Restoring Our Roots: Land-Based Community by and for Indigenous Youth

Abstract


 
 
 Knowledge gathered about the impacts of land-based teachings on Indigenous youth is limited. Many Indigenous people and government commissions have pointed to targeted assimilation and land theft as central to historical and ongoing collective dissociation of Indigenous Peoples from their ways of being in relation with the land. It is thus paramount that Indigenous youth be given the opportunities to (re)connect with their cultures in safe, accessible spaces/places. Demonstrating the many ways learning from the land is beneficial for Indigenous youth, the Restoring Our Roots participatory action research project contributes to the knowledge base in this area to centre Indigeneity and reclaim our cultures by enacting Indigenous methodologies and pedagogies. An Indigenous youth advisory committee developed a four-day land-based retreat, held in July 2018, that focused on (re)connecting Indigenous youth to land-based teachings and ceremony. In interviews following the retreat, youth participants spoke about positive changes related to identity, belonging, well-being, and feeling free from violence in this space that engaged land-based teachings led by Elders, Knowledge Holders, and youth themselves. Some Indigenous youth who identify as Two-Spirit, non-binary, and/or LGBTQIA+ attended the retreat and shared how important it is to have safe spaces that are inclusive of diverse gender roles and identities. Restoring Our Roots created an inclusive community of support, sharing, and learning for Indigenous youth, extending into participants’ everyday lives in the city. This project has since grown into Land As Our Teacher, a five- year research project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, that explores benefits of land-based pedagogies for Indigenous youth.
 
 

Analysis of the Imaginative Geographies of Climate Smart Mining and their re‐imagination by the Khuthala environmental care group (KECG) in Mpumalanga province, South Africa

“…Projects such as these have connected the youth to the land within the context of their cultures in accessible spaces. These types of efforts to restore roots and rebuild broken communities of stolen lands, provide opportunities to reclaim cultures by affirming indigenous methodologies and pedagogies – alternate ways of knowing and connecting with the environment (Fast et al, 2020). These projects also allow for the legitimation of local knowledge and practices pertaining to the notion of productivity.…”

Predictors of Land-Based Activity Participation in a National Representative Sample of Indigenous Individuals Living Off-Reserve

“…These interventions prioritize Indigenous-specific approaches to health that authentically address the holistic relationships of mental, emotion, physical, and spiritual wellbeing, encapsulated by the four directions of the medicine wheel as mind, emotion, body, and spirit. Land-based activities such as cultural camps [15,[21][22][23], canoeing [24,25], harvesting practices (including hunting, trapping, and gathering plants or medicines) [26][27][28], and other land-based ceremonies promote improved mental health outcomes among Indigenous people.…”

“…A systematic review of land-based outcomes and the populations using them for either mental health intervention or wellness promotion could clarify how relationships differ between various populations. Currently, it appears that the majority of interventions described in the literature have either focused on culture camps [19,21,22], been youth-focused [21,23,24,26], or have explored culture as treatment within residential interventions for substance use [18,20], but to date, a comprehensive review of outcomes has not been completed. By understanding the established literature dedicated to this topic, and through more region-or community-specific studies of outcomes, the results of the present study can be more culturally contextualized and, potentially, more representative.…”

Impact on mental health and wellbeing in Indigenous communities due to land loss resulting from industrial resource development: protocol for a systematic review

“…Understanding the possible impacts of industrial resource development on mental health in Indigenous communities requires a recognition of the connection between the environment and Indigenous health and wellbeing [15,16]. The relationship between Indigenous Peoples and land is part of a holistic ontology that situates mental health as interconnected with all other dimensions of health (physical, emotional, and spiritual) and with cultural identity and place [16][17][18][19][20][21].…”