The COVID-19 pandemic has created a significant effect on the vulnerable portion of society, particularly on Indigenous and visible minority immigrants. We, as a minority family from Bangladesh who are on Indigenous land in Saskatchewan Canada, explore family-based pandemic resiliency, mainly focusing on Indigenous notions of resistance and reconnection. This article discusses our family-based resiliency on family interaction, social distancing, and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper explores a family-based decolonizing autoethnography as a methodology for understanding health and wellness from an immigrant family’s perspective. We discussed why Indigenous and immigrant stories matters for building resiliency and resistance within a family. How do we know it is effective? How can it be helpful for others? Here, we highlight how Indigenous Elders, Knowledge-Keepers, and ancestors’ stories helped us for building our resistance and reconnection to be active, hopeful, and joyful during the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNSTRUCTURED The COVID-19 pandemic, like a natural disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant effect on the vulnerable portion of society, particularly on Indigenous and visible minority immigrants in Canada. While Indigenous and visible minority people are very diverse and experienced the impact of Covid-19 very differently, both groups have a significant lack of equal access to pandemic resiliency. As a visible minority immigrant family in Indigenous land in Treaty 6 territory, we (as a colour settler family in Indigenous land known as Canada) learned Indigenous land-based education (ILBE) from Indigenous Elders and Knowledge-keeper's land-based stories, traditional knowledge, resiliency, and practice. We have been learning and practicing ILBE to develop resiliency during a natural disaster, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used a land-based learning as a research methodology for learning health wellness from land. We discussed why ILBE matters for building resiliency, resistance, and self-determination within a family and community; how can it help others? We have seen how COVID-19 has created severe negative impacts on mental and physical health. During the high climate change era, many pandemics are yet to come. However, the ILBE can offer us many opportunities to build our resistance and resiliency through decolonizing our ways of knowing and doing.

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Many visible minority immigrants and refugee communities are already experiencing inadequate access to education, and healthcare, lack of sufficient food, significantly higher rates of communicable and non-communicable diseases, and lack of access to essential services. Even when vulnerable communities can access healthcare services, they face stigma and discrimination. There is limited cross-cultural research examining the lived experiences of immigrant communities. Following a relational research framework, this study explores how learning and practicing Indigenous land-based practices were critical in building resilience for many racialized immigrant families during the pandemic. Our study shows Indigenous Land-based Mental Health Resiliency from Indigenous Elders and Knowledge-keeper’s land-based stories, traditional knowledge, resiliency, and practice may have many health benefits and positive outcomes in response to mental health disaster resiliency. Hope this study helps deconstruct the static vision of mental health disaster recovery and reconstruct community-led resiliency to the pandemic. It offers multiple mental health benefits and decolonizes mental health resiliency.

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