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WGST 204: Healing in Relation: Indigenous Women’s Health and Wellness Report a Broken Link

WGST 204 takes an intersectional and interdependent approach to the topic of Indigenous women’s health and wellness. Students will learn through an Indigenous framework that focuses on the reconstruction of Indigenous womanhood how diverse parts of Indigenous women’s identities and lived experiences influence their overall wellness, access to resources, and connection to family and community. By contextualizing Indigenous women’s lives through historical, contemporary, colonial, social, political, economic, and environmental conditions, students will identify the factors that contribute to positive and adverse health outcomes. This course makes visible the resistance, resurgence, and resilience that are needed to fight the effects of continued colonization and build community healing. Through a social justice lens, students will consider how governments, institutions, and society are instrumental in addressing Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Calls to Justice, and the United Nations on the Declaration of Indigenous Rights for there to be realization of Indigenous women’s self-determination of their health and wellness.

Unit 1: Identity, Social Location, and Establishing Ethics for Engagement

Absolon, K., & Willett, C. (2004). Aboriginal research: Berry picking and hunting in the 21st century. First Peoples Child & Family Review, 1(1), 5–17. 
Ermine, W. (2007). The ethical space of engagement. Indigenous Law Journal, 6(1), 193–203. 
Different Knowings. (2010, August 2011). Willie Ermine: What is ethical space? [Video]. YouTube. 
Wilfrid Laurier University. (2016, September 13). Conversations with leaders—four questions [Video]. YouTube. 

Unit 2: Foundational Indigenous Knowledges

Absolon, K. (2019). Indigenous wholistic theory: A knowledge set for practice. First Peoples Child & Family Review, 14(1), 22–42. 
Tagalik, S. (2012, January). Inuit qaujimajatuqangit: The role of Indigenous knowledge in supporting wellness in Inuit communities in Nunavut. Child & Youth Health. National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health.  
KiHS Videos. (2021, April 15). Medicine wheel teaching [Video]. YouTube. 
First Nations Health Authority. (2023). First Nations perspective on health and wellness. 

Unit 3: Health and Wellness as Social Constructs

Eriksson, M., Ekström-Bergström, A., Arvidsson, S., Jormfelt, H., Thorstensson, S., Ǻström, U., Lundgren, I., & Roxberg, Ǻ. (2024). Meaning of wellness in caring science based on Rodgers’s evolutionary concept analysis. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 38(1), 185–199. doi: 10.1111/scs.13196 
Horrill, T., McMillan, D. E., Schultz, A. S. H., & Thompson, G. (2018). Understanding access to healthcare among Indigenous peoples: A comparative analysis of biomedical and postcolonial perspectives. Nursing Inquiry, 25(3), e12237. 
Long, D. (2014). Setting the foundation: A brief history of colonization in Canada. In P. Menzies & L. F. Lavallée (Eds.), Journey to healing: Aboriginal people with addiction and mental health issues (pp. 15–27). Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. 

Unit 4: Determinants Impacting Health and Wellness: Colonization and Gendered Violence

Hanson, E. (n.d.). A brief history of the marginalization of Aboriginal women in Canada. Indigenous Foundations. 
Loppie, C., & Wien, F. (2022). Understanding Indigenous health inequalities through a social determinants model (pp. 8–44). National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health. 
Robertson, K. (2018). Indigenous women’s experiences of the Canadian residential school system. Journal of Multidisciplinary Research at Trent, 1(1), 45–54. 

Unit 5: Determinants Impacting Health and Wellness: Social, Political, Economic, Environmental

Buller, M. (2019). Reclaiming power and place: The final report of the national inquiry into MMIWG, Volume 1a (pp. 229–243). National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. 
Hahmann, T., & Masoud, H. (2023, April 4). Housing experiences and measures of health and well-being among First Nations people living off reserve, Métis, and Inuit: Findings from the 2018 Canadian Housing Survey. Statistics Canada. 
Macdougall, B. (2017). Land, family and identity: Contextualizing Métis health and well-being. National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health. 
Ristock, J., Zoccole, A., Passante, L., & Potskin, J. (2019). Impacts of colonization on Indigenous Two-Spirit/LGBTQ Canadians’ experiences of migration, mobility and relationship violence. Sexualities, 22(5–6), 767–784. doi: 10.1177/1363460716681474
Sutherland, J. [Host]. (2022, December). Our highways, our tears: Indigenous women’s and Two-Spirit People’s health and resource extraction (No. 24) [Audio podcast episode]. In Voices from the Field. NCCIH-CCNSA. 

Unit 6: Resistance: Implications for Indigenous Women’s Health and Wellness

Jubinville, D., Smylie, J., Wolfe, S., Bourgeois, C., Berry, N. S., Rotondi, M., O’Brien, K., & Venners, S. (2024). Relationships to the land as a determinant of wellness for Indigenous women, two-spirit, trans, and gender diverse people of reproductive age in Toronto, Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 115(November), 253–262. doi: 10.17269/s41997-022-00678w 

Unit 7: Reclaim: Implications for Indigenous Women’s Health and Wellness

Ferreira, C., Gaudet, J. C., & Loukes, K. A. (2022). Indigenous women’s worldview in food-related research: Rematriating food, bodies and lands. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 47(2), 210–213. doi: org/10.1139/apnm-2021-0400

Unit 8: Construct: Implications for Indigenous Women’s Health and Wellness

Krieg, B. (2016). Understanding the role of cultural continuity in reclaiming the identity of young Indigenous women. Girlhood Studies, 9(2), 28–45. doi: 10.3167/ghs.2016.090204
The Writers Festival. (2018, April 26). Decolonizing the dialogue with Lee Maracle [Video]. YouTube.

Unit 9: Act: Implications for Indigenous Women’s Health and Wellness

Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. (2021, November 30). Summary report: Dialogue on Indigenous women’s perspectives on healthcare and wellness. Author. 
Simpson, L. Betasamosake. (2018). Centring resurgence. In K. Anderson, M. Campbell, & C. Belcourt (Eds.), Keetsahnak: Our missing and murdered Indigenous sisters (pp. 215–239). University of Alberta.

Unit 10: Self-Determination and Human Rights

Auger, M., Howell, T., & Gomes, T. (2016). Moving towards holistic wellness, empowerment and self-determination for Indigenous peoples in Canada: Can traditional Indigenous health care practices increase ownership over health and health care decisions? Canadian Journal of Public Health, 107(4–5), e393-e398. 
Buller, M. (2019). Chapter 3: Emphasizing accountability through human rights tools. In Reclaiming power and place: The final report of the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (pp. 181–227). 
Comeau, D., Johnson, C., & Bouhamdani, N. (2023, July 18). Review of current 2SLGBTQIA+ inequities in the Canadian health care system. Frontiers in Public Health, 11. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1183284
Johnson, L. (2024, February 6). Alberta transgender restrictions draw more fire from Edmonton 2SLGBTQIA+ leaders. Edmonton Journal. 
Lin, J. C., Toombs, E., Sanders, C., Sinoway, C., Amirault, M., Mushquash, C. J., Barkman, L., Deschamps, M., Young, M., Gauvin, H., & Benoit, A. C. (2023, March 1). Looking beyond the individual—the importance of accessing health and cultural services for Indigenous women in Thunder Bay, Ontario. PLoS ONE, 18(3).
Loppie, C., & Wien, F. (2022). Understanding Indigenous health inequities through a social determinants model (pp. 48–51). National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health. 
Palmater, P. (2021, April 29). Understanding UNDRIP & Bill C-15: Warrior Life Podcast [Video]. YouTube. 
United Nations. (2008, March). United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples. Author. 

Unit 11: Looking Back, Looking Forward: Actioning the TRC Calls to Action and MMIWG Calls for Justice

Buller, M. (2019). Calls to Justice. In Reclaiming power and place: The final report of the national inquiry of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Dykhuizen, M., Marshall, K., Loewen Walker, R., & Saddleback, J. (2022). Holistic health of Two Spirit people in Canada: A call for nursing action. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 40(4), 383–396. doi: 10.1177/08980101211072645
Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. (2021, November 30). Summary report: Dialogue on Indigenous women’s perspectives on healthcare and wellness. Author. 
MacDermaid, K. (2021). Gender-based violence against Indigenous women in the Canadian healthcare system & the division of powers. UNB Law Journal, 72(13337), 325–344. 
Nelson, S. E., & Wilson, K. (2020). Rights and health versus rights to health: Bringing Indigenous peoples’ legal rights into the spaces of health care services. Political Geography, 85(2021), 102311. doi: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2020.102311
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action. National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. 
United Nations. (2008, March). United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples. Author.