Healing Sheshatshit : Innu identity and community healing

• Main Author: Degnen, Cathrine.
• Other Authors: Corin, Ellen (advisor)
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: McGill University 1996
• Subjects: Naskapi Indians > Mental health; Healing > Newfoundland and Labrador > Sheshatsheits; Community health services > Newfoundland and Labrador > Sheshatsheits; Canada; Newfoundland; naskapi
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=26731

Community healing is an issue of great importance today in many Native communities across Canada, and yet the concept goes largely undiscussed by medical anthropologists who have instead traditionally focused on the 'ethnomedicine' and poor health conditions of these communities. For Innu of Sheshatshit, Labrador, community healing involves much more than mending physical aliments. Healing signifies a move towards new social meaning and coherence and is a forum for negotiating Innu identity. This thesis attempts to redress this gap in the literature by describing the deeply nuanced meanings community healing takes on in community discourse and its implications for contemporary Innu identity. Additionally, this account explores the significance of nostalgia for the past and of country space in community discourse as it relates to community healing.