Indigenous Fathering and Wellbeing: Kinship and Decolonial Approaches to Health Research

Laura Hall,Parveen Nangia,Tanya Shute,Phyllis Montgomery,Mikaela Parr,Sharolyn Mossey

doi:10.28984/drhj.v3i0.303

Abstract

In the past decade, Canadian statistics indicate that fathering nurtures family wellbeing which ultimately fosters community growth. The wellbeing of Indigenous men, shaped by determinants of health and culture-based perspectives, is challenged by ongoing settler colonialism. In particular to Indigenous men living with children in their homes, less is known about their strengths as nurturers. For the purpose of this study, based on Indigenist, decolonizing theories, 'father' is not conceived as the head of household. An alternative to the heteropatriarchal model is the kinship orientation of Indigenous fathering and as such, father refers to uncle, grandfather, traditional Clan leader, adoptive parent, and so on. This study's secondary quantitative analysis compared health and social characteristics of three cohorts of Indigenous adult men who identify as residing with children. Based on an extracted subset of variables from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey, results showed many significance comparisons among First Nations, Metis and Inuit men. Across health and social domains, multiple and decolonial supports are needed for Indigenous fathering to flourish.

Highlights

What is the health and social profile of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit adult men who self-identify as living with children? Our research question leads into further questions about the cultural importance of fathering, and about the impacts of colonization on supports for Indigenous fathers
This paper presents Indigenous men's opportunities for wellbeing with their children within kinship struc tures
The Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS) data drawn for this study suggest that Indigenous men living with children must contend with social and kinship determinants of economic security, housing security, and education disparities compared to other groups of men

Summary

Introduction

What is the health and social profile of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit adult men who self-identify as living with children? Our research question leads into further questions about the cultural importance of fathering, and about the impacts of colonization on supports for Indigenous fathers. The context of colonialism ensures that Indigenous People’s aspirations for wellbeing are misunderstood and subjugated by traditionally deficit-based health research (McGuire-Adams, 2017), often accompanied by a reductionist and self-serving focus on ‘vulnerable’ populations, and an overall failure to better understand Indigenous knowledge-based contributions to the fields of study concerning their/our struggles. This paper presents Indigenous men's opportunities for wellbeing with their children within kinship struc tures. Such an orientation is rooted in Creation whereby fathers, uncles, grandfathers, in both human and more-than-human terms, are honoured and recognized as part of the circle. The traumas, forced relocations, land loss, and resulting health and economic hardships caused by colonization, mean that Indigenous families need to be honored in their extended, culturally rooted ways. The concept of kinship captures this approach, including as it does the whole familial structure of Indigenous societies (Innes & Anderson, 2015; Tam, Findlay, & Kohen, 2017)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion