Living Well: Aboriginal Women, Cultural Identity and Wellness

Traditional understandings of health and wellness in Manitoba's Aboriginal communities are distinctly different from understandings that have conventionally prevailed in most Canadian health care institutions. "Aboriginal concepts of health and healing start from the position that all elements of life and living are interdependent. By extension, well-being flows from balance and harmony among all elements of personal and collective life."1 Fortunately, an ever-increasing proportion of research, analysis and policy work on Aboriginal health in Manitoba is aware of the inseparability of cultural identity and health and wellness and is attempting to use a more traditional holistic understanding of health and wellness.

This research project, undertaken by the Aboriginal Women's Health Research Committee with support from the Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence (PWHCE), seeks to extend our understanding of the positive impact of cultural identity on the wellness of Aboriginal women in Manitoba and the ways in which Aboriginal women have retained and drawn upon cultural values, teachings and knowledge in their efforts to heal themselves, their families, and their communities.

What contributes to the health and well-being of Aboriginal women in Manitoba? And, what has influenced the identity of Aboriginal women? To answer these questions, this study used focus group discussions and interviews to explore cultural identity and wellness in the everyday life experiences and personal understandings of Aboriginal women. The study methodology was guided by principles that reflect the values and beliefs of local Aboriginal communities, including communality of knowledge and reciprocity, the acknowledgement of spiritual connections, relational accountability and holism. The focus group discussions and interviews were conducted in four Manitoba communities: a large urban centre, a First Nations community in Northern Manitoba, a small southern city, and a community relatively close to several First Nations in Northern Manitoba. The discussions examined several thematic areas, including (a) how women maintained their personal well-being, (b) how they maintained the wellness of their community and (c) how changes to the relationship between wellness and their community could occur. Women were asked: How do you practice well-being in your daily life? What are some ways that you try to be healthy? How is wellness a part of your community? What are some ways that you take care of the wellness of your community? What could your community do to strengthen Aboriginal women? What can we do as Aboriginal women to strengthen our communities?

Identity and Wellness

The Aboriginal women who participated in this research project took care of their health and wellness by attending to and maintaining balance between all aspects-physical, mental, emotional and spiritual-of their being. They envisioned their own identities and wellness in holistic terms. Women revealed identities that were inseparable from their connections to family, history, community, place and spirituality and were understood in the context of their whole lives. The sense of community identity was strong, rooted in their families, embracing friends, neighbours, peers, colleagues and people with shared experiences and interests, and extending to their individual First Nations groups. The importance of cultural identity was present throughout the focus group discussions and was a part of women's understandings of individual and community wellness.

The Practice of Personal Well-being

"Wellness is balance in your life, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. You always try to balance those things in your life. For example, physically, I'm always putting things into my body that I shouldn't be. I would be certainly out of balance in those other areas also. Or if emotionally or mentally or something wasn't right, I'd be out of balance. For me, I try to balance all the areas. If I'm eating right and getting enough sleep, stuff like that, physically. Spiritually, whether or not you go to church or say your prayers, whatever. And talking to people. To me, wellness starts with yourself, in your interactions or relationships with either your family or your community or nation."

The women in this study found many ways to take care of their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellness. Most of the participants described the ways they took care of their physical bodies, such as eating healthily, adhering to a vegetarian diet or avoiding junk food. Most of the women exercised regularly, taking walks, jogging, swimming or rollerblading. However, taking care of one's physical body required more than careful eating or exercise regimes. One participant stated, "What I've found in my life is that everything is in our bodies. All the pain, all the sorrow and stress is in our physical bodies."

The women who participated in the research had rich spiritual lives. The women emphasized die importance of spirituality, manifested in daily practices such as prayer, smudging or simply an ongoing commitment to extend honour and respect to others. Taking the time to feel their spiritual connection enables the women to refocus, gather confidence, anchor themselves and recollect their identities. For many of the women, the combination of practical and careful attention to all aspects of their being and wellness seemed to have made them unusually able to face challenges and take risks in their lives.

Contributing to Community Wellness

"I really feel and see the need for our community to be well, and I think that really begins with each of us. I try to practice that in my own daily life, and I try to emphasize that in the community, too, especially through my work. If I'm able to be with a group of people where I can carry a message, to encourage them to be well and to take care of each other in the workplace and encourage them to do that at home-I do that. I take advantage of each of these opportunities. And I share that with people."

Participants were asked to describe some of the ways that they take care of the wellness and healing of their communities. For many of the women, responsibility for the well-being of the community started in the home, in their relationships with family and friends. Several of the women felt that one of their most significant contributions to the wellness of their community is to raise their children to be whole and healthy people, to be "independent people who do not rely on others," "to become stronger people, to understand the power of being themselves, to do whatever they want to do and to know that they don't have to stay in relationships that are unhealthy." Some of the women were also very actively involved with their grandchildren or assisting community members to become whole and healthy people.

The women expressed a tremendous willingness to take responsibility for their own well-being and that of their communities, as well as the hope and expectation that others will be willing to do the same. The women expressed a real awareness of the impact of their own behaviour on the well-being of their community. As one woman said, "If we're not well ourselves, how can we help others? By starting with each of us, I think that's how we can help each other and other people."

Strengthening Aboriginal Women in their Communities

"Our traditional roles have been given away or taken-doesn't matter how it happened-but we're not as strong in our communities anymore. Once we were both the life-givers and the decision-makers in our communities-culturally, traditionally, we have to take back that role."

Participants felt that to strengthen Aboriginal women, individuals and their communities must reclaim and acknowledge the importance of women in traditional cultures. The women emphasized the importance of reclaiming tradition and returning honour and respect to women for the roles they perform in their families and communities. One participant stated that, "If Aboriginal women are going to make an impact or be empowered by their communities, we have to go back to our roots, the basis of our cultures. That will lead us to respect and honour women ... When honour and respect flow in our community, we won't have problems-it will empower everyone."

Participants called for greater representation of women in management and leadership positions. One woman spoke with frustration of how, although effectively her whole community is run by women-with women filling the majority of staff positions, from worker to department head-the top jobs in the community are filled by men. They spoke of the need to encourage women to actively support each other. The women also recognized the need to create more supports for men, many of whom are now struggling to maintain or recover a sense of their own strength and value; for children, who need and deserve care, protection and guidance; and for elders, who offer wisdom and knowledge derived from their lengthy life experience. With an appreciation that their own well-being is closely linked to that of their communities, the women understood that as their communities assume more control and ownership of their own cultures, both communities and women become stronger and healthier.

Conclusion

"Living well" for the women in this study required a balance between the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of a person and community. Women emphasized wellness over illness and described their health and well-being as being tightly linked to their cultural identities and a range of health determinants. These understandings affirm the importance of moving beyond a scientific approach to health and healing to integrate holistic understandings of and approaches to health into health care practices and policies.

A copy of the full report, Living Well: Aboriginal Women, Cultural Identity, and Wellness, can be downloaded at: www.pwhce.ca/research.htm, or contact:

Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence

56 The Promenade

Winnipeg, MB

Canada R3B 3H9

www.pwhce.ca

Tel: (204) 982-6630

Fax: (204) 982-6637

pwhce@uwinnipeg.ca

NOTES

1. Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Highlights from the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Ottawa: Ministry of Supply and Services, 1996.

Alex Wilson, Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence

Copyright Centres of Excellence for Women's Health Spring 2005
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