Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Reliability and validity are well-established criterion for evaluating the quality of surveys and tools in peer-reviewed Western literature. While there is a lack of research on these concepts from an Indigenous perspective, approaches such as Two-Eyed Seeing acknowledge that Indigenous knowledge sources are valid and can help academics produce Indigenous wellness research that is considerate of multiple perspectives. Thus, the purpose of this presentation is to explore whether the concepts of reliability and validity are relevant for land-based learning in the context of a study aiming to develop a physical activity (PA) environment assessment tool for First Nations communities. Briefly, youth co-researchers (n=14) from three First Nations communities examined the PA-environment relationship using Photovoice, the Rural Active Living Assessment tool (Yousefian et al., 2010), and talking circles. The findings from that study were used to inform the development of the PA environment assessment tool. In order to ensure that the PA environment assessment tool is useful for First Nations peoples, the tool will be shared and validated with diverse First Nations communities. Potential alternatives to Western notions of reliability and validity include authenticity, the degree to which the tool remains true to the context in which it was created, and relational accountability, the understanding that everyone must speak the truth in order to maintain a relational balance with one another. This study will provide an example of ways in which Indigenous knowledge systems can be used to develop new quality criterion that ensure research is useful for First Nations communities.