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Deadly Dads: Supports for Nêhiyaw Nâpêwak (Cree men) throughout fatherhood to promote wellbeing—Impacts and understandings from a community-university partnership
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- Author / Creator
- Purificati-Fune, Reuel AC
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Mosoms and Kokoms (grandfathers and grandmothers) from the Cree communities of Maskwacis, Treaty 6 Territory identified an opportunity to welcome Nêhiyaw Nâpêwak (Cree men) back to ceremony. New interests within the field of maternal health, focusing on the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease and involving fathers align with existing understandings of wellbeing in Maskwacis. Through a long-standing community-university
partnership, we explored the impacts on wellbeing of a culturally-centered, community-led support strategy.
A community-based participatory research approach was shaped, honouring Nêhiyaw ways of knowing. A Community Advisory Committee including Mosoms, community members, and researchers led the research. Weekly group-led/developed support activities for men occurred from August 2021 to January 2023. This was a community-driven study through which our methods were iteratively determined. Two Wisdom Circles with participants were recorded, along with meeting minutes, journals, photos, implementation notes, community reports, and emails. Knowledge was analyzed non-linearly through relationships. Rigour was established through nurturing relationships, reflection and prayer, and offering tobacco to Mosoms for guidance and to participants sharing knowledge.
Strong relationships prompted re-understandings of the roles of researchers and strengthened kinship networks. Participants associated healthy gatherings, reassurance/motivation, intergenerational knowledge sharing, responsibility, shared positive memories, uplifted spirits, and connection to culture and identity with the group-led supports. Impacts occurred during what
was often referred to as ‘breaks’ from agendas, cycles of intergenerational trauma, the busyness of work, and fears of expressing love or healing.
Breaks from the coloniality of knowing and being create opportunities to connect with community, culture, ceremony, and identity, which is the source of wellbeing for Nêhiyaw Nâpêwak and families in Maskwacis. -
- Graduation date
- Fall 2023
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.