Brock University and Community Research Initiative Explores Indigenous Knowledge of Wellness

She notes how the inter-generational trauma she and other members experience “is literally stored within our physical being” and needs to be addressed as a community in holistic ways to bring about wellness.

“Our men are at the drum, and they’re singing together and they’re healing together,” she says. “And maybe it’s not just the words that they’re expressing together, but also the companionship that they’re creating together.”

King says her Nation is laying the foundation to create an Indigenous-led holistic Wellness Centre that will house Western medicine, alternative health practitioners and Indigenous healers, and is aiming to use the sharing circles’ wellness discussions as part of guiding principles at the new centre.

Schumacher says the project will form a foundation for other Indigenous nations to examine the use of interRAI instruments in their wellness systems.