“Just because they aren't human doesn't mean they aren't alive”: The methodological potential of photovoice to examine human-nature relations as a source of resilience and health among urban Indigenous youth

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

“…Although the stories and photos that youth generated were diverse and covered a wide range of topics, a central theme that emerged in both the youth photos and stories were aspects of and relations with nature or the "land." The findings explored here focus on "meaning-making" and context-person engagements with and connections to nature, either by way of being present in nature or by connecting with land in their local urban context, and how such connections fostered resilience and well-being in various ways [43,54,55,62]. At the same time, we highlight how these connections helped young people cope with various stressors or difficult situations they may encounter and navigate on a day-to-day basis.…”

“…The method of photovoice and photo elicitation were used to explore youths' perspectives of 'how' and 'why' a connection to the land or nature in their urban contexts was important to them. Photovoice involves individuals taking photographic images to document and reflect on issues significant to them and how they view themselves and others [60][61][62][63][64]. We used photovoice because it is a collaborative, community engaged process that acknowledges the significance of giving voice to situated events and perspectives through photographs and a sense of "being there" [63,64].…”

“…As an arts-based and Participatory Action Research (PAR) method, photovoice was a positive way of engaging young people and entering their worlds, fostered relationality between youth and the research team, and encouraged a storying of the sacred and creative aspects of one's journey, as "the ceremony of art touches the deepest realms of the psyche and the sacred dimension of the artistic creative process" ( [25], p. 46). By incorporating photovoice and understanding that youth need to be heard in a safe environmentwhich is not the case for many young people-we were able to promote knowledge generation that explored current and past assumptions about inner-city Indigenous youth and allowed them to ask creative or critical questions that may not have been uncovered or voiced otherwise [62,63].…”

“…The use of photovoice method combined with Etuaptmumk or a "two-eyed seeing" approach in this study remains important as it allowed youth to actively engage in the research process and connect visual images with their lived experiences or social realities [56,57,[62][63][64]. Youth were also able to share personal knowledge about particular issues that were difficult to express with words alone [65,66].…”

Visual Storytelling, Intergenerational Environmental Justice and Indigenous Sovereignty: Exploring Images and Stories amid a Contested Oil Pipeline Project

“…A method sometimes embraced in this spirit, "photovoice", developed originally in public health [16], involves community members leading the processes of visual exploration and has become increasingly popular as a research technique, as well as to promote local solidarity, activism, and deeper understanding more broadly. Notwithstanding the growing body of literature on such techniques, including with indigenous communities [7,[17][18][19][20][21][22], there is scant research exploring participatory photography and local visual narratives in the contexts of oil pipeline opposition. Building on debates on the meaning of images and visual storytelling as "more-than-representational" [19] in order to recognize the emotional intensities that are lived, experienced, and conveyed, this article aims to contribute to filling this gap empirically and conceptually, and calls for more research to navigate and explore possibilities, risks, and critical issues in this area.…”