Grant: Operating Grant: Indig. Gender/Wellness - Knowledge Sharing- First Nations comm.

Following from the Lilwat Cultural Re-Connection Classroom (2021-2024), this project will amalgamate research findings and lessons from various Lil'wat teachers and mentors to 1) pilot a workshop series in Lil'wat Nation focused on culturally-safe Indigenous-led health and wellness exercises, 2) bring Státimc Nation members together on the land to share knowledge of medicine harvest and storytelling, and 3) prepare two research articles for submission to peer-reviewed journals relating to Indigenous health and wellness. 1) We propose to pilot a workshop that was developed as part of Team Grant Funding in Phase 3: Lil'wat Cultural Re-Connection Classroom. This workshop centers on the themes of: culturally-relevant health and wellness supports; arts-based methods; intergenerational knowledge sharing; and rediscovering purpose as Lil'wat/Státimc Indigenous community members with sacred responsibilities to self, family, community and the land. The workshop will be led by Kwiwks Eliza Peters, who is a trainee, knowledge user and a person with lived experience, and co-delivered with the Indigenous Project Elder and Community Leader, Koskas. 2) Proposed activities include the delivery of 4 storytelling visits to different areas of Lil'wat territory. These activities will be led by Kwiwks and Koskas, and supported in planning and administration by Dr. Smith. Kwiwks and Koskas will lead traditional medicine harvesting lessons and invite Lil'wat Community Leaders and Knowledge Keepers to share stories of places visited in each of the four directions, in relation to language, culture, gender and wellness. 3) Preparation of 2 manuscripts prepared by the research team will share the findings of earlier phases of this research initiative. These articles will be drafted by Drs. Bulkan and Smith in close collaboration with Koskas and Kwiwks.