https://theconversation.com/back-to-the-land-how-one-indigenous-community-is-beating-the-odds-81540
This article describes a study of a remote First Nations community in northern Ontario. Of the six communities located here, this one stands out due to its low rates of suicide, substance abuse and depression. The study looked at the question, “how is it that this one community has produced what appear to be more positive mental health outcomes?” despite sharing a history of oppression, victimization and suffering with its sister communities.
Non-Indigenous Western psychologists acknowledge their “outsider” status as researchers and organized and interpreted participant narratives using the medicine wheel of traditional healing to reduce the risks of colonizing participants’ experiences. The most notable finding was the way in which connection to the land was interwoven throughout all aspects of the medicine wheel. Participants’ comments regarding physical, spiritual, mental and emotional health often referred to attitudes and practices that affirmed a fundamental connection to their land:
“To know the land… you know you’re capable of things other kids aren’t, knowing where I came from, what I’m capable of.”