Grant: Op. G.: Indig. Gender/Wellness-Knowl. Sharing- First Nations, Inuit/Métis youth

Settler colonialism has disrupted identity, belonging, and wellness for urban Indigenous youth, while the lack of culturally relevant, gender-affirming supports contributes to ongoing health inequities. Building on the success of the "Urban Indigenous Identity, Gender and Wellness: Sharing Wisdom Across Generations" (UIIGW) project, co-led by Métis Community Services Society of BC, Lillooet Friendship Centre Society, UBC Okanagan researchers, this next phase, the "Living Teachings" project, empowers youth to share about the interconnections between gender, identity, land, and wellness. Through arts-based approaches, digital storytelling, and community gatherings, youth will share what they learned about the interconnections between gender, identity, wellness and land through UIIGW. Guided by Youth Knowledge Facilitators, a Youth & Young Adult Advisory Council, and Elder Advisors, youth will design and lead knowledge sharing strategies, ensuring their voices, values, and priorities shape the knowledge sharing process. Knowledge will be shared with other Indigenous youth, urban Indigenous communities, educators, researchers, health providers, youth-serving organizations, and policymakers. This project advances Indigenous Knowledge Translation by centring Indigenous-led, relational, and culturally safe knowledge sharing practices that challenge hierarchical academic knowledge dissemination models. By affirming Indigenous understandings of gender, it upholds Indigenous ways of knowing that consider wellness to be relational, intergenerational, and community-defined, distinct from Western binary frameworks. By centring youth leadership, the project seeks to influence policies and programs in ways that reflect the strengths and lived experiences of urban Indigenous youth.