Inuit wellness: A better understanding of the principles that guide actions and an overview of practices

• Published in: Transcultural Psychiatry
• Main Authors: Dion, Marie-Helene Gagnon, Fraser, Sarah Louise, Cookie-Brown, Louisa
• Other Authors: Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2021
• Subjects: Psychiatry and Mental health; Health (social science); inuit
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13634615211056830; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/13634615211056830; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/13634615211056830

By imposing non-Inuit ways of doing within households and communities, colonization has created a rift between generations and impacted the transmission of Inuit practices and knowledge. Inuit care-providers continue to support their fellow community members with individual and collective approaches to wellbeing. The objectives and design of the current project were developed with community members who play an active role in mobilization and wellness. Inuit and non-Inuit research assistants conducted 14 individual interviews and 2 group interviews (total of 19 participants) with key informants involved in community wellness work. Then an Elder (third author) shared her knowledge regarding traditional practices. In this study we describe three underlying principles regarding wellness practices as well as five approaches and the mechanisms by which these approaches seem to impact personal and collective wellbeing. This study highlights how Inuit culture and knowledge can support children, family and community wellbeing in the ways of being together and of taking care of each other. The study responds to an expressed desire named by our partners to document Inuit approaches as well as the principles and practices underlying such approaches and how they are related to self-determination.