Grant: Team Grant: Indigenous Gender and Wellness Team Grant

The traditional medicines of the Lil'wat Nation have a gendered aspect, with traditional roles, ceremonies and medicines being associated with gender identities and roles. However, there is an increasing awareness amongst Lil'wat community members that binary gender is a legacy of colonialism. Moreover, Lil'wat community members have identified a need to support community learning and education about gender and sexuality to build knowledge and acceptance for members of the community who identify as Two Spirit or LGBTQIA+. This initiative proposes to build support, education and awareness about gender and sexuality into traditional medicine practices, as part of the Lil'wat Cultural Re-Connection Classroom. This proposed work that has been identified by the project Elder and Elder-in-Training, both of whom are Lil'wat community members. During this 3-year long initiative, Lil'wat and UBC Researchers, will pilot a new community institution that envisioned to be a place where Lil'wat youth can come together to engage in topics related to culture, gender, sexuality, and take part in traditional medicine harvest and processing and other culturally based activities that promote health and wellness. This research will work to generate indicators to gauge Lil'wat youth health and wellness, particularly in protective factors related to cultural continuity. We are requesting support for the hiring of Lil'wat Nation members as researchers and consultants to initiate the design of activities and services that will be offered from Years 1-3, along with support for materials and to invite Two Spirit leaders from other Indigenous communities to visit the Lil'wat Cultural Re-Connection Classroom as guest speakers and presenters and Lil'wat Elders to lead traditional medicine activities. This initiative is anticipated to bring significant long-term gains for the Lil'wat Nation to enhance knowledge and capacity around the intersections of gender, sexuality and wellness.