Re-imagining miyo-wicehtowin: Human-nature relations, land-making, and wellness among Indigenous youth in a Canadian urban context

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.…”

“…This study contributes to the literature exploring Indigenous youths' meaning-making process and engagements with land and nature in an urban Canadian context. Through their photos and stories about those photos, youth in this research revealed how local encounters with nature were constructed through day-today affective activities that changed and were fluid over time, leading us to interpret these processes through everyday acts of "meaning-making" [40,43,54,55]. A move to analyze "meaning making" and youth engagements with nature in urban contexts not only considers temporal orientations, but also emphasises conceptions of situated instances of "ecological resilience" through multiple, overlapping, and contradictory processes of renewal and growth [18][19][20]54].…”

“…Nature was seen here as endowed with sacred or spiritual meanings and embedded in relations that served as powerful embodied metaphors that helped youth to mitigate distressing life experiences. The trees, plants, and animals which inhabit the "land" were also highly personal beings which formed part of young people's social and spiritual universe, and taught youth important life lessons [43,44]. The youth also learned through the seasons that change is a natural part of life, and therefore, in the face of change and difficulties, they have to adapt and move on to accomplish a goal.…”

“…Indigenous perspectives of health can also point to or are supported by strength-based processes of resilience that not only involve or draw on these four aspects of one's being [35,36], but also involve positive adaptation and resistance in the face of colonization, historical traumas, or structural violence, as well as current stresses, challenges, and demands [37,38]. Indeed, research with diverse Indigenous Peoples attests that relationships with nature and land support all four elements of life, and this in turn can: enhance overall health, resilience, and well-being [28,30,31,39]; improve selfesteem and self-efficacy [40], increase consumption of traditional foods [41]; foster intergenerational relationships [38]; reduce psychological distress [42]; and strengthen cultural identity and belonging [43]. For Indigenous youth in Canada's north, as another example, beyond nature being a place where everything needed like animals to hunt to edible plants can be accessed, many also looked to nature as a place for spiritual connection, healing, and personal growth [26,35,40,44].…”

“…When land has been subjected to health research in urban spaces explicitly, it typically employs narrow definitions that view land-based cultural practices as "out of place" or nearly "invisible" [45]. Less considerations, therefore, are given to how diverse groups of Indigenous Peoples' maintain connections to land and nature within urban contexts to promote notions of health, resilience, and well-being they uphold [31,43].…”