Browsing by Author "Leason, Jennifer"

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    Engaging Poo’miikapii & Niitsitapiisinni: The Development & Implementation of Community-Based Graduate Programs to Support Community Wellness
    (2020-01) Keast, Haley Marya; Fellner, Karlee D.; Leason, Jennifer; Domene, Jose F.
    This thesis investigates how community-based graduate programs in local Indigenous approaches to wellness can be most effectively developed and implemented. The Poo’miikapii: Niitsitapii Approaches to Wellness, and Niitsitapiisinni: Real Peoples’ Way of Life programs at the University of Calgary were used as examples to demonstrate this. Ten storytellers engaged in research conversations to share their feedback and experiences regarding the development and implementation of the Poo’miikapii and Niitsitapiisinni programs. Research conversations and course outlines were analyzed using Archibald’s (2008) storywork analysis. Themes of relationship building and maintenance, Elder engagement, community-based Indigenous pedagogy and curriculum, and decolonizing and Indigenizing the academia were identified. A framework for universities, organizations, and communities to implement similar programs is discussed. Considerations of how to collaboratively develop and implement on reserve, community-based wellness programs with an emphasis on experiential, land-based, and Elder-guided learning are included. Given the vast diversity among Indigenous communities, this framework should be interpreted as a flexible guideline that can be altered to align with Indigenous communities’ unique practices.
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    Exploring Indigenous Women’s Dietary Practices with the Women Warriors Program: Social Determinants and Resilience in Seeking Wellness
    (2018-12-21) Sampson, Megan Beth; Smart, Alan; Leason, Jennifer; Fellner, Karlee D.
    Indigenous women (First Nation, Métis, and Inuit) experience nutrition-related chronic illness at disproportionate rates when compared to both Indigenous men and the Canadian population at large. Negative social determinants of health stemming from recent and historical injustices contribute to this reality. Indigenous women’s position in Canada is distinct as they may face marginalization on the basis of sex, race, and socioeconomic status. Despite these realities, Indigenous feminist literature demonstrates that Indigenous women are often at the forefront of anticolonial movements and attempts to improve wellness within their communities. This research investigates what Indigenous women’s dietary practices reveal about their distinct experiences, needs, preferences, and values relating to food and health. It took place on Treaty 6 territory in the city of Lloydminster and its surrounding rural areas, and includes the experiences of Cree and Métis women. Current public health initiatives targeting individual behaviours are ill-equipped to respond to the larger socio-political roots of problematic dietary practices in Indigenous contexts. These include colonial assaults on Indigenous food systems which have resulted in trauma, food insecurity, and the transition away from traditional foods toward store-bought, processed alternatives. My intent in conducting this research was to engage Indigenous Women in conversations about how these factors impact them, how they cope with or combat them, and what supports they seek out and offer to others in light of such experiences. Literature relating to social economy and social capital, the social determinants of health, anticolonial theory, Indigenous perspectives of health and wellness, and Indigenous feminism frame findings collected through interdisciplinary ethnographic methods that include participant observation, dietary recalls, supportive network mapping, and personal narratives. Underlying the research design is the recognition that Indigenous women’s voices should be prioritized in efforts to improve health equity. This study was conducted in partnership with Women Warriors, a holistic wellness program for Indigenous women that promotes cultural safety in its design. Beyond informing future programming, the findings have implications for initiatives and services aimed at improving Indigenous women’s nutrition, access to traditional foods and food knowledges, and wellness more broadly.
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    Medical Assistance in Dying: An Ethnographic Study on the Practitioner’s Decision Making in Eligibility Assessments
    (2021-04-30) Fasola, Cynthia Ngozi; Leason, Jennifer; Peric, Sabrina; Yessenova, Saulesh; Apentiik, Rowland
    In a historic ruling on the 6th of February 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada declared that sections of the Criminal Code of Canada prohibiting medical assisted dying were no longer valid. Following the court's mandate, government laws and provincial policies were passed to facilitate the implementation of this ruling. Regulatory bodies implemented frameworks and policies on the healthcare practitioner's practice of care in assisted dying. This ethnography aimed to examine how Albertan medical assistance in dying (MAiD) assessors and providers understand and apply Alberta Health Services (AHS) policies in determining a patient's eligibility for MAiD provisions. Eight healthcare practitioners participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews engaging their understanding of critical components of the policies and legislation on MAiD. The three main themes include 1) communication with the patient, 2) the practitioner's comfort level, and 3) the patient's life context. Practitioners centred their decision-making on communication, as well as the relationship between the patient and family. This demonstrates that policies need to reflect the important role of family members in end-of-life care and the practitioner's MAiD eligibility decision-making.
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    Moccasin Tracks: Reading the Narrative in Traditional Indigenous Craft Work
    (2018-04-30) Anton, James Wyatt; Voyageur, Cora Jane; Henry, Robert; Leason, Jennifer
    The colonization of Canada has produced deleterious effects for the First Nations peoples that originally inhabited the land. Through sharing stories with a number of First Nations craft producers the objective of this research was to capture the endurance of First Nations culture beyond the disastrous effects of colonization and repression faced by the First Peoples of this continent. This study investigates the production of craft goods in First Nations communities by building on the concept of the narrative embedded in the material craft culture. By narrative, this study refers to the culturally specific ways that stories are created and maintained to preserve elements of culture and society. Craft goods continue to be produced and used in these communities as a way of preserving and reproducing the specific tribal knowledges that exist within these groups. Data in this project comes from semi-structured interviews with Indigenous craft makers. The methodology was developed to confront the positionality of a non-Indigenous researcher pursuing research objectives in a First Nations community and with the aim to be mindful and mitigate the effects of social privilege and power in the analysis of the data. Interviews and notes were analyzed through a hybrid of narrative and thematic analysis. The themes emerging from preliminary analysis of the data fit within a theoretical framework that centres and privileges Indigenous experience and perspective. Themes include: spirituality, family, animals, social structure, and resistance. These themes contribute to a larger cultural narrative of relationality and endurance embedded in the Indigenous material craft culture being investigated in the research. Together, these themes offer a clearer vision of the First Nations perspective and what it means to maintain a distinct cultural identity under the ongoing campaign of colonization.
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    Siksikaitsitapi Parenting of Children with Disabilities
    (2020-09-22) Yellow Old Woman, Pearl; Hughson, E. Anne; Milaney, Katrina J.; Roach, Pamela M.; Leason, Jennifer; Ottmann, Jacqueline
    Canada has a dark colonial history with her relationship with the Indigenous population that entered the national consciousness through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report findings released in June 2015. It illuminated and informed Canadians about the Indian residential school survivor experience when many Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities to attend these schools. The traumatic impact to survivors was detrimental to their health and Indigeneity, which compromised Indigenous family systems and influenced parental skills. Research suggests that disability among Indigenous people is rising within the general Canadian population and recommendations are consistent in addressing the dearth in literature to comprehend Indigenous experiences of impairment, disability, health, education, marginality, oppression and colonization related to parenting practices. Today, Indigenous parents continue to endure many challenges, in particular, achieving health service equity in provision for the needs of their children who have disabilities. Despite facing adversarial predicaments, there are Indigenous parents who demonstrate resilient strength-based approaches to parenting. This Indigenous community-based study explored the parental stories of Siksika (Blackfoot) parents to comprehend how they parent a child with a disability within their community. An Indigenous framework informed by Siksika ontology and epistemology guided the project. The collaborative story analysis gathered from parental stories were interpreted and discussed according to the teachings of the Siksikaitsitapi. A decolonizing theoretical approach utilizing an Indigenous methodology contributes to the scholarship of Indigenous knowledge, identity, parenting and creates an understanding that can inform and enhance culturally competent health care for Siksika children.
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    'They Call it a Healing Lodge, but Where is the Healing?': Indigenous Women, Identity, and Incarceration Programming
    (2019-08-26) Clifford, Alicia Gayle; Henry, Robert; Godley, Jenny; Voyageur, Cora J.; Leason, Jennifer
    This thesis examines the impacts of state-run Indigenous programming on Indigenous women’s cultural identities post-incarceration. Despite attempts to alleviate Indigenous incarceration numbers since 1999, Indigenous women in Canada continue to be one of the fastest growing federally incarcerated populations, as their numbers have more than doubled since 2001 (OCI, 2016; Reitano, 2017; Statscan, 2017). It is projected, at its current rate that by 2030 there will be more than 6500 Indigenous women housed in a federal corrections institution (Innes, 2015; OCI, 2016; Reitano, 2017; Statscan, 2017). However, there is limited focus on the impacts the criminal justice system, incarceration, and Indigenous programming may have on their perceived identity as an Indigenous woman post-incarceration. Institutional program evaluations continue to give secondary status to the voices of those imprisoned while privileging the voices of those who are employed by Correctional Service Canada reinforcing a top-down approach. Inmates serving federal time can be housed across Canada, therefore, many Indigenous women who find themselves in these institutions may not be lodged in their traditional territories, and those who transfer to a healing lodge are transferred to the Prairies. While serving time within another First Nations territory, the Indigenous women have to partake in cultural programming that is not their own due to limited access to a diverse range of knowledge keepers and Elders. At the same time, if Indigenous women want to return to their families and communities sooner, they must engage in programming, and specifically Aboriginal programming to lower their risk status to be eligible for early release. By undertaking this research from the perspective of Indigenous women, state co-ordinated Indigenous programming can be understood through the eyes of those that have lived experience, giving voice to the silenced.
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    Understanding the experiences of young, urban, Indigenous mothers-to-be in British Columbia, Canada
    (2025-01-20) Catherine, Nicole L.; Leason, Jennifer; Marsden, Namaste; Barker, Brittany; Cullen, Ange; Simpson, Ashley; Berry, Brandi A.; Mohns, Erik; Yung, Donna; Zheng, Yufei; MacMillan, Harriet; Waddell, Charlotte
    Abstract Background Indigenous Peoples comprise the youngest and fastest growing demographic in Canada, with many living in urban-suburban areas. Given higher fertility rates, younger overall ages and higher adolescent pregnancy rates, perinatal research is needed—to inform policymaking and programming throughout pregnancy and childhood. Yet such data remain scarce in British Columbia (BC), Canada. This study therefore aimed to describe the experiences of young, urban, Indigenous mothers-to-be who enrolled in a larger BC early prevention trial designed to reach families experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. Methods This descriptive study utilized baseline data from a trial that enrolled first-time mothers-to-be who met indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage and who were residing in select urban-suburban areas. These indicators included being young (19 years or younger) or having limited income, low access to education, and being single (aged 20−24 years). We described and compared survey data on girls (n = 109; aged 14−19 years) and young women (n = 91; aged 20−24 years) using Chi-square or Student’s t-tests. Results Of the 739 trial participants, 200 or 27% identified as Indigenous and met trial eligibility criteria: limited income (92.9%), limited access to education (67.0%), and/or being single (90.9%). Beyond this, participants reported associated adversities including: unstable housing (63.3%), psychological distress (29.3%), severe anxiety or depression (48.5%), experiences of childhood maltreatment (59.4%) and intimate partner violence (39.5%). Compared to girls, young women reported higher income and educational attainment (p < 0.001), more unstable housing (p = 0.02) and more childhood maltreatment (p = 0.014). Many had recently received primary healthcare (75%), but few had received income assistance (34%). Most (80.5%) reported experiencing four or more adversities. Conclusions We present data illustrating that a high proportion of pregnant Indigenous girls and young women engaged with public health and consented to long-term research participation—despite experiencing cumulative adversities. The trial socioeconomic screening criteria were successful in reaching this population. Girls and young women reported relatively similar experiences—beyond expected developmental differences in income and education—suggesting that adolescent maternal age may not necessarily infer risk. Our findings underscore the need for Indigenous community-led services that address avoidable adversities starting in early pregnancy.