Contributions to the literature
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The paper responds to growing interests in relational approaches to implementation at a community level and calls made for Indigenous leadership in forging solutions and decision-making in program planning.
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Research findings advance participatory approaches to engage communities in the process and application within Indigenous contexts. Further, we highlight synergies between participatory research and implementation science, as well as opportunities to enhance multi-stakeholder partnerships.
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Application of emergent principles offers ways to strengthen collaboration and research partnerships with communities. Insights into supporting Indigenous-led efforts in program planning including KT in Indigenous contexts is another contribution of the work.
Background
Methods
LC:LHF2S research partnerships and governance
Learning circles: a participatory model for food system planning
Implementation framework to guide analysis
Data sources
Thematic analysis
Guiding principles | Supporting illustrative quotes | |
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Principle 1: Create safe and ethical spaces for dialog by establishing trust and commitment from the ground up | 1.1 Recognize and respect community governance, leadership, and protocols | “Right to land, right to harvest, protocol, how does that work, like one of the circles I remember asking the question- you know teachers were talking about going out and picking soap berries… so then I posed the question, who do you ask to go? How do [you] get out there? Who do you have to ask and what do you have to put into place to take your class and go do that?” [LC participant 11] |
“I think there were lots of things that did happen, like, you know, the land recognition at the beginning, and engaging an Elder. I think those pieces, you know, were done well. We did learn from that, but I think in the broadest sense, um, and maybe that's kind of an impossible expectation on my part…” [LC participant 17] | ||
“…the importance of including teachings around protocol if we are going to include traditional foods in a school food program. Food is not just food but also medicine. Chiefs are responsible for managing territories.” [LC facilitator 4] | ||
1.2 Establish project advisory structures to guide and champion community-driven actions, leadership, and partnerships | “So, I think it's just, um, for me personally, really reinforced, the fact that we need to do a really good job, I think, from the very outset of, of projects in really letting the community guide the process, I guess. And be part of the development and I think we think we're doing better at that, but I think we can all do so much better” [LC participant 19] | |
“communities need to be “on board” perhaps bring together an ethics committee” [Learning circle facilitator 1] | ||
“I’ve been familiar with the [tribal council] for a number of years now, and you know their goals are, you know definitely community benefit oriented. They have a plethora of individuals employed through the [tribal council] that help out with health, education, finance um, and they’re a very large – a corporation. I think the structure mechanism of the [tribal council] is definitely appreciated.” LC facilitator 3] | ||
“So that would be like one sort of helpful thing. I think um, where I have sort of learned the most in this work is working with local [community] Elders and traditional um, [community] connections – like the connection with the [community] Foods Committee, or these [Indigenous] leadership pieces.” [LC participant 4] | ||
Principle 2: Understand the context for change through community engagement | 2.1 Build a shared understanding of values, priorities, and opportunities | “Food is medicine, is tied to the land, is tied to every aspect of the relations. So, you can’t measure it in terms of like its’ health unless the whole like system is changing to foster a deep, healthy vibrancy on sovereign land.” [LC facilitator 4] |
2.2 Work within a community’s social, political, and historical context | “Acknowledge the history of appropriation of Indigenous lands for agriculture. All lands that agriculture takes place on [traditional] territory lands that were appropriated by the Canadian or BC government and reallocated or sold to agriculturalists. Furthermore, agriculture in the form that um’shu’wa use is a new introduction in [community], and is seen as more of an um’shu’wa practice.” [LC facilitator 4] | |
And so, for some of the older generation, the connection to farming is like immediately… traumatizing and brings up these memories of this other time. And so, that is a bit of a barrier there, too because there's like resistance to engage with it because, um, of that history…” [LC participant 13] | ||
2.3 Identify and build on community supports | “the Gitxsan Wellness Model and the relationship of lax yip (of that land, Gitxsan knowledge) and otsin (spirit) to the work of connecting young people to their wellbeing through their relationships with culture, relations, food and land. The Wellness Model encompasses a holistic worldview in which the wilp (mother and relations) and the wilksawitx (father and relations) intersect and overlap with the lax yip and the otisin.” [LC participant 24] | |
“Each other, share successes and some challenges. We looked at some barriers that we needed to overcome and share, we had a workshop on traditional foods. And what’s really important to keep in mind.” [LC facilitator 1] | ||
Principle 3: Foster relationships to strengthen and sustain impact | 3.1 Make connections between people, programs, and processes | “so I think, I think what’s worked really well is having some kind of core people involved right from the start” [LC facilitator 5] |
“when we did our community planning, parents and community members suggested we have more traditional foods and more healthy foods. And more local people working to prepare the foods” [LC participant 2] | ||
3.2 Integrate Indigenous worldviews, perspectives, and values | “there’s a fear piece about how to talk about current effects of colonialism without sending non-Indigenous people into this fear reactive, defensive place when it’s maybe something somebody hasn’t talked about. And from other work [community organization] is doing from around the work of internal reflection and dialogue that I feel non-Indigenous people need to do…I really feel like, with reconciliation, there is work that both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people need to do.” [LC participant 11] | |
“There is still a necessity to sort of unpack, for non-indigenous people to kind of like explore those different narrative and unpack that in the sort of messiness of relationships that some of which have sort of existed between Indigenous and non-indigenous people here for hundreds of years.” [LC facilitator 4] | ||
“She’s an Elder within the community who will often come and just keep an eye on things. She used to work in the schools as a teacher for a number of years but I remember her coming in and just kind of sitting, she came in halfway, just kind of sat, watching, and you know someone said oh, “we should ask [Name] about this topic on getting kids to eat healthy” and she just said “a potato is a potato. That doesn’t really matter. Get those kids out of school and on the land. That’s what they need to learn.” [LC facilitator 5] | ||
“Recognize that self-determination is an important or central goal of reconciliation between First Nations and Canadian government. We need to work together to demonstrate that projects need to be centered around Indigenous ways of knowing and adequately support First Nations health and well-being.” [Annual gathering participant] | ||
Principle 4: Reflect and embrace program flexibility to integrate learnings | 4.1 Create space for reflection and mutual learnings | “Share teachings so we are able to learn together and be aware. –create space where we can stand in our own truth, be who we are, and be safe there. –openness-non-judgmental atmosphere in order to allow us to learn. –we have to show up with our baskets full (what is my own culture, where do I come from, what is my truth? engaging as people from a place of truth). –we are always teachers, students, and learners. –respectful dialogue among nations-there is always more to learn.” [Annual gathering participant 6] |
“I think what I’ve learned through this project, that the main barrier is getting everybody to come together and actually just figure out the details.” [LC participant 25] | ||
“Just to get their experiences- things that worked well, things that didn’t work well when they were engaging with their students. Just to see how much other people are doing. So there is a little bit of solidarity from that to know that like other people are interested in these things and working to do more education around food in schools. So that was really encouraging. So that useful in itself to just have encouragement.” [LC participant 23] | ||
“You know, their own community supports and where their community's at in terms of being able to keep the project sustainable and continue that work, you know, once funding process is done” [LC participant 19] | ||
“So in my view what it needed is a pre-initiative capacity assessment that would chronicle in detail the different levels of capacity or rather the different levels of capacity attainment across different domains of capacity….You’ve got an assessment, you place yourself and there’s some menu of options of this version of the model that would best fit your particular circumstances and then you work through the mechanics of how that would work” [LC participant 18] |
Guiding principles | Questions to support participatory planning and action | |
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Principle 1: Create safe and ethical spaces for dialog by establishing trust and commitment from the ground up | 1.1 Recognize and respect community governance, leadership, and protocols | How will community members be engaged? |
How will leadership and decision-making processes be engaged? | ||
Is a formal partnership agreement required? | ||
Is there a mechanism(s) to facilitate trust and commitment between local organizations and partners involved? | ||
What principles and guidelines should be followed? | ||
What mechanism(s) need to be in place to manage conflict? | ||
1.2 Establish project advisory structures to guide and champion community-driven actions, leadership, and partnerships | How will local knowledge, values and preferences be integrated? | |
What perspectives, knowledge and skills will be helpful? | ||
Principle 2: Understand the context for change through community engagement | 2.1 Build a shared understanding of values, priorities, and opportunities | What areas can be strengthened within your local food system? |
What challenges need to be addressed? | ||
What are opportunities for change? | ||
2.2 Work within a community’s social, political, and historical context | Are current programs/models/supports grounded in community values and knowledge? If not, why? | |
Are current programs/models/supports helpful and meeting community priorities? If not, why? | ||
2.3 Identify and build on community supports | What supports currently exist that can be built upon? | |
What programs/supports are needed? | ||
What skills and experiences are needed to support change efforts? | ||
Principle 3: Foster relationships to strengthen and sustain impact | 3.1 Make connections between people, programs, and processes | Who needs to be engaged? |
Who are key decision makers? How will they be engaged? | ||
Who are key actors to support on the ground activities? How will they be engaged? | ||
Who will be impacted by the change? How will they be engaged? | ||
Who can support the maintenance of project activities and change efforts? | ||
How are key actors and those impacted by the change connected? | ||
3.2 Integrate Indigenous worldviews, perspectives, and values | What perspectives and knowledge are needed to support change efforts? | |
Principle 4: Reflect and embrace program flexibility to integrate learnings | 4.1 Create space for reflection and mutual learnings | How are principles and values guiding partnerships? |
What is working well? | ||
What can be done differently? | ||
What areas can be improved? |
Results
Principle 1: Create safe and ethical spaces for dialog by establishing trust and commitment from the ground up
I think that any project with First Nations you know is contingent, is having relationships with those nations, and those relationships are strengthened through the practical integration of those OCAP principles. Especially when it comes to research projects in particular. [LC participant 19]
Recognize and respect community governance, leadership, and protocols
[LC facilitator] feels that we are transitioning into a more collaboration with the [First Nation community] and there is a need to develop a better understanding of how we will work together with other partners in this project; protocol rather than agreement. [LC facilitator 1]
Establish project advisory structures to guide and champion community-driven actions, leadership, and partnerships
Principle 2: Understand the context for change through community engagement
Build a shared understanding of values, priorities, and opportunities
So learning how to enjoy foods in a way that’s accessible I think is part of it. How do you make healthy food attractive and delicious and I think that’s a skillset that some, um, many people have lost. And so even in the learning circle there was a cool opportunity to share some of that knowledge back and forth. Where it was like ideas about “oh this is how you can get kids to eat this. [LC participant 23]
Work within a community’s social, political, and historical context
It’s about exploring voice and oppression, and how [we] are all sort of, most of our – our ways of being and working in this world is, it’s a – it’s a racialized world, it’s a racialized structure, and that is kind of ingrained and embedded throughout everything. Even here in the [community] where our population is 85 to 90 percent Indigenous. [LC participant 11]
Identify and build on community supports
There was some work between the [wellness committee] hereditary chiefs. Then the learning circle got involved to help the school apply for some funding and stuff like that….he gave me this model about how this community is approaching food security and how it’s not just based in the school, but based in the school and health, and fisheries and all these other pieces that are going on in their community and how for them it can’t just be based in the school otherwise there is nothing to support it. So that was a really good perspective. [LC facilitator 5]
Principle 3: Foster relationships to strengthen and sustain impact
Connecting with other partners and sharing information, and – and just being able to access additional resources, whether they’re financial or otherwise, I feel like we can – we can do that much better collectively. And with strong leadership from [Indigenous community leadership] because then there’s – there’s a great deal more trust. [Learning circle facilitator 1]
Make connections between people, programs, and processes
It’s taking lots of players and bringing them together. And then they all have their own networks and it’s a really good way to make connections in the food world, or any kind of thing that you’re working on. But it gets people out of their silos and gives an opportunity to work towards common goals. [LC facilitator 1]
Integrate Indigenous worldviews, perspectives, and values
Making sure First Nations voice is heard. When [non-Indigenous] teachers and principals are part of the LC it may be important to find ways to make sure that voices of community members are heard; perhaps have a co-facilitator who is from the community; also break into smaller groups. In terms of using a talking piece, while there is value in listening to one person speak at a time at some points during the day, there is also a place for dynamic group discussion. [LC facilitator 4]
Principle 4: Reflect and embrace program flexibility to integrate learnings
Create space for reflection and mutual learnings
…in terms of, you know, recognizing, I think things like historical impacts on communities and things like that. Nutrition and what that means and how it can sometimes be a trigger for people in communities. And just expanding our understanding, and growing from that. [LC participant 19]There’s been a shift from just having farmers in the room, but having harvesters and um, like food knowledge holders, and um, um, the other thing is uh Elders in the room who are sharing information and it’s not just the farmers, you know. That’s a change and then the focus – and when I think back again… in the early years when we were really engaging farmers and farm food getting into the school, that there was also a focus of like farm tours. So students going out to the farm and getting – and looking around and then we kind of worked on getting school greenhouse going, or gardens. Whereas now, there’s a – there’s a real change in like what’s a field trip, or what’s a workshop – like it might be like going seaweed harvesting; or it might be berry picking; or it might be harvesting – like even fishing or hunting trips. [LC participant 4]