Storying and re-storying: Co-creating Indigenous well-being through Relational Knowledge Exchange

ABSTRACT

This article presents three Indigenous scholars’ academic research on Indigenous well-being and describes our personal journeys in relation to the knowledge received from our communities. LaVerne Xilegg Demientieff shares the Five Cs of Healing-Centered Engagement, Jessica Saniġaq Ullrich shares the Indigenous Connectedness Framework, and Emma Elliott shares her observations about the relationality of well-being. As Indigenous scholars, we each have put ancestral knowledge and practices about health and well-being into action through our own lives and relationships for better dissemination and utility of the research. In this article, we engage in storytelling about learning, living, and sharing the teachings of Indigenous well-being that highlights the relational knowledge exchange among researchers, knowledge bearers, and beloved community. It is not enough to learn and gain knowledge and new perspectives; this knowledge must be shared and applied to real life so that the social and environmental justice, healing, and relational changes that communities yearn for become a reality.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous knowledge
• Indigenous well-being
• healing
• relationality
• storytelling

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. Nadine Fabbi, Dr. Patricia Johnston, and the members of the Canadian Studies Program at the University of Washington, who have organized this special issue of the American Review of Canadian Studies.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health [GM115371 and HHSN271201200663P].

Notes on contributors

Jessica Saniġaq Ullrich

Jessica Saniġaq Ullrich is an Inupiaq scholar, a tribal citizen of Nome Eskimo Community, and a descendant of the Native Village of Wales. As an assistant professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage in the School of Social Work, Jessica focuses on the promotion of connectedness, and relational healing through social and environmental justice collaborations.

LaVerne Xilegg Demientieff

LaVerne Xilegg Demientieff is Deg Xit’an (Dene) and her family are from Holy Cross and Anvik, Alaska. She is an associate professor in the University of Alaska Fairbanks Bachelor of Social Work program. LaVerne focuses on wellness, resilience, and healing utilizing a wholistic and multilevel framework grounded in Indigenous knowledge and practice.

Emma Elliott

Emma Elliott is an assistant professor in the Department of Learning Sciences and Human Development at the University of Washington. She holds both a PhD in Educational Psychology (Learning Sciences and Human Development) and a Master of Social Work degree (Children, Youth, and Families).