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The measurement of wellness among Indigenous Peoples is crucial to understanding the needs of communities today and for generations to come. Here, we summarize the extant research on assessments relevant to measuring the wellness of Indigenous children in Canada through an examination of existing international best-practices. A thoughtful identification of wellness metrics aligned with Indigenous cultural contexts is important because in the past, wellness assessments that were not co-developed by Indigenous partners have perpetuated systemic harms. A scoping review of existing measures across Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand was completed consistent with the PRISMA guidelines across five databases. These guidelines provided guidance for the process of the review, as well as the structure for this paper. Search terms included "Indigenous" or "Aboriginal”, "wellness", “child-welfare”, "children”, “families" and “framework” or “measure”. In total 896 abstracts were screened. Of these, 88 articles were reviewed, 16 measures and four frameworks were identified as most relevant to our work. All efforts were led by Indigenous students in keeping with Traditional Ways of Being and Knowing as well as self-determination practices. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with four Indigenous community members in order to advise the process of developing such a project and to gauge considerations on the appropriateness of assessing wellness in our communities. Results highlight a unique set of factors to consider from an Indigenous values perspective when assessing child wellness. The most salient of these include incorporating elements of self-determination in both measure development and usage. Themes of family, community, and wholism were also emphasized. While this exemplifies an emerging assessment base for measuring wellness, minimal work to date is directly designed to be relevant for Indigenous children or youth. Moving forward, we will seek to fill this gap by supporting the development of a wellness measure with potential to multi-contextual relevance to promote the adequate and equitable dispersion of supports and resources to families and communities.

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In 2020 an innovative Indigenous community-led internal funding initiative was undertaken at a major university in Canada, followed in 2022 by a qualitative study of its inaugural round. This funding initiative is unique in that each research project was first identified by an Indigenous community/organization through a Canada-wide outreach process. The outreach process involved reaching out to over 700 Indigenous communities and organizations, via email or telephone, to ask if they would be interested in participating in a funded research project they identified as important and beneficial. The role of the university academic research partners was that of mentor rather than principal investigator for each project. Nine community-led research projects were funded and are currently underway. In this paper the authors outline the process of developing the initiative, its components, and findings from the study. Successes and challenges of the funding model are identified followed by a discussion of emergent themes. One of the key themes that emerged is that although there are aspects of this initiative that met its intended goals, it highlights a barrier in meeting one of the objectives, contributing to Indigenous research governance and self-determination.

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The Developing Indigenous Early Career Researchers Project is a three-year longitudinal study funded by the Australian Research Council investigating the experiences and perspectives of Indigenous early career researchers working in universities across Australia. In an earlier paper we explored self-identified needs of Indigenous early career researchers regarding the development of sound research trajectories and careers in the academy (Locke et al., 2022). This paper takes a step further in investigating, who is responsible and should be held to account for supporting the development of these Indigenous early carer researchers. Data collected from across all three stages (2020, 2021 and 2022) of this project suggests that Indigenous early career researchers consider that all university staff, including themselves have certain responsibilities towards developing their academic career trajectories. Some Indigenous ECRs also pointed out the roles that external agencies such as government and funding bodies play in guiding institutions to value and promote the diversity and wealth of knowledge that Indigenous academics bring to the academy. This paper engages an Indigenist research approach and employs relatedness theory in advocating the development of policies and programs to support the career trajectories of Indigenous Early Career Researchers, from an Indigenous epistemological standpoint. To close, this paper posits that to achieve optimum outcomes for Indigenous ECR’s there needs to be systematic and coordinated institutional approaches to developing career trajectories that ameliorate challenges and barriers to Indigenous ECR career progression.

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This research on Indigenous educational policies (IEPs) in the postcolonial histories of Colombia and Mexico focuses on: 1) identifying key normative concepts encoded in IEPs adopted in national policymaking, 2) analyzing how the evolution of normative concepts relates to political tensions between state, Indigenous, and international actors, and 3) discussing how the evolution of IEPs expose achievements and obstacles to decolonial struggles to advance Indigenous rights and pluriversal knowledges.

A critical discourse analysis of laws and regulations adopted between 1820 and 2020 in Mexico and Colombia shows a gradual and conflictive recognition of cultural and political rights, most recently through normative concepts like bilingualism, biculturalism, interculturalism, autonomy, and self-determination. These discursive shifts have operated, however, against the backdrop of ongoing political struggles of Indigenous peoples to demand that nation-states implement the agreements and principles enacted. This history of IEPs thus illuminates continuing tensions between the semiotic and material conditions of Indigenous communities as well as emerging practices of resistance and organization that may carry implications for further policy development.

EN :

Globally, Indigenous Peoples experience widespread health inequities. Treaties provide a potential framework to uphold Indigenous rights and progress health equity. Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Māori language version of the Treaty of Waitangi) established the relationship between Māori, the Indigenous people of Aotearoa (New Zealand), and the British Crown. Grounded in Kaupapa Māori theory, this literature review used an Indigeneity-Grounded Analysis (IGA) policy lens to identify four characteristics of Tiriti-centred population health programmes: whanaungatanga (relationships), pro-equity actions, Te Ao Māori (Māori worldviews), and accountability. Although the evidence-base is emergent, a rights-based approach identifies the centrality of Indigenous self-determination, structural and system transformation, and freedom from discrimination. Indigenous knowledge provides the foundation for treaty-centered policy supportive of Indigenous rights and health equity.