers in Indigenous care settings (Attard et al.), the relations between virtues, well-being, and resilience in Indigenous youth in the Peruvian Amazon (Bullock et al.), Child Maltreatment-Related Investigations of Children from Newcomer Households in Canada (Houston et al.), a review of the use of mobile applications to support Indigenous youth well-being (Noronha et al.), and finally, the validation of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-28; Ungar & Liebenberg, 2011) in Nicaraguan youth. I wish to take this opportunity to warmly thank each member of the IJCAR team, namely Dr. Isabelle Daigneault, Dr. Rachel Langevin and Dr. Tara Black, associate editors; Catherine Moreau, managing editor; Manon Robichaud, layout editor; Andréanne Fortin, senior copyeditor; and Ruo Feng, Sereena Pigeon, and Carley Marshall, junior copyeditor. We hope you enjoy your reading! Don’t forget to prepare your manuscripts for the 2022 issue. In addition to regular papers, we will feature a thematic section on research presented at the Child and Youth Trauma Symposium. Submit your manuscripts in English or in French by November 15th, 2021. Please feel free to send the information to colleagues and students who may be interested. Martine Hébert, Editor-in-Chief