Halifax

Film Screening and Discussion “Gifts from the Elders”

7:00pm
- 9:00pm
Thursday January 23 2014

Gifts from the Elders is a 2013 documentary film that follows five Anishinaabe youth on a summer research project with their Elders, whose stories guide them on a journey back to proceeding generations that lived a healthy lifestyle off of the land. Their stories chronicle the devastating impact that environmental and cultural dispossession had on the flow of knowledge from Elders to youth, and ultimately on the health of their people. As their summer comes to an end, the youth emerge with “gifts” of knowledge and teachings from their Elders, inspiring a renewed determination to forge a hopeful and healthy future for the next generation. Watch the trailer.

Chantelle Richmond, PhD, is an Anishinabe scholar from Pic River First Nation.  She holds a CIHR New Investigator in Aboriginal Health and she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Western University, where she holds cross appointment in the First Nation Studies Program as well as the Department of Family Medicine.  Her research is framed by community-based approaches that aim to understand how processes of environmental dispossession, both historic and contemporary, work to affect social determinants of health among Indigenous peoples.  Chantelle collaborates with various First Nation communities and Aboriginal organizations to study these important issues. She has published widely in the health and social sciences and she routinely provides reviews for a number of Canadian and international journals and Canada’s Tri-council granting agencies. Chantelle is Director of the Indigenous Health Lab (www.indigenoushealthlab.ca) at Western University, where she supervises a number of graduate and undergraduate students, all of whom are working on critical environment/health issues in the First Nation context.  Chantelle is enthusiastic about the role that knowledge translation plays in her research.  She views her role as a teacher, mentor and advocate as critical for increasing capacity and overall well-being in the communities she works with.

Joshua Tobias is a PhD Candidate and Ontario Graduate Scholar in the Department of Geography at Western University.  His doctoral research is a community-based participatory research project conducted in collaboration with Elders from two Anishinabe communities on the North Shore of Lake Superior. His dissertation examines Elders’ perceptions of the relationship between land and health, as well as how both communities can preserve Indigenous Knowledge to protect community health.  Josh’s thesis takes the form of a compilation of manuscripts, the first of which can be found in the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics. Josh is presently exploring options for postdoctoral studies, and he aspires to work in an academic institution where he may continue to do community research with First Nation, and other Indigenous communities.

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