The role played by a former federal government residential school in a first nation community’s alcohol abuse and impaired driving: Results of a talking circle

Abstract

Historical institutions like federal government residential schools have contributed to systemic socio cultural problems which influence alcohol abuse and impaired driving. Hence there is a need for community-based intervention strategies that promote cultural healing. The healing journey can start with First Nations communities providing their people opportunities to share their stresses and traumas in supporting and nurturing environments.

Correlates of Suicidality: Investigation of a Representative Sample of Manitoba First Nations Adolescents

“…FN community members in Alberta, Canada have discussed the "wall of silence between parents and children" that occurred due to residential schooling, hindering the ability of these parents to be good role models for their offspring (Rothe et al, 2006). Community members from another Canadian FN community have also spoken about the importance of healing from the residential school experience in order to improve parenting and prevent its influence from continuing onwards to other generations: "Many levels of disconnection and alienation result[ed]…because children were taken from their families over multiple generations…parenting skills were disrupted" (Smith et al, 2005, p.47).…”

Innovation in qualitative interviews: “Sharing Circles” in a First Nations community: Table 1

“…Other published qualitative studies have addressed the reasons for drinking and driving in adolescents 6. Qualitative methods have also been used extensively by Rothe (first author of this paper) in studies of traffic safety issues such as seatbelt wearing, impaired driving, traffic law enforcement and risky driving 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. In these studies, interview findings were used to capture the experiences of both injury victims and traffic law violators, in order to aid in the design and implementation of interventions aimed at improving the safety of vulnerable populations.…”

“…Thus, unstructured interviews are arguably the most difficult kind of research interview to undertake. They usually constitute the preferred form of interviewing with indigenous people, whereby a few guiding questions are asked and the respondents fill in the rest through storytelling and anecdotes 13 27…”

Using First Nations Children’s Perceptions of Food and Activity to Inform an Obesity Prevention Strategy

“…Questions were accompanied by drawing and pile-sorting activities to elicit discussion among children (Hennessy & Heary, 2005;Hesketh, Waters, Green, Salmon, & Williams, 2005;Horstman, Aldiss, Richardson, & Gibson, 2008;Krueger & Casey, 2000). Participants and facilitators sat in a circle around a table during the focus groups (Krueger & Casey;Rothe et al, 2006), and each child created two drawings of foods they liked to eat and individually discussed their drawings with the group. Using all of the pictures, children (as a group) sorted the drawings into one of two piles (healthy or unhealthy foods) and discussed their rationale for choosing one pile rather than the other.…”

“…Eligible children participated in one of the three focus groups based on their availability, as recommended by their teachers. Focus groups were adapted for use with children, and we employed storytelling and narrative, which tend to be highly valued by Aboriginal peoples (Poff, 2007;Rothe et al, 2006). To further ensure cultural appropriateness, the word activity was used intentionally, rather than physical activity, throughout the interviews, because activity better accommodates the broad nature of health embodied by Aboriginal people's holistic view of health and well-being (Adelson, 2000;Isaak, 2008;Turton, 1997;Warbe, 2005;Wilson & Rosenberg, 2002).…”