Kiskenimisowin (self-knowledge): Co-researching Wellbeing With Canadian First Nations Youth Through Participatory Visual Methods

Abstract

Indigenous youth represent one of the most marginalized demographics in Canada. As such they must contend with many barriers to wellness that stem from oppression, including historical and ongoing colonization and racism. Developing effective health programming requires innovation and flexibility, especially important when programs take place in diverse Indigenous communities where local needs and cultural practices vary. This article reports the findings of an after-school program in 2014 that blended a participatory visual method of research with Indigenous knowledge, methodologies, and practices to provide sociocultural health programming for youth in a First Nation in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Engaging with youth to co-research wellbeing through the arts was conceptualized as both research and health promotion. Participatory arts methods created a safe space for youth to express their views of health and wellness issues while developing self-knowledge about their individual and cultural identities.

Exploring coping strategies and mental health support systems among female youth in the Northwest Territories using body mapping

“…Strengths-based mental health interventions previously implemented in the North reported that empowering participants to express their own interpretations of their lived experiences through participatory visual arts methodologies can promote mental health and wellness [37]. However, the method of body mapping has not previously been used in mental health intervention research with youth in Northern Canada, and this study provides key findings on how this method helps to elicit the strengths and coping strategies of young NWT women.…”

“…Findings from this study thus corroborate past research that describe how Indigenous and Northern Canadian youth rely on intrapersonal and interpersonal supports that are not part of the healthcare system when addressing mental health challenges. These supports include connection to culture, traditional customs, and practices [30,35,36], being out on the land and connecting to the environment [7,29], using the arts to build personal resiliency and strengthen peer relationships [28,37], leaning on family and other individuals [29,31], and practising their religious faith [3]. …”

Four Generations For Generations: A Pow Wow Story to Transform Academic Evaluation Criteria

“…Hand drums, water drums and big drums emulate this heartbeat of life, and this heartbeat is medicine for the people. When a community comes together to lift the young people to take their place as leaders and head dancers, singers, and drummers, the layers of required knowledge is rooted in generations of traditions within the diversity of Indigenous nations (Cote-Meek et al, 2012;Goudreau et al, 2008;Victor et al, 2016). The heartbeat of being Indigenous in the academy cannot be separate from this heartbeat of life.…”

Forming strong cultural identities in an intersecting space of indigeneity and autism in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand

“…Colonialism in the West was supported by the Doctrine of Discovery, theological and legal decrees that legitimized the right to spread Christianity in the Americas and control and dominion over said land (Victor et al, 2016). Meditated by Euro-centric ideologies of religious and racial superiority, the colonial project used philosophies of the Industrial and Enlightenment periods as theoretical weaponry, physical brutality, biological warfare, and premeditated genocide, to dominate, subjugate, and erase Indigenous Peoples and cultures (Bailey & Arciuli, 2020;Lindblom, 2014;Victor et al, 2016).…”