Medicine Wheel Research Articles

Konaway Nika Tillicum Native Youth Academy: Enacting a medicine wheel educational framework.

Native American youth need educational experiences that promote positive, healthy development, which requires decolonizing current educational experiences. Konaway Nika Tillicum Native Youth Academy (KNT) offers a holistic approach to education, incorporating Tribal cultures and values along with valuing higher education. Across two complementary studies, we seek to understand how the Medicine Wheel framework supports the design of educational experiences and the effectiveness of this design on positive development factors, including cultural identity development, self-esteem, and academic optimism. To address our research questions, we first share an ethnographic study including participant observations and interviews with five KNT staff to investigate how the educators of KNT enact the Medicine Wheel in designing educational experiences for Native youth. We then examined the effectiveness of this Medicine Wheel framework on positive development factors across two summers of the academy with youth ages 11-18 (23 boys, 38 girls) representing diverse tribal affiliations. Findings from our first research question reveal a Medicine Wheel Educational Framework that offers holistic and culturally sustaining/revitalizing education experiences for Native youth. Findings from our second research question indicate that Native youth experienced significant increases in their cultural identity and academic optimism directly and indirectly via increasing self-esteem through engaging in the KNT. Implications of findings show that when educated in a learning space that promotes Native students' culture, youth show healthy development in factors valued across Indigenous and Western perspectives, including cultural identity, self-esteem, and academic optimism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Association between insomnia and four domains of health based on an Indigenous Medicine Wheel: Findings from two Saskatchewan First Nation communities.

Research has shown that insomnia and chronic diseases can simultaneously impact overall health, including physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. This study aims to find the association between insomnia and the four domains of health based on an Indigenous Medicine Wheel and to find the role of multimorbidity as a mediator between this relation among First Nations people. We used data (n = 588) from the First Nations Sleep Health Project, a collaboration between two Cree First Nations communities in Saskatchewan and a research team at the University of Saskatchewan. Insomnia was measured by the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). A multivariable logistic regression model was fitted, and the strength of significant predictors was presented as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Using generalized structural equation modelling, we assessed the mediating effect of multimorbidity after adjusting confounders. Most participants (~ 70%) reported good or better health in the four domains. After adjusting for potential risk factors, we found that the probability of having poor or fair health in all four domains (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual) was higher among people with severe to moderate insomnia (OR = 3.06 (1.76-5.30), 2.77 (1.54-4.99), 3.19 (1.85-5.52), and 1.57 (0.88-2.80), respectively). Additionally, the total effect of ISI on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health was 51.34%, 61.72%, 44.81%, and 57.27%, respectively, mediated by multimorbidity. The impact of insomnia on four domains of health and the mediation effect of multimorbidity on this path are unique findings. Early diagnosis and treatment of these conditions might improve overall health.

An Indigenous-led buprenorphine-naloxone treatment program to address opioid use in remote Northern Canada

Background/purposeIn response to the opioid use challenges exacerbated from the COVID-19 pandemic, Fort Albany First Nation (FAFN), a remote Cree First Nation community situated in subarctic Ontario, Canada, implemented a buprenorphine-naloxone program. The newly initiated program was collaboratively developed by First Nations' nurses and community leaders, driven by the community's strengths, resilience, and forward-thinking approach. Using the First Nations Information Governance Centre strengths-based model, this article examines discussions with four community leaders to identify key strengths and challenges that emerged during the implementation of this program. Methodsthis qualitative study amplify the positive aspects and community strengths through the power of oral narratives. We conducted 20 semi-structured face-to-face interviews with community members who helped lead FAFN's COVID-19 pandemic response. Utilizing the Medicine Wheel framework, this work introduces a holistic model for the buprenorphine-naloxone program that addresses the cognitive, physical, spiritual, and emotional dimensions of well-being. ResultsRecommendations to support this initiative included the need for culturally competent staff, customized education programs, and the expanding of the program. Additionally, there is a pressing need for increased funding to support these initiatives effectively and sustainably. The development of this program, despite challenges, underscores the vital role of community leadership and cultural sensitivity to address the opioid crisis in a positive and culturally safe manner. ConclusionThe study highlights the successes of the buprenorphine-naloxone program, which was developed in response to the needs arising from the pandemic, specifically addressing community members suffering from opioid addiction. The timely funding for this program came as the urgent needs of community members became apparent due to pandemic lockdowns and isolation. Holistic care, including mental health services and fostering community relations, is important. By centering conversations on community strengths and advocating for culturally sensitive mental health strategies that nurture well-being, resilience, and empowerment, these findings can be adapted and expanded to support other Indigenous communities contending with opioid addiction.

Medicine Wheel for the Planet: A Journey Towards Personal and Ecological Healing

Medicine Wheel for the Planet: A Journey Towards Personal and Ecological Healing

First Nations Patients’ Experience Receiving Care for Cleft Lip and Palate in a Multidisciplinary Clinic Setting

Purpose: Our small-scale qualitative study sought to explore the experiences of Indigenous patients receiving care for cleft lip and/or palate at a multidisciplinary clinic. There currently are no published studies that demonstrate the experiences of cleft lip and/or palate patients receiving care in multidisciplinary clinics in Canada. This work is foundational to informing future care in a way that is reflective and cognizant of Indigenous ways of life and lived experiences. Method: Participants were recruited via purposive and snowball sampling through community networks and public advertising in relevant healthcare spaces. Semi-structured interviews were completed; transcribed verbatim and descriptive codes were generated using Indigenist research methodologies through the Blackfoot medicine wheel. Results: Five participants that included patients, parents of patients with cleft lip and/or palate, and Indigenous health liasions were interviewed. Participants indicated a lack of spiritual health, the physical demands of having a cleft lip and/or palate on a patient and their families, the fear and unknown associated with a new cleft lip and/or palate diagnosis, and lack of cultural support, awareness and racism may negatively impact mental health. Conclusion: Indigenous patients must receive cleft lip and/or palate care that is cognizant of both their cultural needs identified in our study but also reflective of the ways in which health may be conceptualized for Indigenous patients. The following models of care suggested in our study must also seek to address historic mandates that include UNDRIP and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action.

Participating in God’s redemptive work: A cyclical model for learning and assessment

With the goal of working towards decolonizing educational practices, this article considers the Indigenous medicine wheel as inspiration for a cyclical model for learning and assessment. Many current assessment practices highlight individual achievement rather than ongoing and relational learning. This article suggests using a Learning Wheel as a tool to engage students in conversation about learning and assessment. The purpose of assessment would be to inform students’ learning. The goal of learning would in turn equip students to be mindful of learning that engages in real-world issues to partner in God’s redemptive work.

Dream Knowledge – Understanding the Dreamworld Utilizing the Medicine Wheel

This article looks at Indigenous dreaming and spirituality, which brings healing, greater resilience, and has the power to heal trauma. Analyzing dreams or ‘dream weaving’ is a conduit with a message that brings about healing and well-being (Lorenz, 2013; Riley-Mukavetz, 2021). To understand Indigenous dream culture, the Medicine Wheel is an essential tool for guiding one’s development – a methodology for understanding humanity and obtaining holistic guidance. There are many ways to use it, as it is a paradigm method used when teaching circle pedagogy. This sacred circle (Couture, 2011) provides a balance in spiritual and health connections that gives all members a chance to explain and debate, prior to determining a cause of action. Many ways exist of interpreting dreams, but it also necessary to focus on the wisdom and knowledge of Elders and others as guides, who are familiar with Indigenous spiritual perspectives. This article thus includes an evaluation of dreams, dream knowledge and a study of the use of the Medicine Wheel, along with spirituality. This dream knowledge presented reflects my own lived experience as an educator of settler-Indigenous background, as I use dreams to interpret my own spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental well-being.

The Medicine Wheel as a public health approach to lifestyle management interventions for indigenous populations in North America.

This analytic essay intends to elevate Medicine Wheel, or generally "four directions" teachings, to encourage a more comprehensive alignment of lifestyle intervention components with traditional ecological knowledge systems of Indigenous cultures in North America. North American Medicine Wheels provided people with a way to orient themselves both within their traditional belief systems and to the seasonal changes in their areas, improving survivability. The wheel or circle is a sacred symbol, indicating the continuity and perpetuity of all of life. The four directions are iconized in many Indigenous cultures across North America with different directions representing different aspects of our world and of ourselves, different seasons of the year and of our lives, different beings of the earth and tribes of humans with a balance among those necessary for health and wellbeing. In the context of public health, teachings of the four directions warn that a lack of balance limits our ability to achieve optimal health. While there is much public health success in lifestyle interventions, existing practice is limited by a siloed and one size fits all approach. Medicine Wheel teachings lay out a path toward more holistic and Indigenous-based lifestyle intervention that is modifiable depending on tribal teachings and needs, may appeal to a variety of Indigenous communities and is in alignment with health behavior change theory. It is a public health imperative that lifestyle management interventions are fully optimized to rigorously determine what can be achieved when interventions are implemented in a holistic and Indigenous-based manner, and in alignment with an Indigenous model of health. This more complete alignment would allow for a stronger foundation to further explore and develop social determinants (i.e., housing, employment, etc.) and structural intervention enhancements to inform public health practice and promote health equity.

Commentary: Two-Eyed Seeing (Aistotsastip) and the Medicine Wheel for the Plastic Surgeon.

Commentary: Two-Eyed Seeing (Aistotsastip) and the Medicine Wheel for the Plastic Surgeon.

The Medicine Wheel: informing the management of tuberculosis outbreaks in Indigenous communities

ABSTRACT Many Indigenous communities in Canada experience endemic tuberculosis with superimposed periodic epidemic outbreaks. Failures in outbreak management have resulted in the “seeding” of future infection and disease. In this paper we present a model that may be used in planning, implementation and review of tuberculosis outbreak management in Cree Indigenous communities in Canada, based on the Medicine Wheel, a paradigm for holistic living. In the context of tuberculosis management, the Medicine Wheel provides a path for the establishment of respectful cross-cultural relationships, the expression of values through action, true community engagement and partnership, and the establishment of culture-based processes of transparency, accountability and change.

Come Dance with Me: A Medicine Wheel Practice of Anishinaabe Catholic Interculturation of Faith by Eva Solomon

<i>Come Dance with Me: A Medicine Wheel Practice of Anishinaabe Catholic Interculturation of Faith</i> by Eva Solomon

R1 (Resident Advocacy Project) Flexible and Enhanced Learning with our RICHER Partners: Reciprocal Partnerships between Medical Students and Equity-Deserving Communities to Promote Vaccine Access and Teach Health Advocacy

Abstract Rationale and Objectives The University of British Columbia provides medical students in years 1, 2, and 4 with protected time to explore the CanMEDs competencies in student-directed service, education, and research through the Flexible and Enhanced Learning (FLEX) program. Six FLEX students in the past three years have engaged in reciprocal partnerships with the Responsive, Intersectoral Community Child Health Education and Research group (RICHER). RICHER is a consortium of interdisciplinary healthcare providers, resource centres, and community members working across sectors and systems who serve equity-deserving children, youth, and families in Vancouver’s inner-city. Students develop leadership, health advocacy, and collaboration competencies through mentorship and co-learning with the RICHER team and community partners. For example, students have partnered to promote and amplify vaccine equity, knowledge of children’s and youth’s rights, food security, and social-emotional learning. Project Description For each FLEX project, community members identify local priorities. They conduct needs assessments and environmental scans. Students complete project proposals, ethics board and grant applications, and elicit iterative community feedback. Students collect data and communicate findings to stakeholders, including community members and RICHER clinicians. RICHER further amplifies community voices by sharing FLEX project results with local and provincial decision-makers, resulting in policy change and resource mobilization. Projects are evaluated qualitatively by stakeholders. For example, during the COVID-19 lockdown, many inner-city families faced barriers accessing COVID vaccines. The Downtown Eastside neighbourhood had some of the lowest vaccination rates in the province. Outcomes FLEX students surveyed 122 community members and found that 89 (73%) community members experienced a significant barrier to accessing COVID vaccines, such as: no access to technology or ID required to register or book an appointment, no access to transportation to a vaccine clinic, or trauma associated with accessing healthcare or injections. The RICHER team was able to respond to these findings by authoring a letter to the local health authority, who mobilized a pop-up vaccine clinic at an accessible, local community centre using the principles of brokered trust. Discussion/Future Directions This vaccine equity project has set a precedence for accessible care and created a model for future vaccine clinics to provide protection against viruses like influenza. FLEX students and hospital staff learned from Indigenous Elders and community members how to use the medicine wheel in the context of wholistic healthcare. As health advocates, FLEX students learned to ask, “who are we not seeing and why?” and learned how to write motivational letters to changemakers.

Beyond a paradigm shift: a self-study story of an embodied educational experience

Educators have been called to follow the tide of advancing research that upholds Indigenous voices. In the spring 2019, we embarked on a cross-cultural exchange that profoundly changed our lives. We wanted to document this deep and personal learning through a collaborative self-study, detailing our unique journeys of relationship-building, informed by Indigenous Knowledge paradigms. Told through a relational approach, our self-study is grounded in our conversations about the interweaving of our experiences. A holistic approach was at the heart of making meaning through our experience by following the teachings within the Nēhiyawak (people of the land) Medicine Wheel framework. This self-study has invited us to learn more about educational possibilities, at both personal and professional levels, and has the potential to inform practicing and pre-service educators about the impact of intra-community engagement between Indigenous and settler groups.

Broken Circle: Exploring Indigenous Perspectives of Academic Integrity

Across the land now known as Canada, a growing body of research confirms the importance of academic integrity in higher education. Indigenous voices, though, are largely subsumed within the morass of dominant student and faculty perspectives or segregated alongside international student perspectives. Using the imagery of the Medicine Wheel as a framework, this session explores the views of Indigenous faculty, staff, administrators, and graduates affiliated with a mid-sized post-secondary institution in British Columbia. Findings from a small-scale research study reveal a holistic vision of academic integrity that emphasizes relationships with people and knowledge. As Wilson (2008) explains, “relationships do not merely shape reality, they are reality” (p.7). In this relational paradigm, academic integrity is inseparably grounded in the broader principles of integrity, and relies on reciprocal truth-telling to maintain the wholeness of the circle (Lindstrom, 2022). In this session, participants will gain insights into the ways dominant approaches to academic integrity can break the circle of integrity. The session will review similarities and differences between the experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners, and will consider how Indigenous views of relationality may foster a culture where stewardship of knowledge strengthens the bonds of integrity for all.

Indigenous Model to Support Nursing Student Success, Cultural Identity and Workforce Diversity.

Indigenous nurses are underrepresented in the nursing workforce. Important strategies have been developed to increase the diversity of the future nursing workforce; however, unique cultural needs of Indigenous students must be addressed to provide holistic support while maintaining and strengthening cultural identity. The Niganawenimaanaanig (We Take Care of Them) Indigenous Nursing Education Model was developed based on the Medicine Wheel and previous diverse nursing education models. This model supports the cultural, social, academic, and financial needs of Indigenous nursing students throughout recruitment, enrollment, retention, graduation, and licensure and specifies eight essential resources necessary for success. Lessons learned from implementing the Niganawenimaanaanig Model are shared. The Niganawenimaanaanig Model may be employed in nursing schools to guide educators and universities in promoting the success of Indigenous nursing students. [J Nurs Educ. 2023;62(9):523-527.].

Nehiyawak (Cree) women’s strategies for aging well: community-based participatory research in Maskwacîs, Alberta, Canada, by the Sohkitehew (Strong Heart) group

BackgroundThe Sohkitehew (Strong Heart) Research Group, which included an Elders Advisory Committee of seven Nehiyawak (Cree) women, set out to bring Maskwacîs community members together to understand Nehiyawak women’s experiences of “aging well”. The goals of this research were to generate information honouring Indigenous ways of knowing, and gather strengths-based knowledge about aging well, to help Maskwacîs, women maintain wellness as they age.MethodsWe facilitated qualitative Sharing Circles in three different settings in Maskwacîs. Discussions were prompted using the four aspects of the self, guided by Medicine Wheel teachings: Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual. Detailed notes were recorded on flip charts during the discussions of each Sharing Circle. Data were analysed using descriptive content analysis to identify practical strategies for aging well.ResultsThirty-six community members attended one or more Sharing Circle. Strategies included: Physical—keeping active to remain well; Mental—learning new skills to nourish your mind; Emotional—laughing, crying, and being happy; Spiritual—practicing Nehiyawak traditional ways. Participants commented that balancing these four aspects of the self is necessary to achieve wellness. Following the analysis of the Sharing Circle comments, three community feedback sessions were held to discuss the results in the wider community. These strategies were formatted into a draft booklet which incorporated Cree language, and archive photographs of Maskwacîs women and families.ConclusionsThe Nehiyawak Sharing Circles identified practical strategies that help women to remain well as they age. This positive approach to aging could be adopted in other Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

Doing the Inner Work for Sustainable Practices

In the authors’ evaluation and systems work, they highlight the need to continuously work on our inner selves as a critical facet of our overall practice. By incorporating reflection as a way of practice, the authors are able to tap into their lived experiences as a path of criticality and look beyond competencies to recognize how a mindset of reflectivity impacts their work. The authors are grounded in the Northern Door of the Medicine Wheel because by doing the inner work, they are able to tap into the wisdom of Ancestors and Elders and come to their work grounded, rested, and reflective of all forms of knowing for collective work. Additionally, the authors are also of good mind to work from a place of abundance, rooted in community-centred practices that are not solely for us, but sustainable for future generations that come after us as well.

Honouring Old Age Ritual Celebration in Newar Culture and Medicine Wheel in Anishinaabe Culture: Exploring an Indigenous Cross-Cultural Aging Wellness as an Alternative Medicine and Healing Approach

Honouring Old Age Ritual Celebration in Newar Culture and Medicine Wheel in Anishinaabe Culture: Exploring an Indigenous Cross-Cultural Aging Wellness as an Alternative Medicine and Healing Approach

Barriers and supports to traditional food access in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia)

Canada is a signatory nation on international covenants, conventions, and declarations supporting the human right to food, but has not granted constitutional protection thereof. Failure to uphold the right to food contributes to unacceptably high levels of food insecurity that vary geographically and demographically, undermines health, and creates structural obstacles to food system sustainability. It is well recognized that Indigenous populations in Canada face disproportionately high rates of food insecurity compared to non-Indigenous people, and little attention is paid to the Indigenous conceptions of food security, including access to traditional food systems. The purpose of this research was to better understand the importance of, as well as barriers and supports that exist in accessing traditional food for Indigenous Peoples in Nova Scotia. Two focus groups were held with individuals who identify as Indigenous (n=16), one for those who live within a First Nations community and one for those who live outside of a First Nations community, in Nova Scotia. Focus groups were held in a talking circle format to facilitate discussion on traditional food access. Focus groups were transcribed and analyzed using the Medicine Wheel Evaluation Framework to understand in a culturally relevant way, how traditional foods impact Indigenous Nova Scotians’ health. Bronfenbrenner’s Social Ecological Model was used to locate barriers and supports to traditional food. Supports identified were community engagement, consultations and partnerships, and strength of cultural values. Barriers included knowledge transmission, lack of community, land access, cost, programs and policies, and identity loss. Nuances specific to each community are discussed. Both supports and challenges exist for traditional food access in Nova Scotia; however, barriers outweighed supports in both number and magnitude. Stronger community and political partnerships, as well as consultations with Indigenous Peoples by public and private sector developers are necessary to develop upstream solutions to traditional food access.

Using the Medicine Wheel as theory, conceptual framework, analysis, and evaluation tool in health research

The Medicine Wheel is used in many Indigenous communities across Turtle Island (North America) with many different teachings and symbolisms. The Medicine Wheel is a circle with four equal quadrants representing vast teachings, which are specific to local First Nations, which can used as the conceptual framework as well as theory. Through a rapid narrative review of literature on the Medicine Wheel and associated uses as well as the authors’ Anishinaabe teachings, we examine four research uses of the Medicine Wheel in academics and with Indigenous community research to apply it as a theory, conceptual framework, analysis, and evaluation practices. The Medicine Wheel ontologies and epistemologies lend the teachings to be used as a conceptual framework (visual representation of a research project), evaluation framework (as a methodology for conducting research), a data analysis tool (providing a method to see patterns, themes, and connections not easily seen in linear research methods), and the multi-layered knowledge within the Medicine Wheel can be seen as a theory for examining Indigenous research with an Indigenous lens instead of western worldviews or theories. We provide examples of how the Medicine Wheel can be used through the Anishinaabe teachings of the Medicine Wheel. It is possible to expand our abilities to see patterns, themes, connections, and wholism by looking beyond linear positivistic methods through many ways to use Medicine Wheel teachings.