Indigenous Gender and Wellness Development Grants
Well-being, Health and Biomedical Discovery
Deadlines
Academic Unit: Inquire with Unit
Memorial Deadline: Thursday 26th, September 2019
External Deadline: Tuesday 1st, October 2019
Description
Gender plays an important, but often overlooked role in wellness. In the case of Indigenous Peoples in Canada (i.e., First Nations, Inuit and Métis), Indigenous concepts of gender have been negatively affected by colonization and the effects of gender on wellness has often been overlooked by research.
Gender can be defined as the socially constructed roles, behaviours, expressions and identities of women, men, girls, boys and gender-diverse people. Gender is culturally based and can change over time — both at the societal and individual levels. Gender can affect identities, choice of occupation and participation in ceremony and other cultural activities. The term gender often has different meanings for different people. For instance, here, we use the term gender broadly to include Indigenous concepts of Two-Spirit, which can cover Indigenous concepts of both gender and sexuality.
As with many other Indigenous traditions and knowledges, Indigenous concepts of gender have been negatively affected by Western views imposed through colonization. We want to know: What if we paid closer attention to gender in all its forms? Could we improve wellness among Indigenous Peoples?
This funding opportunity is the second phase of a larger initiative on the topic of Indigenous Gender and Wellness. The first phase supported individuals to attend an Idea Fair and Learning Circle event in June of 2019 through a travel award. At the Idea Fair, Indigenous individuals and allies shared ideas on Indigenous gender and wellness with supporters to work together in growing ideas into potential projects. This second phase is intended to support those who attended the Idea Fair to continue working on and sharing their ideas, enabling them to develop relationships and plan for the following phase of funding, which is being planned to provide teams with resources to implement their ideas through action-oriented, community-based participatory projects that will improve wellness for Indigenous peoples from a gendered perspective.
Activities/events for this funding opportunity may focus on, but are not limited to, the following areas:
Planning:
Activities or gatherings that facilitate relationship building and collaboration between Indigenous individuals, communities, researchers, and/or organizations to form the relationships necessary to implement community-based projects aimed at improving the wellness of Indigenous people and communities from a gendered perspective
Activities that assist potential teams in working together to identify research questions or emerging issues and priorities that could form the basis of an application for funding in the future
Community engagement activities aimed at learning about needs, gaps and opportunities related to gender and Indigenous wellness, policy and/or research priorities, where such common understanding is currently lacking or requires further development
Initial planning and discussion of a research project among potential team members, including Indigenous individuals, communities, researchers, and/or organizations to assess the viability of the research project and partnerships
Conducting an environmental scan or preliminary synthesis of relevant literature, activities or programs
Early-stage planning to determine possible viability of a community-based project.
Knowledge Sharing and Dissemination:
- Activities to share knowledge and teachings to support the development of community-based projects
- Dissemination and/or discussion of research at community or scientific meetings
- Development and dissemination of knowledge and tools
For additional information, see Research Net.