| Summary: | This thesis was completed and submitted at Nipissing University, and is made freely accessible through the University of Toronto’s TSpace repository Indigenous youth in the James Bay area face many socioeconomic stressors such as overcrowded living conditions, high cost of food, and lack of clean drinking water. Furthermore, intergenerational trauma and inherited addictions stemming from the residential school era increase the likelihood of mental health issues and youth suicide. There is a current grassroots movement to address these issues and amend cultural dislocation through cultural camps/ land-based learning camps. Cultural camps are Indigenous-coordinated camps specifically designed to teach Indigenous youth traditional ways of living on the land. However, there has been little research done on the impact of cultural camps in the James Bay area by Indigenous researchers using Indigenous methodologies. I seek to answer the following question from my perspective as an Indigenous researcher: how do Indigenous land-based learning and traditional practices in the James Bay area help Indigenous youth and improve their perceived mental health? The research aims to gain insight into how Indigenous youth believe that the land impacts their perceived mental health. By using Mushkegowuk Cree epistemology to guide storywork analysis, autoethnography and arts-based methods, this research explains how youth benefit from engaging with the land and ultimately how attending land-based camps may benefit youth and needs the camps currently address. This research also adds to the growing literature on Cree epistemology (specifically the Mushkegowuk Cree) by including/honoring the contributors’ stories, the Land, and Creator throughout the storytelling, autoethnography and the arts-based methods. This research demonstrates how the Land and Creator can be given agency in research and artwork. The research helps to shed light on why tasks of reconciliation that involve Indigenous-led land-based learning are so important and how they’re vital to the well-being of Indigenous youth. This research adds to growing literature on Indigenous mental health in the James Bay area. These recommendations may also foster change in Indigenous populations to help revitalize cultural practices through initiatives such as culture camps as they are important for Indigenous youth and their perceived mental health. M.E.S.
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