Week 9: the land SDH (pt 2)

Question 1

What is referred to as the land?

Answer 1

the land is the unique and complex relationship between indigenous people and their traditional territories. The air, water, earth, plants and animals, all animate and non-animate things as well as the spirits that all occupy the space is referred to as the land. So the land is not just dirt and soil, it is more than that and represents the meanings, responsibilities, teaching associated with everything in it.

Question 2

1. The land is ______ sustaining. What does this mean?
2. the land _______ all living and non-living things. It is about an essential ______ with creation
3. reduced access to traditional land due to _________ have resulted in effects on the 4 quads of the medicine wheel
4. access to traditional land p_____ and p_______ health

Answer 2

1. health sustaining. This means that it keeps people healthy and should be associated with culture, social relationships, and traditional ways of living
2. connects, balance
3. colonization
4. promotes, protects

Question 3

explain briefly each of the 3 creation stories below and their significance and meaning:

1. Ojibway (Anishinabe)
2. Cree
3. Inuit

Answer 3

1. (flood, muskrat) Humans are a small part of creation and are depicted as the cause of upsetting the balance of creation, leading to a great flood. Life and balance is restored when a small insignificant creature sacrifices himself. We learn about the interconnectedness of everything and how no matter how small, every part of creation is significant.
2. (Cloud people, land on a tree) 2 people are walking on a cloud and see lush greenery below them. They see a black speck that is a spider and ask for help getting down. On the way down the spider says to not look down, but they do and they end up landing on a tree. They see animals and ask for help and then a fisher helps them down. This teaches us that we rely on other living things for survival and that we must respect and listen to nature
3. (Raven, man in pea pod) Raven made the world and had the powers of a man and bird. He created earth with water and pea pods and a man came out of the pea pod one day. Raven got food for the man but the man wanted the sheep, so raven placed the sheep far away. then other men started to come out, so raven made a bear for the man to fear. This teaches us to respect all forms of life and to honour our creator

Question 4

What is the main message of the 3 creation stories?

Answer 4

how traditional lands occupy more than just a physical space. They are the central feature which indigenous peoples have developed strong cultural identities, transferred knowledge and fostered opportunities in health

Question 5

1. what is community based participatory action research?
2. who was involved?
3. what was the purpose?

Answer 5

1. directly involves those impacted by the research in order for it to be meaningful
2. 46 elders, community youth as research assistants, elders voices
3. wanted to look at how health inequities experienced by Indigenous people are shaped by historic and ongoing processes of environmental dispossession

Question 6

1. What is environmental dispossession?
2. what is direct dispossession?
3. what is indirect dispossession?

Answer 6

1. environmental dispos: direct and indirect processes that serve to break the connection between indigenous people and their traditional territories
2. direct dispos: new union, rural forestry, mining etc that physically limit the capacity of indigenous people to get on the land
3. indirect dispos: residential school survivors may have a weak connection to the land from trauma

Question 7

what is resilience? What is it affected by? How can we look at resilience from a community based approach when dealing with environmental dispossession?

Answer 7

resilience is a person’s ability to bounce back and recover from stress and adversity. A person’s ability to be resilient is affected by the amount of SDH that they have access to. We have to look at the resources that people have that can hinder or render their ability to respond in times of challenge. From a community based approach, we can see how many collective resources a community has to positively respond in times of adversity when there is a wide spread crisis such as environmental dispossession

Question 8

1. What is environmental repossession. What is it a form of?
2. Explain the medicine walk as a method of environmental repossession and the results on the people participating
3. Explain wind farms as a method of environmental repossession. Were their challenges with this method?

Answer 8

1. it is reclaiming the land. It is a form of resilience
2. the medicine walk where elders take the youth on land to show how to harvest medicine, share teachings, share importance of the land, how to use the medicine wheel. Youth had a greater self-awareness and cultural continuity and the desire to spend more time on the land. Less issues with addiction/suicide.
3. wind farms provide electricity for communities. Ceremony done to show respect for the land before starting construction and a better environmental alternative than forestry cutting or mining. The issues were changes to fish spawning, bird migration and bat patterns, which limit the ability of elders to connect with the land traditionally again

Question 9

1. __________ in conjunction with traditional lands has positive impacts for community health.
2. T/F: the meaning of the land is the same across all indigenous nations

Answer 9

1. self determination

2. F

Question 10

What is the difference between the physical environment as a SDH vs the land as a SDH

Answer 10

the physical environment is more focusing on things like environmental hazards, which is different from the land. It also looks at disease transmission, global deaths, disability, chronic diseases etc. The land as a SDH is more of an interconnectedness with all forms of life

Question 11

Explain self-determination in relation to the land

Answer 11

this means that people want the ability to choose their own path on the land and form their own relationship and significance with it on their own terms.

Question 12

How is the land a source of education and exercise?

Answer 12

Teachings are told about the power of the land. Also the land can be a way to stay active and be in touch with nature

Question 13

In terms of health promotion, what is term for redesigning it?

Answer 13

The term is land based holistic health reprogramming. This means we need to shift away from the biomedical approach and include more indigenous approaches

Question 14

In relation to traditional food:

1. Access to traditional food is a way of overcoming food _______
2. health benefits of traditional food extend beyond _____ impacts to _____ impacts

Answer 14

1. insecurity

2. physical to social

Question 15

In relation to the healthy country, healthy people case study:

1. what was the purpose
2. what factors were measured
3. what were the results?

Answer 15

1. the purpose was to investigate the relationship between land access and health outcomes
2. BMI, blood pressure, diabetes, CVD
3. communities with more self-determination and access to traditional land did better economically, the land itself was in better shape and people’s health in the communities were better

Question 16

in relation to urban indigenous people:

1. ___% of the indigenous population in Canada live in an urban area
2. most moved to the cities for _______ purposes
3. there is a concern about losing ______ identity in an urban environment
4. in order to stay connected to people living in the city, services such as _______ are available

Answer 16

1. 50%
2. economic
3. cultural
4. friendship centres

Question 17

What were the demands of Shawn Johnston’s camp?

Answer 17

• access to space
• affordable
• indigenous advisory committee for the cities
• creation of jobs

Question 18

Based on Shawn Johnston’s camp:

1. T/F: the days were very structured and a schedule was made
2. T/F: some activities included smudging. However, drum circles were not done.
3. T/F: Elder’s spoke at the camp
4. T/F: they faced no discrimination during the program

Answer 18

1. F no average day all very go with the flow
2. F both drum circles and smudging were done
3. T
4. F they faced a lot of discrimination