The Arts of Indigenous Health and Well-Being

Description

Drawing attention to the ways in which creative practices are essential to the health, well-being, and healing of Indigenous peoples, The Arts of Indigenous Health and Well-Being addresses the effects of artistic endeavour on the “good life”, or mino-pimatisiwin in Cree, which can be described as the balanced interconnection of physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental well-being. In this interdisciplinary collection, Indigenous knowledges inform an approach to health as a wider set of relations that are central to well-being, wherein artistic expression furthers cultural continuity and resilience, community connection, and kinship to push back against forces of fracture and disruption imposed by colonialism. The need for healing—not only individuals but health systems and practices—is clear, especially as the trauma of colonialism is continually revealed and perpetuated within health systems. The field of Indigenous health has recently begun to recognize the fundamental connection between creative expression and well-being. This book brings together scholarship by humanities scholars, social scientists, artists, and those holding experiential knowledge from across Turtle Island to add urgently needed perspectives to this conversation. Contributors embrace a diverse range of research methods, including community-engaged scholarship with Indigenous youth, artists, Elders, and language keepers. The Arts of Indigenous Health and Well-Being demonstrates the healing possibilities of Indigenous works of art, literature, film, and music from a diversity of Indigenous peoples and arts traditions. This book will resonate with health practitioners, community members, and any who recognize the power of art as a window, an entryway to access a healthy and good life. Cover Contents Introduction. “Art for Life’s Sake”: Approaches to Indigenous Arts, Health, and Well-Being Part 1. Material Culture, Embodiment, and Well-Being Chapter 1. What This Pouch Holds Chapter 2. Baskets, Birchbark Scrolls, and Maps of Land: Indigenous Making Practices as Oral Hisoriography Chapter 3. For Kaydence and Her Cousins: Health and Happiness in Cultural Legacies and Contemporary Contexts Part 2. Community Health and Wellness Chapter 4. Stories and Staying Power: Artmaking as (Re)Source of Cultural Resilience and Well-Being for Panniqtumiut Chapter 5. Healthy Connections: Facilitators’ Perceptions of Programming Linking Arts and Wellness with Indigenous Youth Part 3. Healing Land, Body, and Tradition Chapter 6. The Doubleness of Sound in Canada’s Indian Residential Schools Chapter 7. Kissed by Lightning: Mediating Haudenosaunee Traditional Teachings through Film Chapter 8. Minobimaadiziwinke (Creating a Good Life): Native Bodies Healing Part 4. Resistance, Resurgence, and “Imagining Otherwise” Chapter 9. Body Counts: War, Pesticides, and Queer Spirituality in Cherrie Moraga’s Heroes and Saints Chapter 10. The Language of Soul and Ceremony Chapter 11. Sâkihiwâwin: Land’s Overflow into the Space-tial “Otherwise” Acknowledgements Contributors Index