As an emerging Indigenous scholar completing a mainstream doctoral program, I was immediately drawn to the work of Marie Battiste. Her work inspires my commitment to approach my degree as a decolonizing journey that nourishes my own learning spirit. Battiste (1998) captures the paradox of mainstream education as it is experienced by Aboriginal students. As she pointed out while Aboriginal students are looking to liberate themselves and their communities through education, they are faced with a strenuous curriculum that does not “mirror” them. As a result, students experience a “fragmented existence” (p. 24). This has indeed been my experience. Her recent book, Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit expresses the tensions Indigenous learners face in all levels of mainstream education. These are the very tensions I personally experienced throughout the entirety of my educational experience as I have attempted to secure my own space and sense of place as a student and now aspiring professor.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine Indigenous perspectives of work-life enrichment and conflict and provides insights to better support Indigenous employees. Design/methodology/approach Interviews were conducted with 56 Indigenous people from six Canadian provinces. In total, 33 of the respondents were female and 23 were male. The interview responses were transcribed and entered in NVivo10. Thematic analysis was used. Findings The authors’ respondents struggled with feeling marginalized and felt frustrated that they could not engage in their cultural and family practices. The respondents spoke of putting family needs ahead of work and that many respondents paid a price for doing so. Research limitations/implications The results are not generalizable to all Indigenous peoples, however these results do fill a void in the literature. Practical implications Employers must consider revising policies including providing more supervisor support in the form of educating supervisors on various Indigenous cultural practices and examine ways of providing more flexibility with respect to cultural and family practices. Social implications Indigenous peoples have been marginalized since the advent of colonialism. This research addresses a gap in the literature by presenting how a group of Indigenous respondents frames work-life enrichment and conflict. Originality/value Very few studies have examined Indigenous perspectives on work-life enrichment and conflict using a qualitative research design. It also aligns with one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s calls to action.

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This paper addresses the health problems and opportunities that society will face in 2030. We propose a proactive model to combat the trend towards declining levels of physical activity and increasing obesity. The model emphasizes the need to increase physical activity among individuals of all ages. We focus on the right to move and the benefits of physical activity. The paper introduces a seven-level model that includes cells, creature (individual), clan (family), community, corporation, country, and culture. At each level the model delineates how increased or decreased physical activity influences health and well-being across the life span. It emphasizes the importance of combining multiple disciplines and corporate partners to produce a multifaceted cost-effective program that increases physical activity at all levels. The goal of this paper is to recognize exercise as a powerful, low-cost solution with positive benefits to cognitive, emotional, and physical health. Further, the model proposes that people of all ages should incorporate the “right to move” into their life style, thereby maximizing the potential to maintain health and well-being in a cost-effective, optimally influential manner.

This qualitative inquiry documents the lessons gleaned from my journey toward the praxis of Indigenous Maternal Pedagogies, an Indigenous women-centred teaching and learning engagement, to offer insights for supporting Indigenous women in higher education. Specifically, this article offers an express vision for Indigenous women’s educational access and success in higher education by sharing a collective research story offered by Indigenous women participants who completed one or more of three courses related to Indigenous women’s literatures and Indigenous maternal theory. Each course was delivered through a decolonial feminist lens, comprised of Indigenous curricular content and engaged students in culturally relevant assessment. This work connects Maternal Pedagogies with Indigenous epistemologies that embrace the “whole student” within educational contexts to establish a teaching and learning environment that can speak to the hearts and minds of students. In the spirit of reconciliation, I position this environment as a safe space where students can be their whole authentic selves and where their realities and lived experiences are positioned as strengths and key assets to establishing an ethical space for cross-cultural and anti-racist dialogue. Collectively, the participant narratives offer four key lessons that are integral to reconciliation education more broadly, and I map these lessons as final  recommendations that align with Kirkness and Barnhardt’s timeless work on the “Four Rs” of respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility.