Volume 13, Number 1, 2022

EN:

Globally, Indigenous Peoples suffer disproportionately higher rates and complications of diabetes and obesity than non-Indigenous people. Western health interventions combined with culturally appropriate Traditional approaches can reduce incidence, prevalence, and related co-morbidities. This literature review reports effective culturally relevant Traditional and Western diabetes and obesity prevention and management intervention programs for Indigenous populations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Experiential, immediate, interactive, and low-cost programs, co-developed and delivered by local Indigenous people within the communities they live, are most effective in improving health and wellbeing. Key themes of success of Togetherness, Empowerment, and Local Familiarity inform action for policy and practice changes adaptable for chronic disease prevention, treatment, and self-management programs for Indigenous Peoples globally.

EN:

Sixties scoop survivors possess different levels of cultural knowledge. Our objectives were for Indigenous women 1) to increase their cultural knowledge through teachings and engagement with Knowledge Carriers, 2) to have other supports and resources they require identified, and 3) to participate in a Full Moon Ceremony. Community-based research principles were used to establish the study design and research process. Teaching circles and Full Moon Ceremonies were held and experiences in the study collected through focus group discussions. Five themes were identified which included the manifestations of the sixties scoop, longing for culture, (re)connecting to culture, the impacts of culture, and barriers to practicing culture. Important recommendations emerged regarding the practice of culture in ceremony and in programs.

EN:

Indigenization is a relatively new phenomenon in Canada. It is a broad concept that includes everything from changing physical spaces to challenging Western epistemologies and the status quo. In this study, I describe nine Indigenous students’ experiences with Indigenization at the University of Saskatchewan. Students were impacted both positively and negatively by their engagement: They described both opportunities borne of engagement with Indigenization and detriments such as exhaustion and lack of basic needs. In terms of methods to Indigenize, the participants described the importance of representation, centring Indigenous values and knowledges, and creating communities that can Indigenize. I end the paper with four policy recommendations for post-secondary institutions interested in Indigenization.

EN:

This paper presents Indigenous community-led, collaborative, and community-engaged water governance research with a First Nations community in the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron region in northeastern Ontario, Canada. The methodology draws on Indigenous approaches to understanding and developing knowledge and is designed to build community capacity in research and in water protection and governance. This approach recognizes existing community strengths, including traditional knowledge, experiences, perspectives, and associated cultural perspectives and values, laws, responsibilities and lived experience in relation to water. Results identify and contextualize community-held responsibilities and legal principles pertaining to water that support culturally relevant water governance and strategic planning. By synthesizing and extending previous water protection initiatives, this research meaningfully supports the community’s position and leadership on water security and governance. This, in turn, strengthens Indigenous water governance and sustainable water governance broadly as Indigenous understandings and approaches to water are holistic and concern relationships with and responsibilities to all of Creation.

EN:

In this paper, we review existing ethical guidelines that support Circumpolar Indigenous Peoples’ engagement in health research. For this study, we collated national and regional ethical guidelines addressing health research engaging with Indigenous communities. Our study found that ethical guidelines addressing Indigenous engagement in health research have emerged in Canada and the U.S.A. Currently, there are no Indigenous-specific provisions in national guidelines, or legislation concerning health research engaging Indigenous peoples, in Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, or Russia. Where guidelines exist, they show considerable variations. We conclude that guidelines are essential to ensure that research undertaken in Indigenous communities is relevant and beneficial to those communities, is conducted respectfully, and that results are appropriately contextualized and accurate. We believe that our analysis might serve as a checklist to support the development of comprehensive guidelines developed by, or at least in partnership with, Arctic Indigenous communities.