Through a grant made possible by the First Nations Information Governance Centre, the FNHA was able to invite students from across the province to attend the Regional Data Governance Engagement Sessions held February to March 2016. As a follow-up to their participation, students were invited to attend a one day follow-up workshop in Vancouver organized by the Research, Knowledge Exchange, and Evaluation team to reflect on their learnings at the engagement sessions and to learn additional facilitation skills. This included participating in a photovoice exercise to talk about wellness indicators, and to learn a new skill for engaging their communities on important issues. 

Prior to attending the workshop, students were asked to provide photos that represented wellness to them and to their communities. After sharing their photos and reflections with the group, the students were asked to group their photos into wellness themes. The following are the wellness themes they identified, selected photos, and student reflections associated with their photos that they have agreed to share.

Participants also identified an overall wellness theme that cut across all of the themes identified, which was the importance of relationships between the different themes and with the people in their lives that support their wellness and their communities’ wellness.

Many of the students reflected on the importance of spirituality for their wellness.  Most often, photos associated with spirituality were those that highlighted a relationship to land and territory.  Students shared scenic photos of nature with sunrises, sunsets, rainbows, lakes and oceans.

“This is a morning picture. I feel grateful for waking up every morning. It’s a new day, you can create new experiences.  The old day is gone, you can’t do anything about it anymore so this represents new beginnings” (Andrea Walkus). Andrea recently completed the "Community Health Promotion for Aboriginal Communities" program and Vancouver Island University. Her career goals are focused on the administration of her community’s health programs, which has led her to enroll in the "Aboriginal Health and Community Administration Program" at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in January, 2017.  

Both Peggy and Megan shared photos of lakes in their territories and spoke of the importance of them for their spiritual wellness.

“This picture is of Seton Lake in Lillooet BC. This area is being returned to T'it'q'et Band from BC Hydro. I love going there around sunset to go for a walk. Gives me a chance to clear my mind and reflect on my day” (Megan Thorne).

“This is my lake, this land… When I took this picture, I come from the wolf clan, I just happened to look down after I had taken the picture as I stepped away and there were wolf tracks around the area there.  I was really amazed, I tried to follow them.  Makes my spirit soar” (Peggy Tate).

Rachel LaBounty took this photo in North Saanich, BC and spoke of its importance to her community’s spiritual well-being.

“It represents the land of play. At the beach, for our community, we go fishing in that water for food; we go crabbing there, we go swimming there. And when someone is upset or something, we go to the water and it helps us refresh our minds. It’s just a really spiritual, healthy way for the community to heal.”

 

The importance of culture for wellness was another theme identified in the student’s photos. Aspects of traditional culture included the history of their community and family shared through stories, art, and music, as well as spending time on the land and preparing traditional foods.

 Janine Luggi is a student at UNBC in the Master's of Arts in First Nations Studies, writing a thesis titled, "My Personal Experiences of Running: One Dakelh Woman's Message of Transformation and Resilience." Janine reflected on a drum she was gifted for her birthday and what the design meant to her. “My grandmother is a hereditary chief and her, she’s a frog clan.  There’s also a part that looks like a bird. When my grandmother had her drum, she had a crane on the drum, and then she had her frog clan on the drum.  And her dad’s clan is the crane clan and I don’t think they even exist anymore. So it just feels like went full circle that I got this drum with the design made into something that I think looks like a bird and a frog.”

Janine spoke about how the gift of the drum had brought drumming and music back into her life and what that meant to her.  “I rarely use my drum but I’m getting into it. I seem to like listening and drumming with people. In the last couple of years I have been picking up my drum and using it. There’s just something about that. I’m not just singing with my family, I’m drumming now. It really reminds me of my granny a lot and the legacy that she left, so stepping into something new it seems like”.

Michelle Buchholz shared a photo of a smokehouse at her uncle’s house in Moricetown and the importance of being connected to culture for her wellness throughout her life.

“This is the fall and that’s the time when everyone is smoking salmon and jarring it. That’s some of my earliest memory as a kid, that’s being put on fish gutting duty, so at the time I didn’t think it was so awesome but now I know how valuable it is and it was teaching me respect. I went to Wet'suwet'en culture camps as a kid and there we did some of that as well as butchering moose meat so this just reminds me of all of those teachings and I think culture in my community is pretty strong and it’s definitely helped me a lot, just in growing up and being proud of being Wet'suwet'en.  I remember there was a time when I wasn’t and that was kind of hard for me to get through those things and I think it’s hard for the youth still.  Being proud of where you from, we’ve received so much discrimination. I think it’s a big part of your wellness, your mental wellness, to be proud of it”.

Andrea Walkus spoke of the importance of the eagle and the cultural connection it represents for her and for her community. “I love eagles; they represent strength in our people.  Our whole Port Hardy loves eagles, the First Nations and the people in town. You’ll see us, standing beside the tourists, taking pictures of the eagles even though we see them every day.”

 

Another theme identified was the importance of having access to and the choice to eat healthy foods. “Food is really, like, our medicine. That’s what I feel. Our medicines are our medicines too, but really it’s what we put in our bodies is what we’re going to get out of life” (Janine Luggi).

The importance of gathering with their community to promote and participate in wellness based activities was another theme that was identified by the participants by talking about and sharing their photos.  Participating in physical activity with community and in their community was important for improving physical well-being and overall well-being. 

Peggy Tate is a coach for the paddle club in her community and spoke about the importance of the program for her community’s wellness. “..This is for the youth of our community and we take them to different regattas and competitions and we even host workshops to teach other youth in our area how to canoe and kayak…  To see the excitement in the youth and to have them engaged in something they like and in order for us to do all of this we ask for the parents to participate as well, so its parents participating with their children…Before stuff like this we do the opening prayer and blessing the event and someone dances also.  So this is a big sign of wellness for us”.

The importance of family for being well was another identified theme.  Examples include spending time with family on the land, outside, doing physical activities, and sharing cultural experiences.

Megan Thorne spoke of the importance of spending time with her son for her wellness. “This is my youngest son taking a break from our bike ride along the Thompson River in Kamloops BC. This is my favorite area that we go to every day. We go here for a walk or bike ride. The sound of the water moving helps me clear my mind”.

Michelle Buchholz shared a story of going hunting with her father and how that memory was linked to culture. “This is a picture of what my dad thinks is called Bear Lake, we’re not really sure. We go hunting every fall. We go moose hunting so this is a lake we came upon, he swore it was Bear Lake but then actually later was like I don’t know…So this area is getting closer to our neighbouring territories, so it kind of reminds me of how in the old days, if you shot something in someone else’s clan territory you would have to gift them the meat. Cuz my dad is small frog, so it’s just bordering on the next clan territory…This picture reminds me of those things, and makes me really happy that those traditions are still around; the cultural side is what it reminds me of”.

The theme of an urban home was identified by the participants, specifically about a photo that was shared by Michelle Buchholz of her current community in Vancouver - Commercial Drive. “My aunty lived in Vancouver while I was growing up, we’d come to Vancouver visit my auntie and go to Commercial drive.  Good memories of the drive. Really happy to be living in that community while I’m in Vancouver, my host community. Just kinda reminds me of my place right now and where I’m at right now. Not really a reality at this time for me to go back to my community so it just makes me feel happy that I can set roots in another community and still kinda feel connected to my culture.”