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This study is based on a massive open online course titled Aboriginal Worldviews in Education, which was created and instructed using various Indigenous pedagogies. Despite significant pedagogical differences between massive open online course and Indigenous pedagogical learning environments, this study builds the case that various Indigenous pedagogies can effectively be incorporated in a massive open online course. The study found that holistic pedagogies were effectively applied by centering course creation and instruction around Medicine Wheel teachings. The article details the various experiential and self-reflective activities that were applied to the massive open online course, and that were found to effectively address the spiritual, emotional, and physical quadrants of the Medicine Wheel that are normally overlooked in courses that stress intellectual learning. The article also suggests directions for the development and redevelopment of massive open online courses to better include Indigenous pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers in Canadian public school contexts are attempting to teach about Indigenous knowledges and epistemologies. Given the present state of asymmetrical Indigenous-settler relations, the complexity of this work requires a large breadth of consideration. Our study provides insight into the nuances of teaching Indigenous perspectives and worldviews, and the barriers and motivations for its inclusion in elementary and secondary classrooms. We conceptualize that teachers are "always-already" trespassing on Indigenous Lands and illuminate the enactment of "trespass" by settler teachers as they move their settler teacher identities to a place of "innocence." Teachers enacted trespass through acts of return, absorption, erasure, and the eliding of settler experiences. We offer important starting points for continued introspection about the roles and responsibilities of teachers working within settler-colonial education structures and ensuing complicity in the historic marginalization of Others. We highlight the possibilities of a curriculum that is treaty-based and enacted with Indigenous collaboration and consultation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. This article reports on the micro-, meso-, and macro-level impacts of sharing digital stories created by Indigenous youth leaders about HIV prevention activism in Canada. Method. Eighteen participants created digital stories and hosted screenings in their own communities to foster dialogue. Data for this article are drawn from individual semistructured interviews with the youth leaders, audio-recordings of audience reflections, and research team member's field notes collected between 2012 and 2015 across Canada. Data were coded using NVivo. A content analysis approach guided analysis. Results. The process of sharing their digital stories had a positive impact on the youth themselves and their communities. Stories also reached policymakers. They challenged conventional public health messaging by situating HIV in the context of Indigenous holistic conceptions of health. Discussion. The impact(s) of sharing digital stories were felt most strongly by their creators but rippled out to create waves of change for many touched by them. More research is warranted to examine the ways that the products of participatory visual methodologies can be powerful tools in creating social change and reducing health disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Taking Action II is a community-based participatory action research project that adopted a strengths-based approach to thinking about Indigenous youth HIV prevention activism. Eighteen diverse Indigenous youth leaders produced digital stories about Indigenizing HIV prevention during the summer of 2012 at a week-long retreat. Youth were interviewed twice: right after they created their stories and again after community screenings. In the summer of 2013, youth reunited to collaboratively analyze the themes and meanings of their stories. Seven overlapping themes emerged that demonstrated how youth see HIV in the context of their lives' and community. The stories make connections between HIV and structural violence, culture and relationships. In particular, in the context of HIV prevention, they focus on (1) the role of family and elders, (2) traditional sacred notions of sexuality, (3) the importance of education, (4) reclaiming history, (5) focusing on strength, (6) Indigenous cosmology and (7) overcoming addictions. In contrast to conventional public health messaging, youth produced stories rarely focused on individual harm reduction strategies. Instead, ideas of Indigeneity and decolonization were foregrounded as key strategies for health promotion work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Dominant discourse contains negative stereotypical images of First Nations males that are steeped in colonialism. These racialized images can influence First Nations men’s sense of self as well as the care that nurses deliver. The objective was to (a) explore practices that support positive First Nations identity and (b) provide suggestions for practicing culturally safe care. Design: The theory of Two-Eyed Seeing guided this study. Data were collected via two semistructured interviews and Anishnaabe Symbol–Based Reflection from three First Nations men living in Toronto, Canada. Findings: Having mentors, knowing family histories, and connecting with healthy Aboriginal communities fostered positive First Nations identities for participants. Implications: There is potential to advance nursing practice by enacting creative means that may support client’s positive First Nations identity and well-being. Nursing education that focuses on strength-based and decolonizing frameworks, as well as reflexive practices that promote culturally safe care, is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivating and supporting Indigenous peer youth leaders should be an important part of Canada's response to HIV. This paper examines how a group of Indigenous youth leaders took up the notion of leadership in the context of HIV prevention. Taking Action II was a community-based participatory action research project. Eighteen Indigenous youth leaders from across Canada were invited to share narratives about their passion for HIV prevention through digital storytelling. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants after they developed their digital stories, and then again several months later. A thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted to identify major themes. Youth identified qualities of an Indigenous youth leader as being confident, trustworthy, willing to listen, humble, patient, dedicated, resilient, and healthy. A number of key examples and challenges of youth leadership were also discussed. In contrast to individualized mainstream ideals, Indigenous youth in our study viewed leadership as deeply connected to relationships with family, community, history, legacies, and communal health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a research study on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) disease prevention by examining the reclamation of culture by indigenous youth involved in HIV intervention and indigenous culture as a HIV resistance tool and health promotion.

Focusing on gender, race and colonialism, this paper foregrounds the voices of Indigenous young people, their histories of oppression, their legacies of resistance and the continuing strengths rooted in Indigenous peoples, their cultures and their communities. Exploring the relationship between gender and colonialism, the paper speaks to the lived realities of young people from Indigenous communities across Canada. Over 85 young people participated in six different Indigenous community workshops to create artistic pieces that explored the connections between HIV, individual risk and structural inequalities. In the course of the research, Indigenous young people, and young Indigenous women in particular, talked about how gender intersects with race and colonisation to create experiences that are, at times, especially difficult for them. In this paper, young people discuss the ways in which colonialism has demeaned women's roles and degraded women's sexuality, and how continuing cultural erasure and assimilationist policies impact on their lives and on their bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Indigenous communities in Canada share a common history of colonial oppression. As a result, many Indigenous populations are disproportionately burdened with poor health outcomes, including HIV. Conventional public health approaches have not yet been successful in reversing this trend. For this study, a team of community- and university-based researchers came together to imagine new possibilities for health promotion with Indigenous youth. A strengths-based approach was taken that relied on using the energies and talents of Indigenous youth as a leadership resource. Art-making workshops were held in six different Indigenous communities across Canada in which youth could explore the links between community, culture, colonization, and HIV. Twenty artists and more than 85 youth participated in the workshops. Afterwards, youth participants reflected on their experiences in individual in-depth interviews. Youth participants viewed the process of making art as fun, participatory, and empowering; they felt that their art pieces instilled pride, conveyed information, raised awareness, and constituted a tangible achievement. Youth participants found that both the process and products of arts-based methods were important. Findings from this project support the notion that arts-based approaches to the development of HIV-prevention knowledge and Indigenous youth leadership are helping to involve a diverse cross-section of youth in a critical dialogue about health. Arts-based approaches represent one way to assist with decolonization for future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of large-scale mining on the psychosocial wellbeing and mental health of diverse Indigenous communities has attracted increased attention. In previous reports, we have discussed the influence of a gold mining operation on the health of a community in the Western highlands of Guatemala. Here, we discuss the community strengths, and acts of resistance of this community, that is, community processes that promoted mental health amidst this context. Using an anti-colonial narrative methodology that incorporated participatory action research principles, we developed a research design in collaboration with community leaders and participants. Data collection involved focus groups, individual interviews and photo-sharing with 54 men and women between the ages of 18 and 67. Data analysis was guided by iterative and ongoing conversations with participants and McCormack's narrative lenses. Study findings revealed key mechanisms and sources of resistance, including a shared cultural identity, a spiritual knowing and being, 'defending our rights, defending our territory,' and, speaking truth to power. These overlapping strengths were identified by participants as key protective factors in facing challenges and adversity. Yet ultimately, these same strengths were often the most eroded or endangered due the influence of large-scale mining operations in the region. These community strengths and acts of resistance reveal important priorities for promoting mental health and wellbeing for populations impacted by large-scale mining operations. Mental health practitioners must attend to both the strengths and parallel vulnerabilities that may be occasioned by large-scale projects of this nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]