Grant: Operating Grant: Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research- Dev Grants

Most health research is focused on a disease or deficit end-point, whether designing, testing or implementing interventions, treatments or preventive measures. The focus of this network is on wellness - promoting, maintaining and re-gaining wellness, by itself, or in the context of a variety of conditions or life circumstances that First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples may find themselves. There is much Indigenous health and wellness knowledge/wisdom that has yet to be re-awakened, and in fact, cannot be well-supported in our current colonized structures and conceptualizations. To do so will take the development and re-development of roles and processes within community. It is within this context that we see Indigenous community as being the primary research leader, with the academy and the health system as being knowledge users. The proposed network will be grounded in the land. The land, and nature more broadly, are our primary teachers. The land is a critical connection to our ancestors, and is what we must preserve for future generations. Land-based Indigenous research methodologies will be a critical component of the network. Using a health determinants approach and working with communities of Indigenous people including Elders, Knowledge Holders, youth, researchers and health workers, we will explore what makes Indigenous people well, what keeps them well, and how Indigenous wellness can be achieved or re-gained through practices and interventions based on traditional and western knowledge. We also take a life-course approach to wellness, from preconception and early childhood to maturity and old age, across generations. As a principle, decision-making, resources and benefits will be shared reciprocally and equitably with community partner organizations. For the full NEIHR proposal, the aim will be to work closely with a small number of communities in their wellness journeys, learning from their leadership and wisdom awakening/re-awakening.