Project 177558

Research with Canada's First Nation communities has identified special a relationship between the health of the physical environments and community well-being. Attachment to the land is health-promoting, as demonstrated in the songs and ceremonies of First Nation peoples, and in the transmission of this cultural knowledge across the generations. As First Nation communities become increasingly dispossessed of their traditional lands, significant strain is put on the quality of health determinants that depend on relationships with the physical environment, thereby leading to an erosion of the cultural knowledge needed to sustain these health-promoting relationships. The consequences of environmental dispossession are of particular concern among the Anishinabe communities on Northern Lake Superior, who have endured decades of environmentally exploitative resource development in their traditional territories and express anxiety about the effects of this development on community health and maintenance of cultural identity, particularly among youth. Situated within a knowledge translation framework, our proposed three-year project will draw from a participatory approach that will engage youth (n=8) from four Anishinabe communities on Northern Lake Superior (Red Rock First Nation, Pic River First Nation, Batchewana First Nation and Garden River First Nation) in ethnographic research that involves interviewing their community elders (n=40) about key health and environmental issues, including their perceptions about the roots and consequences of changes to health and environment over time, and solutions for protecting the environment and improving health. The purpose of this project is to preserve elder knowledge about health and environment, and to provide a knowledge transfer mechanism whereby local youth are actively involved in doing research that will benefit their communities, while at the same time expanding their own knowledge base and skill set.