Learning to Fail Better: Reflections on the Challenges and Risks of Community-Based Participatory Mental Health Research With Inuit Youth in Nunavut

Abstract

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a mine field of moral dilemmas. Even when carefully planned for and continuously critically reflected upon, conflicts are likely to occur as part of the process. This paper illustrates the lessons learned from “Building on Strengths in Naujaat”, a resiliency initiative with the objective of promoting sense of belonging, collective efficacy, and well-being in Inuit youth. Naujaat community members over time established strong meaningful relationships with academic researchers. Youth took on the challenge of organizing community events, trips out on the land, and fundraisers. While their creativity and resourcefulness are at the heart of the initiative, this paper explores conflicts and pitfalls that accompanied it. Based on three themes – struggles in coming together as academic and community partners, the danger of perpetuating colonial power structures, and the challenges of navigating complex layers of relations within the community – we examine the dilemmas unearthed by these conflicts, including an exploration of how much we as CBPR researchers are at risk of reproducing colonial power structures. Acknowledging and addressing power imbalances, while striving for transparency, accountability, and trust, are compelling guiding principles needed to support Indigenous communities on the road toward health equity.

Shifting paradigm from biomedical to decolonised methods in Inuit public health research in Canada: a scoping review

“…The most common type of collaboration was between southern-based academic researchers with health and political representatives at the national, regional and local levels (Hamlet, Council) (n=177). Thirty-nine studies21 32 39 41 44 47 48 65 67 71–73 75–98 established an advisory committee to oversee the research and to provide feedback on the research protocols.…”

Reflection Labs: A Space for Researcher Reflexivity in Participatory Collaborations

“…The idea of a reflection lab gives researcher subjectivities an explicit, legitimate space in research: a space for critical reflexivity that seeks to learn from the challenges encountered and minimize possible harm while providing ideas on how to move forward. It is a safe space to learn from the difficulties, areas of discomfort and the failures that accompany any learning process and that deserve much greater attention in the research process (Anang et al, 2021; Clark & Sousa, 2020; Fraser et al, 2022; Held, 2020).…”

The challenges of decolonising participatory research in indigenous contexts: the Atautsikut community of practice experience in Nunavik

“…Anang and colleagues [ 74 ] report, of a research experience in youth mental health in Nunavut where the needed time to invest in its implementation to follow a respectful process with partners was more considerable than the usual project time frame as enforced by grant agencies and academic conventions. Similarly, Goodman and colleagues [ 75 ] stated that “Convention in academia present formidable challenges to effective community engagement and are often at odds with calls from community organizations and funding agencies to conduct research driven by community priorities and values [p.4]”.…”

“…The difficulty of avoiding coloniality in participatory research initiatives, despite a clear positionality to do so, was also brought to light by Anang and colleagues [ 74 ]. This resonates with the Atautsikut project, as it puts forward the necessity to constantly question and revise a project’s stance, interrogating in detail its modes of functioning.…”

“…Anang and colleagues [ 74 ] also discuss the challenges of navigating complex relational layers within communities. Paralleling this idea, and in view of the Atautsikut project, it can be argued that bringing together Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants in a project is yet another relational layer adding to the complexity.…”