Grant: Project Grant

Makoyoh'sokoi (MKS), or 'Wolf Trail', is a 15-week community-led wellness program that integrates physical activity, Indigenous teachings, and ceremony to support mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health among Indigenous women (www.wolftrail.ca). MKS was developed in collaboration with Indigenous Elders and community leaders and has been offered across several communities within Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada. The program has demonstrated positive outcomes in fostering connection, healing, and self-agency among participants. The proposed project will build on past successes, explore how MKS promotes self-agency across generations leading to more sustainable change. This program will be guided by Elders and informed through community priorities. MKS will be expanded to include adolescent girls and Elders in a purposeful way, recognizing that both intergenerational wellness and cultural continuity are key to long-term health, well-being, and healing. Using methodologies grounded within Indigenous paradigms, sharing circles and Photovoice, a form of Community-Based Participatory Research that combines audio and visual mechanisms, we will explore how the expansion of the program impacts Indigenous women's sense of control over their lives, relationships with their families, and overall physical and mental well-being. This will be accomplished through positive changes in stress reduction, physical activity, and cultural connection and continuity. To advance knowledge translation, we will co-create a book with Elders that honours and shares the stories, experiences, and teachings of Indigenous women participants in the program. Overall, our project: (1) supports the written word, guided program development in Canada with emphasis on Indigenous self-determination in health, (2) creates pathways for intergenerational healing and knowledge sharing, and (3) demonstrates the effectiveness of a culturally informed and grounded program.