Projects

Apihkatatan

 

(Weaving Our Baskets): Intersectional trauma-healing and wisdom

Apihkatatan roughly translates from Cree to Weaving our Baskets. It’s a CIHR-funded research project that will be designed to deliver a land- and culture-based healing curriculum for Indigenous women who have encountered the criminal justice system (CJS). The curriculum will be inclusive of gender-affirming and trauma-informed expressive therapy for Indigenous women residing in kisiskâciwan (Saskatchewan), primarily in Saskatoon, to investigate the gender-specific strengths and needs of women with CJS lived-experience. The curriculum, which includes expressive therapies and arts-based methods, will be grounded in a Saskatchewan context.

Apihkatatan aims to nurture connections with culture and to support wholistic wellness among Indigenous women who have encountered the CJS, through an Indigenous-led Etuaptmumk (Two-eyed Seeing) research approach. This is based on findings that connections with the land and their cultural identities are vital for Indigenous women to begin and sustain their healing journeys. Apihkatatan is intended to contribute to the urgently needed Indigenous-centred, gender-affirming wellness interventions that address the needs of Indigenous women in urban and rural high-risk environments, specifically those emerging from the CJS. The results from this research study can be used to improve health and social systems, and the recorded outcomes may lead to the implementation of the Apihkatatan curriculum within CJS intervention and transitionary programming or to advance the further development of similar programming.

Apihkatatan is in the initial development phase. The team is working to establish both a leadership team, comprised of experts in the field, as well as a Community Guiding Circle (CGC), consisting of women with lived CJS experience, Elders and Knowledge Holders. The team is also working to establish partnerships with Indigenous community organizations. In partnership with the leadership team, CGC and community stakeholders, both the study parameters and program curriculum will be developed, so that it is collaboratively designed to evaluate a wholistic healing and wellness program grounded in cultural, traditional and expressive therapy, that is needs-based and relevant to those impacted by the research. It is anticipated that the initial delivery of the pilot program will occur in the fall of 2025.

The logo for Apihkatatan was greatly inspired by our participants as Indigenous women. It is important to note that these teachings take time to learn – this is an overview of the teachings. There are several sacred teachings involved within the logo, including the sacred medicine sweetgrass and tobacco. Women represent the foundation of family and community. Women’s teachings instill positive values and living life in a good way; they are significant to the responsibilities we carry to share with next generations and to bring balance into our lives.

Grandmother Moon is a women’s teaching that brings healing and balance to women. There are diverse teachings connected to Grandmother Moon to honour this relationship. The strawberry on the logo is often referred to as the heart berry and is a woman’s medicine. In Indigenous culture, berries hold cultural significance, impact women’s well-being and teach women about creation, community and love. We also see strawberries along the hem of the woman’s dress. The colour yellow symbolizes joy and new beginnings, which we see as resonating with the living experiences of our participants within our project. Lastly, we see elements of flowers and bees, which further relates to our connection to land and culture-based healing within Apihkatatan.

For more information, please contact pewaseskwan@usask.ca

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Most of our team lives and works on Treaty 6 territory and the Homeland of the Métis. The original peoples of these lands are the Cree, Saulteaux, Dene, Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, and Métis. Others are based in Vancouver, on the unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. We encourage everyone, wherever they are, to learn about the Indigenous people of the lands on which they live and work. We seek to become engaged allies together. In the spirit of truth and reconciliation, we respect the self-determination of First Nations, Métis and Inuit – in their cultures, languages and their pursuit of wellness.

© 2023 Pewaseskwan (the Indigenous Wellness Research Group) | Office of the Cameco Chair in Indigenous Health and Wellness, University of Saskatchewan.