Grant: Cat. Gr.: Indig. Appr. to Wellness Research - Wellness in musculoskeletal health

Indigenous health researchers maintain research must centre the knowledge of Indigenous peoples to identify better and more sustainable ways to foster wellbeing for Indigenous communities. Yet, there remains a need to create Indigenous-led, and community-driven, research projects that frame the entire research within a specific Indigenous research methodology. Furthermore, Indigenous Elders' knowledge of wellness stemming from their lands is imperative to identifying resistance strategies to ill health, and for passing down experiential knowledge of wellness gained from local environments. The need to learn from the knowledge, life experiences, and healing processes from Elders regarding their lands is particularly vital, as Indigenous Elders' life expediencies are less than non-Indigenous elders. In response to these needs, the current research team, led by three Naicatchewenin First Nation community leaders and three Anishinaabeg researchers, have two main objectives: 1) through sharing circles in a traditional roundhouse and engaging in land-based activities, we will ask how do traditional knowledge transfer activities, such as hunting, trapping, fishing, harvesting, walking-the-land, ceremonial processes etc., enhance Anishinaabeg wholistic wellbeing? 2) through Wiisokotaatiwin, an innovative Anishinaabeg-informed research method, this study will investigate how Wiisokotaatiwin may be used as an on-the-land research method to amplify Indigenous approaches to health and wellness?