Pulse 2012 - (Page 29)

Northern roots Partnering with First Nations to help heal communities Judy Finlay School of Child and Youth Care Imagine living in a place where only one-tenth of the population has jobs, suicide rates are 100 times higher than the national average, over half of the children frequently go hungry, and many people lack safe drinking water. This is the situation aboriginal people living in Canada’s remote northern communities often face. “The effects of forced relocations, confinement and other colonization tactics have a devastating impact on children and families in many indigenous communities,” says Judy Finlay, the co-chair of Mamow Sha-way-gi-kay-win: North–South Partnership for Children. This project brings together 30 Northern Ontario First Nations communities with university-based researchers and 20 non-governmental organizations. The partnership’s goal is to understand the social and historical conditions that affect community members’ health, and then use that knowledge to develop capacity-building plans. Finlay’s work on aboriginal health issues is informed by more than three decades of involvement in children’s welfare and mental health, including service as Ontario’s Child Advocate (1991-2007). These experiences taught her that “meaningful community-development work requires hearing directly from First Nations’ elders, families and kids.” The North–South Partnership has already made solid progress, including water purification systems, soil assessments aimed at re-starting agriculture, and accessibility-focused home renovations. For Finlay, though, the major gain has been the relationships forged between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Peoples. “These form the basis of meaningful reconciliation and are the pre-condition of any initiative.” In collaboration with the North–South Partnership, Finlay is also guiding the Ryerson-led project Mamow Ki-ken-da-ma-win: Searching Together. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Finlay and her co-researchers are using a partnership-based approach to address the social determinants of health afflicting 12 First Nations communities in Northern Ontario. ■ Judy Finlay is a member of a partnership that aims to understand the social and historical conditions that affect the health of First Nations’ communities. Pulse Health Research and Innovation at Ryerson 29

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pulse 2012

Ryerson Alumni - Pulse 2012
Contents
Elizabeth McCay
Trevor A. Hart
Centre for Global Health and Health Equity
Martin M. Anthony
Thomas Tenkate
Fiona Yeudall
Sri Krishman
Ana Pejović-Milić
Victor Yang
Souraya Sidani
Colleen E. Carney
Centre for Health in At-Risk Populations
Catherine Beauchemin
Habiba Bourgherara
Raffi Karshafian and Michael C. Kolios
Jahan Tavakkoli
Russell D. Viirre
Donna Koller
Faith Donald
Judy Finlay
Janet M. Lum
Deborah Fels
Jason Nolan
Bionik Laboratories Inc.
Institute for Stress and Wellbeing Research
Ontario Multicultural Health Applied Research Network
Computational Biomedical Physics Laboratory

Pulse 2012

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