Research Profile – The Power of Equal Partnership
Scientists team up with Mi’kmaq community to study health and environment issues
Photo: Dr. Heather Castleden
At a glance
Who – Dr. Heather Castleden, assistant professor, School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University.
Issue – For decades, the Mi’kmaq community of Pictou Landing has had concerns about the health and environmental impacts of a nearby paper mill.
Approach – Dr. Castleden and a multidisciplinary team of scientists have teamed up with the Pictou Landing Native Women’s Association to address these concerns through a community-led research project.
Impact – Through the project, the community members are not only having their concerns addressed, they also have a newfound sense of control over their future.
A team comprised of Mi’kmaq women from a First Nations community and university researchers is getting to the bottom of how pollution from a paper mill is affecting people’s health as well as the local environment.
"We’re using Indigenous and western research methods to try to answer the question the women have posed: ‘Are we getting sick from Boat Harbour?’," says Dr. Heather Castleden, assistant professor in the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University.
A pulp and paper mill near Pictou Landing First Nation in Nova Scotia has been in operation since the 1960s. Boat Harbour is the site of its effluent treatment and discharge facility. It is a source of water and air pollution – though over time treatment practices have become increasingly sophisticated. There has been concern for decades from the residents of the Mi’kmaq community about the impacts on their health and the environment.
The Pictou Landing Native Women’s Association (PLNWA) approached Dr. Castleden to help because of her experience in community-based participatory research (CBPR). This is a highly collaborative research approach, in which community members and researchers work together to design and conduct the study.
There is a "legacy of unethical research involving Indigenous peoples in Canada. Our approach is intended to try to reverse, or at least reduce, that. With CBPR, the PLNWA has equal decision-making power. There’s a real sense of respect for each other’s knowledge and ways of seeing the world," says Dr. Castleden.
Work began with monthly meetings consisting of Dr. Castleden, a Mi’kmaq PhD student, a non-Indigenous Master’s student, and the PLNWA to discuss concerns in the community. Their concerns focused on the health of the people who lived there, and the health of the landscape around them.
"They use a Mi’kmaq way of looking at health as being more holistic,” says Dr. Castleden. “It’s not just about physical and mental health; it’s about the social, spiritual and cultural health of the community," she says.
Once the concerns were identified, more non-Indigenous researchers joined the project and underwent training on how to do CBPR with people in the community.
"Everyone needs to listen and take direction from the women because this is very much their project. It’s a lesson in how to do Indigenous health research in a good and ethically responsible way. We’re building capacity amongst team members with no previous Indigenous research experience," says Dr. Castleden.
The scientific team includes an air-quality researcher, a water-quality engineer, an ecotoxicologist, a population health researcher and more. The women in the PLNWA make decisions on what areas the project should focus on and how the researchers should connect with community members. The women are also actively involved in data collection and analysis.
Part of the research includes door-to-door environmental health household surveys to get data around health issues (physical, mental, social, and spiritual) and their progression and patterns over the years. Plus, the research team is gathering oral histories from community Elders to learn what the area was like to live in before the mill opened.
Community members help determine where monitoring should be done, and the scientists figure out how to do it. Together, they are planning air and water-quality monitoring, as well as soil analysis to look for contaminants. The ecotoxicologist will investigate the chemical loads in local wildlife.
The PLNWA indicates that the women have already seen benefits from this collaborative approach, ranging from employment opportunities and student internships for community members, to an increase in scientific literacy and relationships with the academic community.
People in other Mi’kmaq communities in Nova Scotia have become aware of the project and have invited the team to speak about the research partnership at regional Aboriginal conferences. Plus, “the women we’re working with say they have a sense of ownership and control over their future, which they didn’t have before. This is a key goal of CBPR," Dr. Castleden says.
There is a “legacy of unethical research involving Indigenous peoples in Canada. Our approach is intended to try to reverse, or at least reduce, that.” – Dr. Heather Castleden, Dalhousie University