Growing Connections: Use of a Garden to Learn and Heal in the Context of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

• In Event: More Than Words: Indigenous Girls, Public Art, and Public Pedagogy

Abstract

1) Objectives: This presentation will share the process and experiences of converting PAR research findings into a pedagogical dissemination product for public awareness, education, and social justice.

2) Perspectives: This work makes use of Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy (1972; 1973/2002) combined with Wilson’s (2008) advocacy of Research as Ceremony, in order to foster critical understanding of lived experiences and centering Indigenous ways of knowing in scholarship and activism (Kovach 2009).

3) Methods: This research has made use of participatory action research (Minkler & Wallerstein, 2008). Within this approach, we made use of qualitative elicitation techniques, including collage work, body mapping, problem and solution trees to address various aspects of the experience and impact of sexual and gender-based violence on youth in the community. All research was conducted in groups. Additionally, group enquiry work flowed into group analysis work, resulting in sets of findings. This work has taken place over the past 5 years in partnership with youth who identify as (cis) women, (cis) men and LGBTQ2S, as well as Eskasoni Mental Health Services.

4) Data source: This presentation draws on findings from our qualitative research together with field notes, meeting minutes and testimonials. These resources are drawn together to share our intentions, process, and impact.

5) Results/conclusions: Building on their research, youth have created an interactive, educational memorial at the loCAL Health Center. The park integrates two core components. The first is a memorial site for MMIWG, encouraging reflection on the ways in which women and girls together with their families and broader community have been impacted by violence and the epidemic rates of sexual and gender-based violence against Indigenous women and girls. Linked to the memorial, is an educational walking route that includes installations of the seven sacred teachings encouraging reflection on the ways in which these teachings can shape individuals, their relationships and their communities. The second is a healing space for ceremony which includes a sweat lodge, a sacred fire pit, and an enclosed gazebo for moon cycle ceremonies. This ceremonial space is focused on commemoration and healing related to residential schools. The combined spaces highlight the systemic and enduring impact of colonialism and colonial violence on Indigenous communities, promoting education and reconciliation.

Their intention with the memorial park has been to create a respectful space within which the community can remember those women and girls have been lost, and the price that they community continues to pay for the violent reality with which they live. Furthermore, the park is designed within a strengths-based and Indigenous resilience framework. In this way the design draws on the legacy of missing and murdered Indigenous women to promote healthy

interpersonal relationships, increased effective formal and informal supports for victims of violence, and change public perceptions and narrative about especially sexual and gender-based violence.

6) Scholarly significance: This research and knowledge mobilisation work provides important lessons in the meaningful engagement of youth in research and dissemination, as well as the effective use of research resulting to foster social change.

Author

• Linda Liebenberg, Dalhousie University