Findings
Conceptualizing cultural continuity
The importance of traditional culture, or "being who we are", was the most widespread and recurring theme participants mentioned, and the most relevant to health and diabetes. The need for a strong attachment to and respect for culture was emphasized time and again as the basis of any thriving and healthy First Nation, as one participant said, "All things flow from our culture." Participants described their culture as "sacred", "essence", "well-being", "livelihood", "balance", "respect", "way of life" and "everything". Culture contains all of the teachings and direction on "how to walk in this world" and includes, but is not limited to, traditions, values, knowledge, hunting and trapping, living off the land, traditional food, medicines, games, sweats, spirituality, ceremonies, celebrations, praying, and language. Participants viewed having culture permeate all aspects of life as "an Indigenous way to live" and "a harmonious way to live".
Participants described traditional language in particular as a crucial and inseparable piece of culture. The participants felt when First Nations "live from their language" they are "maintaining all that (they) believe in and all that you"ve been born from". The participants believed traditional culture and language to be one and the same. Without use of their traditional language, Nations were deemed incapable of succeeding since language is at the center of culture and provides the blueprint for how to live and survive:
Elders always speak of the importance of our language. Who we are is determined through our language. We speak our language and that determines where you come from, what your culture is, and even how we used to go with the different seasons in terms of following those traditional paths. Regardless of where you go, if you have that language our culture is in there... So once you lose that, what do you have left? Because our beliefs come from that in terms of how we govern ourselves. It comes in terms of how we eat, and in terms of how we educate ourselves and conduct ourselves in that full circle.
The participants felt that traditional culture, and having their culture continue into future generations, is inextricably linked to their health. During the interviews many health problems faced by First Nations were discussed such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, oral health problems, sexually transmitted diseases, addictions and alcoholism, and mental health issues. The participants consistently related these problems back to culture. The loss of culture often was seen as the root cause, and re-connecting with traditional culture was seen as the solution in many instances:
Everybody has been gifted with the `how´ (knowledge), to deal with themselves and we have to realize that. We have to get back to that. Every Nation in this country and in this world has been gifted with that ability. Even the animals know how to heal themselves... Indian people were like that. They healed themselves, but times have changed.
Some participants referenced the Medicine Wheel and a "holistic view of health that includes mind, body, spirit, emotions" to illustrate how culture and health influence each other. A connection to culture is believed to impact and "bring balance" to each of the four corners of the Medicine Wheel. For diabetes specifically, the disease was described as "a cultural thing" and some participants explained more direct positive effects of increased physical activity and consumption of traditional foods, and consequently less western foods, resulting from cultural activities such as hunting, fishing, trapping, and "living off the land".
Participants explained that having a First Nation that is firmly attached to its traditional culture and language is the foundation of a collective identity, which contributes to health and well-being. Some of the participants explained how a First Nation cannot endure and "know where it is going" without first understanding "who we are and where we come from". Identity in Nations stems from culture, as one participant explained "it´s all laid out for us as to who we are and what we should be. Rituals, traditions, and the culture, that´s what moulds you and will guide you in your life". A collective identity and "just being who we are" was also believed to be vital and concurrent with a sense of belonging. One participant talked about the universal need of belonging and how it is linked to culture:
Everybody has to have a sense of belonging. Everybody has to feel like they´re part of something. And if you don´t, where are you going to end up? Probably on the street and homeless because you think nobody cares. And that´s not just Aboriginal people, that´s all people. They NEED to have a sense of belonging... You have a sense of pride because you have a sense of belonging. That is the value in our culture and in an individualistic world you don´t have that.
A secure sense of culture leads to intact and healthy First Nations, and Nations with integrity, as one participant expressed "the success is how solid they are as a community in their faith system, you know, their culture. Right now we´re hurting. So we got to go back, and we got to be solid". The participants believed culture strengthens the integrity and well-being of Nations by making possible capable and ethical leadership, a sense of peace and tranquility through spirituality, well-adjusted families and healthy relationships, and strong support systems:
Our traditional knowledge services have been such a shining light in the darkness because it´s so promising, and people are starting to have a lot of respect for it and wanting to be a part of it. The values generated out of that will take care of people, whom will take care of each other. The compassion, the generosity, those are our traditional values. When we remain a collective society, and when that´s our value system, that takes a lot of work and (leads to) ethics in leadership, respectful relationships, spirituality and healthy relationships.
According to the participants, Nations are in a state of cultural rehabilitation as they struggle to maintain cultural continuity: "(Our people) are lost. They don´t know their language. They don´t know where they come from, where they are going". Some spoke of a desperate need to listen to Elders who are urging Nations and their members "to go back our traditional ways, to our language, to our spirituality, to our rituals and traditions, and our culture". Much of this cultural rehabilitation seems to hinge on connecting the youth to traditional culture: "our young people today they need to know who they are, who their ancestors are, where they come from, and who their relatives are".
Conceptualizing self-determination
How self-determination at the First Nation level was understood can be summarized by the statement of one participant: "being a self-sufficient Nation". For all of the participants, having self-determination meant a Nation that has independence, freedom, and collective control over their destiny. Living in a self-sufficient Nation was seen as means of survival and way of life prior to colonization and the signing of Treaties. Some of the participants spoke of "the past´s self-determination" where individuals "remained a collective society" and where "tribes and clans of families could travel without having to worry, to hunt, to follow the seasons, and to have a life of freedom". Participants described an idyllic autonomous state that culminates in healthy Nations that are able to rely on their own members and local government, and "not depend on anybody". One participant echoed this response:
Self-determination means self-sustaining. You have to be able to sustain a community. You have to feed them, you have to water them, and you have to house them locally. You have to have those efforts centralized locally, just like any other community.
The autonomy and ensuing self-sufficiency of the past has been lost and denied as Nations were forced to transition from a "nomadic life of freedom" that naturally led to "health and wellness", to Nations that are controlled by and dependent on the dominant, conquering, and colonizing society´s government. One participant remarked "the older generation seemed more self-determined than the new generation, `cause this generation seems more dependant". Participants went on to describe how `the ideal´ self-determination is afforded to other non-Indigenous municipalities in Alberta, and perhaps Indigenous communities in other provinces, but is something First Nations in Alberta have little prospect of. One participant described this controlling situation as being "stuck in a corner or backed up against the wall" whereas another felt First Nations are "sabotaged no matter what". Participants repeatedly linked this lack of self-determination to poor health outcomes, including diabetes, particularly since the participants felt the federal government that has usurped control over First Nations "can never really understand the health issues we have because they´ve not grown up with those issues".
Although immediate and complete self-determination was deemed unrealistic, there was a recurrent sentiment of hope to one day regain the self-sufficiency and subsequent healthfulness of the past, as one participant stated "it is definitely a goal, to be not just self-determined but self-reliant". Another remarked that "dependency is one of the things that"s been created, and that´s something we´ve been trying to get away from". Self-determination was viewed as an inherent right that is crucial in improving the health and social inequities that exist for Indigenous people, and part of "honoring the Treaties". Nations are in a continuous struggle for self-determination where "you got to keep working at it every day".
Some participants spoke of other factors that might contribute to self-determination in First Nations such as economic development, increased employment, increased number of educated people, increased local autonomy, reclaiming traditional lands, and engaging the mainstream society with reciprocity in mind. However, the participants frequently explained that self-determination in Nations is unimportant and irrelevant unless it is rooted in traditional culture and "ways of being": "self-determination it can be miscued I think if a lot of people don´t speak the language because our Elders say that´s who we are. It´s enmeshed in our language". Another participant went on to clarify:
Self sustaining is tied right back to our culture, our source of life. It´s tied right back to the environment, and it´s tied right back to living within our means and living respectfully, and not being arrogant about the lives we live and taking more than we need. That´s a sustainable community because it´s built on a sacred foundation, it´s built with respect, and the respect is our primary virtue of who we are. Respect each other, respect this land, respect the spiritual elements that are out there, and a relationship to all of that. We need to carry that through to everything that we do.
Barriers to cultural continuity and self-determination
The participants felt their Nations were fighting a seemingly endless battle to secure their culture as a means of bettering or rescuing Nations and gaining self-determination. Although the participants were not specifically questioned about barriers, they were discussed at great length and became a prevailing theme throughout the interviews. These barriers, because of the strong links between cultural continuity and health, were believed to instigate and perpetuate poor health outcomes.
One of the most debilitating and recurrent barriers was the lasting impact of historical traumas experienced by Indigenous people and Nations. The participants depicted how colonial policies of assimilation that aimed to "kill the Indian" have wreaked havoc on Nations through not only the loss of culture and well-being, but the loss of lives, land, autonomy, values, integrity, dignity, and way of life. One participant reflected on the ongoing effects of such policies: "my people have been so colonized a lot of them don´t want to be Indians". The residential school system was one such colonial policy that continues to impact Nations and their members:
It is another issue that to me has affected self-determination. I do see a lot of issues that have occurred from residential school and how that´s carried out through generations today. It´s a generational issue and the problems created from residential schools are not going to be changed over night. That pain will transfer through to the youth.
One participant described residential schools as "one of the most fierce modern-day forms of genocide". The negative impacts of residential school are profound and ongoing, resulting in "diabetes", "broken communities", "loss of parenting skills", "addictions, suicides, and marital breakups", "apprehended children", "lifeline (culture) severed", "shame", loss of "a voice", "mental health problems", "contaminated families", "disarray and chaos", and "pain". Residential schools were believed by the participants to have nearly destroyed their culture. Every participant had their own personal family story of residential schools and its impacts. One such story was so poignant we felt it was necessary to include it in full:
Residential schools were concentration camps. People don´t want us to make reference to the Nazis and of the concentration camps, but they were here. They were real. A kid is brought in" Shave your head" You´re given a number. You´re given a uniform´ You´re four years old, you´re put in an institution, and you´re institutionalized for fourteen years of your life. They did that to us. My grandpa seen his brother thrown in a hole. He was dead. They made the children bury their own. It was a mass grave. They made these little guys bury their brothers, and tell `em, "ok, get back to the fields and work". So they taught these children how to have no emotion, no love, no family, not knowing how to be family members. The federal government doesn´t want to recognize the issues of the day scholars (students that attended residential schools that did not require them to stay overnight), but the day scholars were just as abused as the residential school people were abused at night, only the day scholars were abused during the day... There was an Elder that once said "the stories will come out of the residential schools through the floors and the walls". He said that in Cree. At the time it didn´t make sense. When they started ripping down the residential schools, they were finding fetuses buried in the floors, in the walls. They were finding skeleton bones in the incinerators of fetuses. So GIRLS were being raped and having babies, but they were being aborted and murdered. So you can imagine how severe the mental issues that arose. I guess one of my conclusions that came from that is anybody that went to these residential schools came out of there with some form of mental health issues. The alcoholism and drug abuse is one of the (results) that you see. Look at the anger that´s out there, and it´s brought out by alcoholism, the domestic violence, the violence in our communities, and the suicides. Those are offshoots of residential school. They WERE normal when they came in, they weren´t normal when they left. How can we have self-determination when we all have mental issues?
Another significant barrier the participants pointed out was controlling, disrespecting and disempowering government policies. One participant described these policies as "a sickness of colonization we fight every day" and "a colonial government based on bloodshed, and land and money". The participants felt the Indian Act especially denied their Nations´ self-determination: "everything is dictated to us by the Indian Act. Our whole life is run by the government". Some of the participants described how the Indian Act disallows Indigenous people from borrowing or having collateral which puts extreme limits on getting a mortgage, starting a business, or economic development. Some participants thought that the Indian Act and other government policies have created dependency in First Nations that "is a killer". When speaking about the possibility of self-government one participant remarked:
We can´t call ourselves self-governing if we have to depend on another government to sustain us. But yet that other government isn´t letting us take full control of our natural resources in our traditional lands and territories. If we have a society that is too dependant on the government you are going to breed poverty, and poverty also breeds dependency.
Many of the participants believed the federal government does not provide enough funding to First Nations such that they are under-funded compared to provincial municipalities, and that this underfunding impacts their health. One participant compared this to the underfunding for youth in school: "I know for an example that in a nearby city students are getting like $16,000 or maybe $14,700 per child while we get only $7,000, maybe". The participants felt that the provincial and federal governments are continuing to act unethically and take advantage of First Nations. One participant felt the government treats Indigenous people as second rate citizens: "they are only Indians; we can cut `em back, who cares". Another participant explained how First Nations in Alberta are being short-changed by the government regarding natural resources:
I always use that metaphor of, I picture the Crown sitting around a big buffet table and they just have this plethora of food and you know just catered to the nines, and the scraps that fall off their table they´re like "oh okay, go give that to the First Nations community". We´re expected to function on shrinking budgets´ There´s no revenue sharing agreement. So that means that the federal government or the provincial government gets to have all the money, all the say, and all the development of natural resources. And natural resources are what makes the world go around and what makes the economy. You can only get so far in selling moccasins worldwide.
In many instances participants viewed western society and its values as a barrier to cultural continuity and self-determination. Some participants explained how western society continues to encroach on and influence First Nations, and that the erosion of Indigenous languages was a direct result of this "outside influence". One participant described how traditional culture is increasingly limited, and sedentary behaviours consequently heightened, due to this western influence:
There´s so much at play with the dominant society because you have TV, you got media, and people are constantly in the midst of the dominant society. We´ve been so inundated with the dominant society. Our communities have become disrupted. Our medicines have been destroyed. Here in our community we´re surrounded by towns, and villages, and farming people. We don´t have the capacity to go in the bush. We don´t have water to go fishing, to go hunting and gathering. All of that has been taken away because we´re closed in. We´re like a jail here.
Some participants thought much of the non-Indigenous population is uninformed of the true history of Indigenous people in Canada, including the intergenerational impact of residential schools, the government´s "lack of honoring the Treaties", and the dependency and discrimination of the Indian Act. Some believed this lack of awareness leads to racism and intolerance towards Indigenous people that has become so systemic that "it has become normal". Participants described racism and discrimination having a severe deflating effect on Nations where some individuals are ashamed of their own culture.
Summary
Taken together, the participants told a collective story. Traditional culture and language were described as one and the same, and the blueprint for survival and health in First Nations. Self-determination on the other hand was conceptualized as a state of self-sufficiency that was once a way of life but is now denied and currently unrealistic for Alberta First Nations. Nations are fighting to rehabilitate their culture and consequent self-determination, with ensuing improved health and well-being in mind, in the face of government policy, the intergenerational effects of colonization, and ever-mounting western influence.