Aboriginal Health, Healing, and Wellness in the Downtown Eastside Study
Documents & Presentations
Author/Creator
Kinwa Bluesky
Description
Goal of study was to gather information on extent of culturally appropriate health supports and to make recommendations that would increase integration of traditional, spiritual and cultural practices into existing services and programming.
Journal of Indigenous Social Development, vol. 6, no. 1, 2017, pp. 1-20
Description
Asserts that spirituality is central to Aboriginal approaches to social work and discusses four aspects of the relevance of other-than-human animals in spirituality: as part of kinship systems, sources of wisdom and protection, ceremonial significance and historical importance. Considers the Judeo-Christian focus of most scholarship on spirituality in social work and calls for a more decolonial, anti-oppressive practice.
Article reframes the discussion surrounding mental health recognizing that Indigenous peoples have a holistic view of health that encompasses the physical, mental, emotional, and environmental spectrum of wellbeing. Notes implications for government policy and for frontline practice.
International Journal of Indigenous Health, vol. 14, no. 2, Growing Roots of Indigenous Wellbeing, October 31, 2019, pp. 74-94
Description
Authors examine colonial traumas—Indigenous separation from land, culture, and relations—which occur as a result of ongoing and neo-colonial practices, as a determinant of Indigenous peoples’ physical and mental health.
Protocol is comprised of six key principles: self-determination and inclusion in all stages of the research process; acting in good faith; understanding determinants of health; recognition of culture and vision and culturally-grounded research and solutions; respect for local peoples and their ways of knowing, Elders and ancestral understandings; and incorporating Two-Eyed Seeing into process.
American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, vol. 26, no. 3, 2019, pp. 104-135
Description
Describes a community-based, participatory research project in which six urban American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) health organizations in northern California partnered to adapt the Canadian-developed Cultural Connectedness Scale for use in California. Reviews the process and provides information for localized adaptations.
American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, vol. 26, no. 2, The Collaborative Research Center for American Indian Health’s Partnership River of Life, 2019, pp. 96-122
Description
Describes the Wicozani Instrument as a 9-item self-report measure that which assesses health and well-being using a holistic, Indigenous world view. Describes two studies in which the validity and reliability of the instrument is verified.
AlterNative, vol. 13, no. 3, Fostering Cultural Safety across Contexts, September 2017, pp. 179-189
Description
Discusses how two organizations, the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health (NCCAH) and Northern Health, have approached incorporating Indigenous knowledge about health and wellness into their healthcare practices.
AlterNative, vol. 15, no. 2, June 2019, pp. 121-130
Description
Author outlines a framework for well-being rooted in the concept of connectedness; the idea that wellness for Indigenous people comes from them being connected to their families, their communities, and the natural world.
Honoring Sacred Relationships: Wise Practices in Indigenous Social Work
Documents & Presentations
Author/Creator
University nuhelot’įnethaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills
Description
Information arranged under eight themes: spirituality, ceremony and culture; relationships; ethical space; identity, lived experience and knowing; circles; protocol and policy; lifelong learning; and becoming an ally.
'I Honored Him Until the End': Storytelling of Indigenous Female Caregivers and Care Providers Focused on Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias (ADOD)
International Journal of Indigenous Health, vol. 14, no. 2, Growing Roots of Indigenous Wellbeing, 10 31, 2019, pp. 54-73
Description
Author shares the Indigenous research methodology that she has created and named “sweetgrass story weaving,” and some of the stories that have been recorded through this process. Includes information on moontime stories, berry fasts, and other women’s rites of passage.
Looks at end-of-life care service models and policies, and advance care planning and identifies current needs, disparities, and services available to Indigenous patients.
International Indigenous Policy Journal, vol. 10, no. 3, June 25, 2019
Description
Study examines the priorities that Indigenous people living in remote communities in Australia have for defining their own well-being and how they rank those priorities in their own understandings of health.
Canadian Journal of Native Studies, vol. 37, no. 2, 2017, pp. 179-191
Description
Study uses thematic and NVivo 10 analysis to review the structured interviews of 30 study participants; most participants found the Medicine Wheel to be a useful framework for health-care decision making.
Canadian Journal of Aboriginal Community-based HIV/AIDS Research , vol. 8, Winter, 2017, pp. 44-59
Description
Details the methods used by project's research team for engaging communities and individuals affected by Hepatitis C in the development of leadership and health management strategies.
Argues that Western individualized medical and social models are incongruent with the Mäori worldview, and that a wholistic, culturally appropriate approach is needed.
Journal of Indigenous HIV Research, vol. 10, Winter, 2019, pp. 28-38
Description
Discusses the Weaving our Wisdom (WoW) program's use of land as a healing tool to improve the health of Indigenous people living with HIV and AIDS. The land-based WoW gathering took place at the Wanuskewin Heritage Site.