Across Canada, Indigenous populations face a unique, complex and historical set of mental health challenges.
From the oppressive conditions set by the Indian Act, to the Residential Schools and the continued, large-scale removal of Indigenous children from their homes during the Sixties Scoop, to the persistent disparities and inequities within Indigenous health and child welfare systems today, there are a number of intersecting determinants that have played a role in shaping the mental health and wellness of Indigenous peoples in rural, remote and urban settings.
While understanding the negative outcomes of historical marginalization and intergenerational trauma are key in helping to contextualize mental health disparities in First Nations communities, Dr. Kim Matheson, IMHR and Carleton University’s joint Culture and Gender Mental Health Research Chair says that the path towards more equitable services, better outcomes, and continued healing must also involve a shifting focus towards the strengths and resiliency of these communities.
The Indigenous Youth Futures Partnership, a seven-year SSHRC-funded partnership grant, is helping to shift this focus. Following the lead of First Nations communities in Northwestern Ontario, Dr. Matheson and her multi-disciplinary team are working to build on each community’s strengths, act on their priorities and facilitate the mobilization of resources to foster Indigenous youth resilience and empower youth to prosper as leaders in their communities.
In recognition of June being National Indigenous History Month in Canada, we took the time to talk to Dr. Matheson about her involvement in the project, opportunities and challenges associated with mental health interventions in First Nations communities, and the role of allies in Indigenous mental health research.
IMHR: Can you tell us about the Indigenous Youth Futures Partnership, and how it came about?
KM: The primary goal of this project is prevention. We are looking at working with communities to identify upstream factors that contribute to First Nations youth being able to thrive within their communities.
The original thinking when I got involved in this work had to do with the disproportionately high rates of suicide that were occurring in the region. We’re working in Northwestern Ontario – part of the Anishinaabe Nation territory – and are partnering with the Sioux Lookout Health Authority, which covers all the community-based health option services within these communities. What became really apparent when we started this project was that we don’t know a lot about suicide; we know less about youth suicide; we’re terrible at predicting suicide; and we know even less about First Nations youth suicide.
Most of the Western traditional approaches to suicide prevention often involve clinical treatment, but given the little that we know [about First Nations youth suicide], it’s usually much too late to intervene, and approaches are inadequate for the experiences of the youth in that region.
The Indigenous Youth Future Partnership team includes people with clinical backgrounds, but also includes people from the area of public policy, geographers, people who do research in the area of Indigenous studies, anthropologists, and more. In addition to our health authority partners, we also work with youth organizations and schools. A whole range of disciplines and sectors are involved. We’re working with four communities right now, which are all remote (three are fly-in only), vary in size from 400 to 800, and all vary in terms of culture.
Each of these communities have a lot of different issues they’re contenting with, and at the base of all of these issues is them dealing with the consequences of centuries of interactions with European settlers and the implications of colonizing policies like the Indian Act and the Residential Schools. They all have common experiences with being Indigenous in Canada, but where they differ is in the areas of cultural variations; connection to language; continued connection to the land; and their resilience in relation to their ability to deal with continued issues.
IMHR: As an ally, what do you find is the biggest challenge when it comes to working with these communities?
KM: [Our work is] coming on the heels of historical trauma and continued trauma within these communities. So it’s not like you’re having these things [i.e. youth suicides] happening on an isolated basis – these are communities who are still grieving and trying to heal from decades of trauma and abuse.
That is why anything that gets done has got to come from the communities. This is one of the big challenges: that there’s a huge relationship development phase that has to go into each and every community, as well as the organizations that support them.
Another part of the challenge - and my own challenge from coming to this work from outside of the community – is that we often see all of these problems…and communities are often focused on the problems. But when you start to dig a little deeper and ask a different set of questions, there is a lot of strength in those communities. The fact that they still exist – that they’re surviving, that are still people there, that there are still people there who care – means that there are some real fundamental strengths within those communities.
It’s not for me to create this space [of wellness for Indigenous communities] - it’s for me to make it possible for the people who have to live this experience to create their own space."IMHR: Given this resiliency that you’re seeing within these communities, what are some of the associated opportunities in terms of mental health interventions or support/resources?
KM: Right now, there is funding that has been going into really building up land-based programs. This is important, because almost universally, when you ask somebody who is Indigenous what is making them feel better, it is when they are out on the land and feel connected to the land – when they can see the sun rise. So there’s a lot of effort now going into trying to create programming for young people to go out onto the land, and spend the day ice fishing, camping, etc.
Here, we’re trying to focus on these resiliency factors as opposed to focusing on the stressors. The goal of this research is prevention, and part of prevention is understanding the factors that contribute to wellness. What does come out in a lot of our work is the value of reconnecting to traditional cultural values.
IMHR: Given the importance of this work being community-led, how do you see your role as an ally?
KM: On the one hand, I think at this point in history, Indigenous people need allies. They can’t do [all the work] on their own. At the same time, there’s a need for people like me to be incredibly humble in terms of what their role is in doing this work – and recognize that we can’t use the same approaches [that we’ve taken in other areas] or see ourselves as the champions. There’s a patience and humbleness and need to be in the background in regards to bringing about change.
It’s not for me to create this space [of wellness for Indigenous communities] - it’s for me to make it possible for the people who have to live this experience to create their own space.
*This interview has been edited for length.