First Nations youth redefine resilience: listening to artistic productions of ‘Thug Life’ and hip-hop

Abstract

In recent decades, resilience research has striven to atone for the Eurocentric nature of research conducted with Canada's Aboriginal populations. It has been cautioned, however, that if resilience research fails to account for Aboriginal population's diversity, it risks culturalized images and pan-Aboriginalism. Definitions of resilience should be framed within community-specific models, recognizing dynamic subjects interacting in multiple social worlds. In partnership with six Saskatchewan First Nations communities, our work seeks to understand what resilience means to youth who live on-reserve. We draw on findings from two community-based projects developed with the Battleford Agency Tribal Chiefs First Nations. These projects used arts-based and mixed-methods to identify community strengths and barriers surrounding youth resilience. Although study findings show the influence of family, programming, and culture, our model is emended to show the importance of youth's own definitions of resilience, even when these may appear antithetical to conventional norms. Drawing on the youth's artistic pieces, evolving themes focus on hip-hop culture and Thug Life; showing youth creating a place to belong when they are experiencing a lack of belonging. Within the framework of listening to youth-driven resilience, we put forward an alternative model of reaching youth using positive elements of Thug Life and hip-hop.

Land and nature as sources of health and resilience among Indigenous youth in an urban Canadian context: a photovoice exploration

“…In this way, young peoples' views of resilience are often reflective of local culture and context in a holistic way, and "consist of a balance between the ability to cope with stress and adversity and the availability of community support" ( [52], p. 5). Recent research has also shown that Indigenous youth perspectives of resilience draw on family and local environment as supporting factors that can be similar among cultures [45,53].…”

Engagement of ‘At-Risk’ Youth Through Meaningful Leisure

“…Furthermore, meaningful leisure is proposed to provide an avenue to reinforce positive relationships and learn/discover about self, others, and the world. Importantly, what youth do with leisure, rather than what leisure does to youth, should be emphasized to promote constructive youth-led engagement through meaningful leisure (Brooks et al, 2015;Lashua & Fox, 2007;McClelland & Giles, 2014). The former concept (i.e., what youth do with leisure) is more youth-driven than the latter concept (i.e., what leisure does to youth), which is more prescriptive in nature.…”

Arts and Mixed Methods Research: An Innovative Methodological Merger

“…Incorporating the arts as a data collection strategy in a MMR study and thereby integrating art as a data source, often through arts-informed research. Case example: Brooks, Daschuk, Poudrier, and Almond (2015).…”

“…This case example qualifies as data source integration because art was used as a data source (e.g., arts-informed research) that was handled narratively and/or statistically, and integrated with data collected from nonarts-based means (e.g., questionnaires, interviews). Using this arts-informed approach, Brooks et al (2015) integrate at the level of research data (e.g., visual data, narrative data, statistical data) to answer “how Canadian First Nation’s Youth understand resilience?” The authors sought to understand the diverse perspectives toward resilience of youth living on reserves, including community strengths and barriers to this resilience. Drawing on two community-based participatory research projects, the researchers fought against the dangers of “Pan-Aboriginalism” and Euro centrism that has characterized a great deal of research with (and on) First Nations populations in Canada.…”