Indigenous Families Research Articles

Family-centred interventions for Indigenous early childhood well-being by primary healthcare services.

Family-centred interventions for Indigenous early childhood well-being by primary healthcare services.

Cultural Globalisation and Infiltration of Yoruba Family Value System in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria.

This study examined the challenges associated with cultural globalization on the Yoruba family value system in Ado-Odo Ota LGA., Ogun state. The research design for this study is cross-sectional. A structured questionnaire was utilized to elicit quantitative data from 230 respondents. The data from the questionnaire were analysed statistically and presented in a descriptive manner, while the formulated hypotheses were tested using Chi square test. The findings showed that there is a significant relationship between Yoruba indigenous family values and the modern Yoruba family values (X2=15.261, df=4, p < .05). This result negates the formulated null hypothesis 1 and it was rejected. In the same vein, a significant relationship also exist between the benefits of harmonising the Yoruba cultural family values with western culture and its consequences on the youth in Ado-Odo Ota LGA., Ogun State [r(228)= 0.441, p < .05]. This findings negated the formulated null hypothesis 2 and it was rejected. The study recommended that the teaching of the Yoruba indigenous family values and cultures should be encouraged across all educational systems in the Southwest Nigeria to maintain its existence. Similarly, parents should teach their kids to imbibe the right morals and social values that will uphold the indigenous family values in them. Finally, the output of the media outfits, and what is obtainable on the internet should be censored, monitored, and controlled by the governments while the parents should play prominent roles to do the same.

Deriving calibrations for Arawakan using archaeological evidence.

This paper identifies time calibration points for accurately rooting and dating the phylogeny of Arawakan, the largest Indigenous linguistic family of the Americas. We present and model a methodology for extracting calibration points from the archaeological record, based on principles of geographical overlap between archaeological sites and Arawakan peoples, and on continuity in material culture between archaeological finds and modern Arawakan practices. Based on a consensus model of the expansion of the Arawakan family from Central Amazonia, we focus on archaeological finds in Arawakan expansion zones, where Arawakan material culture abruptly appears in a given region, and where only a single major Arawakan subgroup/clade is present. We find 12 calibration points from archaeological sites in Arawakan expansion zones and also identify more recent calibration points from the historical record based on first mentions of ethnonyms and early sources of lexical data.

Dispossessory Citizenship: The Settler Colonial State and the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Relocation Program, 1952–1972

ABSTRACT Through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) relocation program starting in 1952, the United States sought to terminate federal trust restrictions for American Indians and while relocating reservation and rural-residing Indigenous people to cities to be assimilated into the American “mainstream.” I analyze the BIA’s program as part of the specifically settler colonial structure of the U.S. state. Using primary and secondary sources, I ask what explains the BIA’s shifting spatial strategies and imaginaries from the rise of the relocation program to its demise? The BIA’s project derided reservations as fiscal burdens, depicted the postwar city as a place of “Indian freedom,” engaged in gendered surveillance of Indigenous families, and negated Indigenous peoples’ histories in U.S. cities. As the program ended, the BIA shifted rhetoric from assimilation to self-determination to maintain the settler colonial relation while paying lip service to critiques of the colonial tactics of relocation. These different moments of the relocation project articulated a type of dispossessory citizenship as a racial and empire state strategy of enacting and justifying settler colonialism. This work analyzes the settler colonial dimensions of the state and its technologies of violence and territory used when it presents itself as supposedly moving past its colonial past.

Indigenous Service Provider Perspectives of an Online Education Module to Support Safe Clinical Encounters about Family Violence in Canada.

Given colonial genocide, Indigenous peoples are rightfully reticent to disclose their experiences of family violence to practitioners working within mainstream health care and social services. Health care and social service providers (HSSPs) have varied formal education on providing trauma-and-violence informed care to Indigenous and non-Indigenous families affected by family violence, including intimate partner violence and child maltreatment. The purpose of this study is to understand and describe the perspectives of Six Nations of the Grand River community members on the relevance of an education module to support HSSPs to provide physically and emotionally safe care to Indigenous families affected by family violence. Two-Eyed Seeing and Two Row Wampum approaches guided our qualitative study. Twenty-one (66.7% women) Indigenous HSSPs completed a semi-structured interview; 15 identified as a regulated HSSP, nine as a Knowledge Keeper/Cultural Holder, and three as a HSSP trainees. Conventional content analysis guided the development of codes and categories. The Violence, Evidence, Guidance, Action (VEGA)-Creating Safety education module was described as having elements consistent with Indigenous experiences and values, and supportive of Indigenous peoples seeking care from HSSPs for family violence related concerns. Participants described several suggestions to better adapt and align the module content with the diversity of values and beliefs of different Indigenous Nations. Collectively, the Creating Safety module may be used as an educational adjunct to Indigenous-focused, cultural safety training that can support HSSPs to provide physically, emotionally, and psychologically safe care to Indigenous peoples who have experienced family violence. Future work needs to consider the perspectives of other Indigenous communities and Nations.

Indigenous and Settler Understandings for Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Australia: The Significance of a Decolonial Approach

Addressing the gendered dimensions of family violence remains a key focus in the primary prevention of violence against women (PVAW) in Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian communities. What is seen as more important for Indigenous communities in PVAW is addressing the legacies and ongoing impacts of colonisation on Indigenous people, families, and communities. This focus on decolonisation deviates from settler PVAW programs where the emphasis is on challenging hegemonic masculinity and patriarchy. In this paper, I consider the importance of critiquing the western logic of colonisation within both Indigenous and non-Indigenous PVAW programs through examining the links between hegemonic masculinity, colonisation and neoliberal capitalism. I draw attention to the inherent violence and corrosion within processes of colonisation that adversely affect the social and emotional wellbeing and relationships of Indigenous and non-Indigenous men (albeit in very different ways) and argue the importance of a decolonising approach for addressing gender-based violence within Indigenous and non-Indigenous programs.

Dene, métis and inuvialuit peoples’ voices on the impact of Canada’s perinatal transport and non-medical escort policy in their communities: an outcome assessment approach and narrative literature review

ABSTRACT Historically, there is a documented lack of support for women leaving their communities to give birth. Due to an over-emphasis on risk discourse (no distinction between low- or high-risk pregnancies with options to birth at home, the large geographical distances to regional centres within circumpolar regions, remoteness of communities, lack of qualified staff, and limited resources), women are forced to travel great distances to give birth. In Canada until 2017, women travelled alone or bore the burden of paying out of pocket for someone to travel with them for support with the births of their babies. A recent policy change has allowed for one paid escort to accompany a pregnant woman. The purpose of this paper is to provide an outcome assessment of the perinatal transport and non-medical escort policy implemented by the federal government in Canada. The paper utilises a narrative literature review along with preliminary Indigenous photovoice results to illuminate the perspectives of Indigenous families. There are numerous challenges women face when travelling for birth including feelings of loneliness and fear, stress and separation from their children, lack of community connection, financial concerns, and a loss of self-determination. Women are given an opportunity in decision-making about who will travel with them as an escort. This does little to address the disparity of delivering their babies away from their families and communities, the burden of figuring out who cares for the children at home, and the impact their absences have on health of their families. Although, additional support has been provided for birthing women in northern Canada, there continues to be little effort to return to community birthing creating safety for Indigenous families through traditional practices, Indigenous midwifery, and community ceremonies and changing the disproportionate burden of poor outcomes experienced by Indigenous women.

The cultural specificity of parent-infant interaction: Perspectives of urban middle-class and rural indigenous families in Costa Rica

Caregiver-infant interactions in Western middle class often take place in dyadic play settings, engaged in infant-initiated object stimulation, and surrounded by a positive emotional tone, reflecting a distal parenting style. With this study we aim to investigate whether the same conception of caregiver-infant interaction is embodied in the proximal parenting style. For this purpose, we compare the context and pattern of caregiver-infant interactions in two cultural groups in Costa Rica: Urban middle-class families in San José and rural indigenous Bribri families. Naturalistic observations and caregiver interviews revealed significant differences between the groups, with San José families resembling the Western middle-class interaction pattern. Among the Bribris, adult-child play is uncommon so that children interact with adults in primary care settings and with older siblings in play settings. Bribri interactions are further characterized by emotional neutrality. The groups did not differ in terms of body contact. Also, caregivers in both samples took the lead in interactions more often than infants. The results are discussed in the context of an autonomous-relational style as combining psychological autonomy and hierarchical relatedness. We argue that early childhood theories and intervention programs need to abandon the assumption that Western middle-class strategies are universal and recognize locally relevant patterns of caregiver-infant interaction.

Walking in two worlds with type 2 diabetes: a scoping review of prevention and management practices incorporating traditional indigenous approaches

ABSTRACT Type 2 diabetes is a complex chronic disease rapidly increasing among young people and disproportionately impacting Indigenous youth. Treatment programs are often inadequate for this population as they lack cultural relevance. A scoping review was conducted to explore traditional Indigenous approaches for diabetes prevention and management, to inform a program aimed at supporting Indigenous youth and families with type 2 diabetes. We seek to answer the following question: “Which traditional medicines and practices have been incorporated into intervention or prevention strategies for Indigenous people living with diabetes?” Search was done June 2021 using Ovid Medline, ESBCO and ProQuest databases. Terms included wellbeing, intervention, diabetes, and traditional approaches. Of the 2138 titles screened, 34 met inclusion criteria. Three studies integrated traditional Indigenous approaches into Western-based intervention programming. Content included traditional food and nutrition programs, gardening programs, Elder knowledge sharing, story telling, talking circles, feasting, prayer, traditional dancing, hunting, and school-based wellness curricula. Many were wholistic, co-created with community, Indigenous-led and held in accessible community spaces. The heterogeneity in approaches reflects the diversity of Indigenous nations and communities. This review identifies important elements to include in culturally relevant programs to address diabetes-related wellness.

Indigenous Life after the Conquest: The de la Cruz Family Papers of Colonial Mexico

Caterina Pizzigoni and Camilla Townsend's translation of a set of Nahuatl-language documents represents the 16th volume in Latin American Originals, a series edited by Matthew Restall that presents translations of primary source texts with specialist scholarly apparatus. Colonial-era wills and other forms of mundane documents have long provided scholars a rich source of material to study Indigenous history, notably in the groundbreaking work of the late James Lockhart. The materials in Pizzigoni and Townsend's Indigenous Life after the Conquest are distinctive in this tradition because the records belonged to a single family and were maintained by that family over centuries. As Pizzigoni and Townsend explain in their introduction, the de la Cruz family from the Toluca Valley were elite but not noble. They were the sort of family whose wealth and status grew in the colonial period, much to the chagrin of Indigenous families descendant from the great tlatoque who ruled over central Mexico before the arrival of Europeans. The core set of de la Cruz documents was initially identified by Lockhart in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. He shared transcriptions of the materials with Pizzigoni, who in turn located additional records related to the family in various archives. In this slim volume, Pizzigoni and Townsend present translations of five of these documents accompanied by a robust introduction that provides insight into the multiple generations of family members who produced them.The lengthiest of the texts, the first document is titled “The de la Cruz Family Record Book,” and it, unlike the remaining four documents, is presented initially in Nahuatl as transcribed from the manuscript and then in English translation. Don Pedro de la Cruz began the book in 1647 to keep records of donations he made to local churches. A decade later, around the time that don Pedro assumed the role of gobernador of the altepetl of Tepemaxalco, the book evolved to become a repository of other events related to his community, in the tradition of Nahua historical annals, or xiuhpohualli. This book would be maintained by the family until the nineteenth century. The final entry is in the year 1842, decades after Mexican independence. The document provides an extraordinary window on the daily lived experiences of Nahua elite families during the colonial period. We find records of financial accounts and labor tribute, descriptions of harvests and building projects including evolving repairs and additions to the church, and entries detailing the specific positions that individuals in the community held. The notations are remarkable for the precision with which they capture daily life in an Indigenous community, as the authors recorded events they deemed significant, ranging from an eclipse to the donation of a bell to the church and the purchase of chickens used to entertain guests from Mexico City. The quotidian becomes noteworthy through its sheer consistency and duration.Document 2 provides records for the year 1658 from a tribute roll maintained by don Pedro de la Cruz during his first eight years as governor of Tepemaxalco, from 1657 to 1665. In addition to alphabetic notations of monetary tribute, the document contains a duplicate accounting in non-European pictoglyphic notations that show contributions from each tlaxilacalli, or subdistrict of the altepetl. Document 3 provides the seventeenth-century birth records of members of the de la Cruz family found in the Archivo Parroquial de San Pedro y San Pablo in Calimaya, Mexico. Document 4 is the will of don Pedro de la Cruz, dated 1667, while document 5 is the will of his son-in-law don Juan de la Cruz, dated 1691. Don Juan's will was written with care over a period of time and reflects with great consideration how his assets should be distributed and how his death should be remembered in his church and community. This final document is followed by several brief scholarly supplements, including an epilogue, a note on language and orthography, and a glossary.Renowned experts, Pizzigoni and Townsend bring their knowledge of colonial Nahuatl as well as Nahua cultural and social history to these unique sources. The ancillary materials situate the corpus of colonial-era manuscript records for the reader, while the documents themselves provide a rich depiction of daily life for the de la Cruz family, an Indigenous family whose members held leadership positions in their local community over the course of centuries. In this way, these records attest to the survival and endurance of Indigenous lives and traditions under Hispanic colonial rule.

74 Patient-oriented research priorities for pediatric hospital care in Canada: a James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership

Abstract Background The largest population of paediatric patients cared for in hospital are those with medical conditions managed in general paediatric inpatient units (GPIUs). Despite the large burden, there is a lack of high-quality research focused on the care of children and youth admitted to GPIUs. The Canadian Paediatric Inpatient Research Network (PIRN) was launched in 2019 to generate evidence to improve the care and outcomes for hospitalized children in GPIUs. To help establish a future research agenda, PIRN brought together clinicians, youth, patients and caregivers to identify important clinical management questions about the care of children in hospital. Objectives To conduct a research priority setting study to identify the most important unanswered clinical management research questions about paediatric hospital care in GPIUs that are important to patients, caregivers, and clinicians. Design/Methods Established James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership methodology was utilized for this project, which was overseen by a Steering Group composed of patient partners, (youth, parents of patients) and clinicians (nurses, and paediatricians) (n=10), facilitated by a JLA Adviser. In phase 1, an online REDCap survey was administered to collect unanswered research questions regarding paediatric hospital care via 3 open-ended questions. Responses from the phase 1 survey went through a detailed evidence checking process. Subsequently, unanswered research questions were brought forward to a phase 2 interim prioritization online REDCap survey. A final list of top 10 unanswered research questions pertaining to paediatric hospital care was established at the final priority setting workshop. Results The phase 1 survey was completed by 188 participants and generated 495 unanswered research questions and comments, of which 58 were deemed out of scope. The remaining 437 responses were grouped into themes (e.g., hospital policy, communication, shared-decision making, health service delivery and health service management), and then refined to 75 unanswered research questions. Of these 75, 4 questions had sufficient evidence, and 21 were submitted by only one respondent. Fifty unanswered research questions were included in the phase 2 survey, which was completed by 201 participants. The top 16 questions – the top 10 from both patient partners (youth, parents of patients) and clinicians respectively – were presented at the final priority setting workshop and the top 10 questions were prioritized (Table 1). The top 10 questions focus on the care of special inpatient populations (e.g. children with medical complexity), communication, shared-decision making, support strategies, mental health supports, shortening length of stay, and supporting Indigenous patients, parents and families. Conclusion The top 10 unanswered questions on paediatric hospital care will help guide future research. PIRN will use these prioritized questions to generate scientific knowledge to improve the outcomes of hospitalized children and youth in GPIUs through the conduct of patient-oriented research.

“Catherine Tekakwitha, who are you?” — The Indigenous Female Body in the Colonial and Post-Colonial

In 2012, the Mohawk saint Catherine Tekakwitha was finally canonized by the Catholic church. She has been the subject of many accounts and narratives —both historical and fictional—and figures as the main subject of Leonard Cohen’s 1966 novel Beautiful Losers. While having been lauded for its post-modernist and presumably postcolonialism stance on Tekakwitha’s figure, Cohen’s novel remains controversial in its depiction and appropriation of Indigenous womanhood. Beautiful Losers relies heavily on missionaries’ accounts of Tekakwitha and is entrenched in the male protagonist’s sexual claim and fixation on her character. Given the significant status of women in Indigenous communities, I argue that Cohen’s novel not only participates in an ongoing violation of the Indigenous female body but also denies the integrity of Indigenous family structures and their social as well as narrative authority. It hinders, rather than encourages, a shift in narrative authority pertaining to Canada’s colonial heritage. While Cohen’s text remains a necessary testament to the shortcomings and failures of history and its criticism, what is required in forthcoming scholarship and narratives dealing with Tekakwitha and figures similar to her is a narration originating in Indigenous communities. An emergence of such narratives requires a definite reckoning with Canada’s violent history of mistreating Indigenous womanhood that continues to this day.

Adapting Child Health Knowledge Translation Tools for Use by Indigenous Communities: Qualitative Study Exploring Health Care Providers' Perspectives.

BackgroundOur research groups have developed a number of parental knowledge translation (KT) tools to help families understand common childhood illnesses and make informed decisions regarding when to seek urgent care. We have developed a series of videos to help parents understand how to manage common acute childhood illnesses at home and when to contact emergency health care services. It is unclear whether the videos in their current form and language are useful for a wider range of populations, including Indigenous groups.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to explore whether and understand how our KT tools could be adapted for use with Indigenous communities.MethodsHealth care providers (HCPs) serving Indigenous families in Alberta, Canada, were asked to review 2 of our KT tools (one on croup and one on acute otitis media), complete a demographic survey, and participate in a one-on-one semistructured interview. HCPs were asked to reflect on the usability of the KT tools within their practice and what cultural adaptation considerations they felt would be needed to develop KT tools that meet the needs of Indigenous clients. Audio recordings from the interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed for relevant themes using thematic analysis.ResultsA total of 18 HCPs (n=15, 83% women and n=3, 17% men) from various health professions (eg, physician, registered nurse, and licensed practical nurse) were interviewed. Of these 18 HCPs, 7 (39%) self-identified as Indigenous. Four overarching themes were identified as important when considering how to adapt KT tools for use by Indigenous communities: accessibility, relatability, KT design, and relationship building. Access to tangible resources and personal and professional connections were considered important. Accessibility affects the types of KT tools that can be obtained or used by various individuals and communities and the extent to which they can implement recommendations given in those KT tools. In addition, the extent to which users relate to the depictions and content within KT tools must be considered. The environments, portrayals of characters, and cultural norms and values presented within KT tools should be relevant to users to increase the relatability and uptake of recommendations. Most importantly, fostering genuine and sustainable relationships with users and communities is a vital consideration for KT tool developers.ConclusionsThese findings serve to cultivate a greater understanding of the various components that HCPs consider important when developing or culturally adapting KT tools for use by Indigenous families. This information will help support the effective adaptation and distribution of KT tools for use by a broad audience. Careful consideration of the themes identified in this study highlights the importance of working together with the knowledge users (health care consumers) when developing KT tools.

7.2 Indigenous Storytelling: Supporting Indigenous Children’s Mental Health and Wellness

The aim of this presentation is to describe a storybook series entitled Our Smallest Warriors, Our Strongest Medicine, which is designed to provide strengths-based, culturally relevant, and freely accessible public health and mental health educational resources to support the mental health needs of Indigenous children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health care utilization differences between First Nations people and the general population with inflammatory bowel disease: a retrospective cohort study from Saskatchewan, Canada.

Indigenous people in Canada often face barriers to access specialized care, with limited data in evaluating health care utilization among Indigenous people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We aimed to compare health care utilization between First Nations patients and those in the general population diagnosed with IBD in Saskatchewan. We conducted a patient-oriented, population-based, retrospective cohort study by linking administrative health databases of Saskatchewan between fiscal years 1998/99 and 2017/18. We designed and completed this study in partnership with Indigenous patients and family advocates. We applied a validated algorithm to identify IBD incident cases and then used the self-declared First Nations status variable to divide those cases. We applied a 1:5 ratio for age and sex matching and used Cox proportional models to assess associations. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were reported. We created a matched cohort with 696 IBD incident cases: 116 First Nations patients and 580 patients in the general population. We observed differences between the groups for IBD-specific hospital admissions (HR 1.33, 95% CI 1.01-1.75), IBD-related hospital admissions (HR 1.55, 95% CI 1.20-2.01), medication claims for IBD (HR 0.52, 95% CI 0.41-0.65) and 5-aminosalicylic acid claims (HR 0.56, 95% CI 0.45-0.71) adjusting by rural or urban residence and diagnosis type. There were no significant differences in the hazard rate of outpatient gastroenterology visits (HR 1.13, 95% CI 0.90-1.41), colonoscopies (HR 1.14, 95% CI 0.92-1.41) and surgeries for IBD (HR 1.14, 95% CI 0.80-1.64). We identified that First Nations patients diagnosed with IBD had a higher rate of hospital admissions owing to IBD than patients in the general population diagnosed with IBD. We also found an inverse association between First Nations status and having prescription medication claims for IBD.

Conocimiento tradicional, agrobiodiversidad y prácticas agroecológicas en los liipakan (huertos familiares) de Olintla, Puebla

Home gardens are very old agroecosystems that show cultural identity and knowledge, so the present work aims to analyze the traditional ecological knowledge possessed by the peasant and indigenous families of Olintla, Puebla, in relation to the management of the home garden. The methodology implemented was through a case study that allowed us to apply a mixed methodology. Qualitative techniques were applied, such as the semi-structured interview, which was conducted with 15 key informants; and as a quantitative technique, the survey, in which a sample size of 76 families was calculated, obtained from a previous list of families that have home gardens (N=380) in order to collect primary information in a more complete way. With the data obtained, a database was created in Microsoft Excel ®, where the information obtained was recorded in a coded manner and processed with the SPSS program version 27.0. It was found that the farming families of Olintla name the family garden as liipakan in their native language, Totonac, and it was also found that the agrobiodiversity of the liipakan is reflected in the high number of species registered, which was 239, of which 130 are native; in addition, 142 are named in Totonac. A classification of 18 categories was also made according to their use; 10 agroecological practices used in the orchards were recorded as part of the traditional knowledge and a scale of knowledge possessed by the families was made, obtaining that 58 owners have a high to very high level of knowledge, which evidences the conservation of biodiversity and the preservation of the biocultural heritage. It is concluded that the liipakan are important because they are mainly used to produce food (49.8% of cultivated species) contributing to the food sovereignty of Olintla families; in addition, medicinal plants (24.7%) and ornamental species (23.4%) are cultivated there.

“She’s Always Been a Fighter for Me”: Indigenous Mothers as Advocates and Defenders of Their LGBTIQSB + Children

There is no research into the experiences of Indigenous LGBTIQSB + young people and their mothers in the country now known as Australia. Based on a series of nine narrative interviews with young LGBTIQSB + people living in New South Wales, this article is the first to discuss Indigenous LGBTIQSB + children’s relationship with their Indigenous mothers. Indigenous mothers have been framed in ways that justified targeted settler state interventions situated within broader racialised biopolitical governance practices and the regulation of Indigenous lives. The findings of this research project provide a counter narrative to the current framing of Indigenous mothers and families as dysfunctional and in need of intervention by state and welfare agencies. Indigenous LGBTIQSB + young people speak to their experiences of coming out and the ways their Indigenous mothers defended, affirmed and advocated for them. Participants spoke of how Indigenous mothers provided them with protective skills and strategies that allowed them to effectively navigate close and extended familial and community contexts. This article demonstrates the significance of Indigenous mothering practices and values for the wellbeing of their LGBTIQSB + children.

Fair compensation and the affective costs for indigenous doulas in Canada: A qualitative study

BackgroundIn Canada, Indigenous doulas, or birth workers, who provide continuous, culturally appropriate perinatal support to Indigenous families, build on a long history of Indigenous birth work to provide accessible care to their underserviced communities, but there is little research on how these doulas organize and administer their services. MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted in 2020 with five participants who each represented an Indigenous doula collective in Canada. One interview was conducted in person while the remaining four were conducted over Zoom due to COVID-19. Participants were selected through Internet searches and purposive sampling. Interview transcripts were approved by participants and subsequently coded by the entire research team to identify key themes. ResultsOne of the five emergent themes in these responses is the issue of fair compensation, which includes two sub-themes: the need for fair payment models and the high cost of affective labour in the context of cultural responsibility and racial discrimination. DiscussionSpecifically, participants discuss the challenges and limitations of providing high quality care to families with complex needs and who cannot afford to pay for their services while ensuring that they are fairly compensated for their labour. An additional tension arises from these doulas’ sense of cultural responsibility to support their kinship networks during one of the most sacred and vulnerable times in their lives within a colonial context of racism and a Western capitalist economy that financializes and medicalizes birth. ConclusionThese Indigenous birth workers regularly expend more affective labour than mainstream non-racialized counterparts yet are often paid less than a living wage. Though there are community-based doula models across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Sweden that serve underrepresented communities, further research needs to be conducted in the Canadian context to determine an equitable, sustainable pay model for community-based Indigenous doulas that is accessible for all Indigenous families.

From the Inside: Indigenous-Settler Reflections on the Family uses of the Thomas Dick ‘Birrpai’ Photographic Collection 1910–1920

ABSTRACT In the settler colonial context, family histories can be key places to explore the relations between Indigenous and settler families, past and present. In this paper we examine this use of family history with reference to a historical photographic collection that links our two families. The Thomas Dick Photographic Collection (TDPC) was produced over a ten-year period, from 1910 to 1920, as a collaboration between the amateur photographer Thomas Dick and several Birrpai families. The photographs, reflecting Dick's colonial mindset, were staged as pre-contact and sought to depict Birrpai life of a century earlier. The images are now held in local, national and international collections. The TDPC holds particular familial significance for both Heath and Barnwell, who are respectively descendants of the Bugg-Dungay family (featured in the photographs) and the Dick family (the photographer). Heath is the foremost expert on Dick's Birrpai collection, and has done extensive work; to locate the photographs in inter/national collections; to determine and correctly label the participants and places featured; and to develop a set of cultural protocols for its use in dialogue with a Family Stakeholder Group (FSG) and key collecting institutions. The FSG Protocols provide an indication of the value and use of the images as preferred by descendants. In this paper we write about the role of the photographs as family photographs in both the Bugg-Dungay family and the Dick family, including when we each first saw the photographs and what these initial encounters reveal about how such photographs, when looking at them and beyond them, can be used to both construct and deconstruct settler mythologies of time and history.

An Integrative Review of Barriers and Facilitators Associated With Mental Health Help Seeking Among Indigenous Populations.

Indigenous populations, compared with majority populations, have a reduced likelihood of receiving professional help for mental health, contributing to health disparities. To increase use of and access to mental health services for Indigenous people, specific factors that affect service use need to be examined. An integrative review was undertaken of the barriers to and facilitators of help seeking and service use for Indigenous populations in Canada, the United States, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Five databases-PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science, Social Services Abstracts, and Bibliography of Native North Americans-and gray literature were searched to identify original studies with data specific to Indigenous people. A qualitative analysis of common themes among the studies was conducted, along with a quality appraisal of included articles. Of the 1,010 records identified, the final synthesis included 41 articles. Six main themes emerged: informal supports, which were often used as a first choice for help seeking compared with formal services; structural obstacles and supports; stigma and shame; self-reliance and uncertainty about services; cultural factors and mistrust of mainstream services; and the need for outreach and information regarding mental illness and services. Policy implications include needed structural changes to decrease mistrust of mainstream systems and services and increased funding and resource availability. Along with technology-facilitated treatment, programs for Indigenous people, families, and communities that enhance education and foster positive relationships can serve as a first step toward Indigenous people becoming comfortable with the idea of talking about mental health and with seeking treatment.