| Summary: | The effects of environmental change and proposed mining in remote northern Ontario has created an immediate need for the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Tribal Council (KOTC) member communities of the Upper Severn River watershed to situate fish as supporters of health and well-being through fish-people-land relationships and fishing practices. While fish are often viewed as a nutritional health support, this research aims to explore fish-people relationships as a determinant of health, while exploring how fishing practices and relationships with fish have changed over time using community-based research methodology and Indigenous methodologies, gathering and analysing qualitative data with the KOTC member communities of the Upper Severn River watershed. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit 18 participants with historic or current experience fishing in the Upper Severn River watershed. Perspectives, stories, and experiences of participants were collected through conversational interviews designed to facilitate storytelling. Interview data was analysed using thematic network analysis resulting in three global themes: 1) Interactions Between Fish, Fishing, Health and Well-being; 2) Influences On, and Effects of Changes Surrounding Fish and Fishing; and 3) The Future of Fish and Fishing, as well as 9 organizing themes and 24 basic themes. Findings identify positive effects of fish and fishing on health and well-being and the involvement of fish and fishing in relationships with family, community, and the land. Interconnections of changing needs for fish, fish health and behaviour, environment, available fishing methods, and land-based knowledges are also outlined. This research emphasizes that First Nations Peoples’ health and more-than-human relations are linked. Initiatives which increase First Nations communities’ ability to engage with, and the health of more-than-human relations, such as the land and fish, increase communities’ health and well-being through supporting reciprocal relationships with the ...
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