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With over three decades of attention drawn to the health of Indigenous peoples in Canada and around the world, an outpouring of health research has been undertaken, much of which has emphasized the experience of disparity at the expense of recognizing strengths. In this case study, we challenge the damage-centred rhetoric of mainstream health research by reporting the findings of 20 qualitative interviews on community strength and health with members of Pictou Landing First Nation, a Mi’kmaw nation located in Nova Scotia, Canada. We then relate and compare these findings with the emerging conceptualization of Indigenous social capital, which is a concept that has been associated with positive health outcomes in a variety of contexts. Our findings indicate that Pictou Landing First Nation is strengthened by qualities of familiarity, reciprocity, safety, and solidarity, which are rooted in the value of family and embedded within a broader Mi’kmaw worldview. The nature of these strengths aligns in part with the concept of Indigenous social capital, which we suggest may be better harnessed to be a means for conducting strengths-based health research. To this end, our findings support the need for reworking social capital conceptualizations to more strongly centralize cultural identities and worldviews in order to authentically and comprehensively affirm Indigenous and decolonizing health research practices.

From 1967 until 2020, [Community] has had 85 million litres of pulp and paper mill effluent dumped every day into an estuary that borders the community. Despite long-term concerns about cancer in the community, a federal government appointed Joint Environmental Health Monitoring Committee, mandated to oversee the health of the community, has never addressed [Community] concerns. In this study we accessed the 2013 Canadian Cancer Registry microfile data, and using the standard geographical classification code, accessed the cancer data for [Community], and provided comparable data for all Nova Scotia First Nations, as well as the county, provincial, and national population level data. We determined that digestive organ cancers, respiratory organ cancers, male genital organ cancers, and urinary tract cancers are higher in [Community] than at all comparable levels. Female breast and genital organ cancers are lowest in [Community] than at all other comparable levels. We note the limitation of this study as not being able to capture cancer data for off-reserve members at the time of diagnosis and the lapse in availability of up-to-date CCR data. This study demonstrates that cancer data can be compiled for First Nation communities using the standard geographic code, and although not a comprehensive count of all diagnoses for the registered members of [Community], it is the first study to provide data for those who lived in [Community] at the time of diagnosis. Moreover, it highlights the lack of capacity (or will) by Joint Environmental Health Monitoring Committee to uphold their fiduciary duty.

Asthma is one of the most common chronic conditions affecting Aboriginal children and adolescents in Canada, with associated high rates of hospitalization and emergency room visits. Social support deficits and social isolation pose significant problems for Aboriginal families coping with asthma challenges. However, support interventions that focus on the unique support needs of parents of Aboriginal children affected by asthma have not been investigated. Consequently, our study introduced support interventions to meet parents’ perceived support needs and intervention preferences. The study was conducted in urban and rural sites in three Canadian provinces. The interdisciplinary research team encompassed Aboriginal researchers and knowledge users, and the multimethod participatory research design was guided by Aboriginal community advisory committees. Diverse support interventions, designed to address the particular preferences and needs of parents in specific communities, were offered. Seventy-seven parents participated. These parents reported expanded support resources, increased support seeking, improved coping skills, and decreased support and education needs following the interventions, which were tailored to their unique needs. These participatory interventions were considered accessible, acceptable, relevant, and useful by parents.