Project 445167

Indigenous communities (ICs) experience detrimental health impacts living near industrial development. Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN) was exposed to effluent from a pulp and paper mill for over 50 years, until the mill was forced to close in 2020. Government reported that PLFN's health was not impacted by exposures, but their concerns would not go away. In 2010, we (PLFN and NPA) co-designed a project to assess the health status of PLFN using Statistics Canada data and other quantitative data. We used oral histories from Knowledge Holders in PLFN which highlighted their unique relationship to land and developed a Mi'kmaw environmental health framework to analyze the data which revealed governments' failures. PLFNs experience underscores the need for community centered/controlled approaches to environmental health risk assessment, governance and data. Our proposed research will examine health impacts of living near oil and gas extraction (Cree, Chipewyan (Dene), and Métis) and a landfill site (Haudenosaunee), and work with each of the four ICs to co-develop their own environmental health frameworks to show how community-led/locally relevant/culturally safe governance frameworks and cultural protocols ensure the highest ethical standards are followed and promote community health decisions that respect Indigenous values and traditions. We will support community-led environmental health literacy efforts to build capacity and learning for ICs and address impacts of current/proposed development affecting the four ICs. Finally, we will critique existing state-led environmental health risk assessment (EHRA) methodologies. Guided by Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing), using a community-based participatory approach and the Mi'kmaw framework as a starting point we will advance the capacity of ICs to develop Indigenous EHRA to assess their own health and environmental status and share our research widely to show how Indigenous-led assessments result in more effective decisions.