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NAHO Research

NAHO engages in and facilitates a variety of research. We work with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities and organizations on projects of relevance to Aboriginal health. We also strive to find innovative and effective ways to return research results to stakeholders and communities.

What's New

The Ajunnginiq Centre

• AC staff and partners are currently developing a project to help Inuit youth identify several priorities in the area of sexual health.

• A youth workshop will take place in October to begin collecting youth perspectives for a companion product to the popular publication, “Suicide Prevention: Inuit traditional practices that encouraged resilience and coping” (2006). Focus groups were conducted with Inuit elders in 2005 to inform this paper.

• Preliminary work has begun on determining the effectiveness and uses of video-conferencing, telehealth and other technologies for health promotion information dissemination, discussion and knowledge transfer in Inuit communities.

• Initial planning is underway for a qualitative research project on education as a determinant of health.

• The Centre is currently reviewing information available for Inuit communities working with or wanting to work with researchers. Potential products may include plain language fact sheets and questions community members can ask researchers to improve communication and mutual understanding.

The First Nations Centre

• The First Nations Centre (FNC) recently published three information resources aimed at fostering and facilitating ethical research with First Nations communities.  These documents contain useful information, tools and templates for First Nations, or researchers planning to work with First Nations.  OCAP: Ownership, Control, Access and Possession, Considerations and Templates for Ethical Research Practices and Understanding Health Indicators are available for download by clicking on the document title link. 

• The FNC continues to build First Nations capacity in health research with its annual Youth Mentorship Program.  This year, our students come from Algonquin College and Georgian College.  The two summer students are participating in and observing a wide variety of Centre activities, such as learning to synthesize and summarize research by developing useful fact sheets on priority First Nations health topics. 

The Métis Centre

• Partnering with the Women of the Métis Nation, the Métis Centre contributed research and statistical analysis to policy papers for the first ever National Aboriginal Women’s Summit, held in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, in June 2007.
  
  Conference themes included health, safety and wellness, and equality and empowerment. Papers on Métis women and health policy and violence against Métis women are available at: http://www.laa.gov.nl.ca/laa/naws/policy.htm.
  
  Two recent projects explore cultural aspects of the social determinants of health and the ethical concerns of doing research in Métis communities.

• During the month of July, a Métis Centre field researcher, Tricia Logan, is taking part in a grassroots Michif language immersion program, led by two elderly women in Camperville, Man., Grace Zoldy and Rita Flamand, who teach out of their homes. Along with studying one of the most endangered Aboriginal languages in Canada, Tricia is researching the efficacy of her host’s innovative teaching methods and the impact of language revitalization in a Métis community.
  
  A wholly community-based initiative, the immersion program was developed out of the sweat equity and financial donations of volunteers, without institutional support. Both instructors have past experience with researchers visiting the community to learn about their unique language. The research collaboration thus involved extensive consultation with Ms. Zoldy and Ms. Flamand to develop ethical protocols, and to formalize a longstanding working relationship, to undertake this kind of research on the Métis language.

• At the beginning of July, Métis Centre research officers Michael Fisher and Joyce Seto set out to northern British Columbia to work with the Kelly Lake Métis Settlement Society, a Chartered Métis Community of the Métis Nation British Columbia, on its traditional knowledge pilot project, ‘TK Campus.’
  
  Throughout the summer, the community organization is running the wilderness-style camp as a means to pass on traditional knowledge and cultural teachings to Kelly Lake youth, amid concerns they are not learning the Cree language and other important aspects of the culture. Along with language, areas of instructions included hunting and trapping, harvesting medicines, hide making, and beading.
  
  Métis Centre researchers, working in partnership with the Kelly Lake leadership, were exploring the community’s contemporary approaches to promoting its history and traditional culture. Given the sensitive nature of much the subject matter — including, for example, a prohibition on reporting the uses of medicinal plants — an important project outcome was the development of a framework for discussing ethical guidelines for research involving community members and putting the ideas to practice. 
  
  Both of the above research projects focused on gathering information on and insights into ethical concerns and considerations within Métis contexts, to inform ongoing Métis centre research activities in the area of Métis-specific ethical guidelines in research.

Last Update: September 12 2007