Indigenous Health Guide Ask Us

Epjila’si, Kulahsihkulpa, Welcome!

We respectfully acknowledge that UNB is on the unsurrendered and unceded traditional lands of the Wolastoqiyik peoples. Beginning in 1725, the Peace and Friendship Treaties established Mi'kmaq and Wolastoqiyik title over these lands, and provided rules for ongoing relations between nations. We are all treaty people.

Visit NativeLand to learn more about territorial acknowledgements and identifying traditional territories. 

This subject guide pulls together resources related to the subject of Indigenous health. This topic touches on many disciplines and as such this guide will be interdisciplinary, and may prove useful to a variety of courses and assignments. 

Many thanks to the people whose guides and information have helped to create this guide, including:

• Indigenous Information Literacy OER created by Indigenous Librarian Rachel Chong, an urban Metis settler, working at the Kwantlen Polytechnic University
• UNB Libraries: Indigenous Studies
• University of British Columbia Library: First Nations and Indigenous Studies 
• Okanagan College Library: Indigenous Studies

Check out these Indigenous research guides from the X̱wi7x̱wa Library and UBC for information on additional topics. 

 Searching for Indigenous topics

Our organization of information is from a Western perspective, so searching for research on Indigenous health topics may require using a range of search terms because settlers and Indigenous peoples use a variety of terminology and language to describe specific groups of Indigenous peoples, geographies, and histories over time. You may need to use outdated colonial language and terms that are harmful; you'll see this particularly with controlled vocabulary used in library catalogues and databases. These resources provide helpful details and history on terminology: 

• Simon Fraser University Indigenous Terminology

It also requires an awareness of language and terminology used worldwide to describe Indigenous peoples; often there's overlap in broad terms like Indigenous and Aboriginal in different parts of the world, so it may be necessary to try terms more commonly used in a given geographic region, or pay close attention for clues in titles/abstracts to ensure you're finding relevant and appropriate information. 

Here are some example search terms:

• University of Alberta Libraries Search Filters for Indigenous Peoples (Canada, US, and worldwide)
  • Use these search filters to find individual search terms to try; it won't be useful to copy/paste the whole list in your searching.
• University of Victoria Libraries search tips 
• University of PEI Indigenous Peoples search terms

Search for Books

UNB Libraries has many books (print and e-books) which could be useful to help learn about a topic or to use for your assignments. 

 Browse this list for specific books and reports in UNB Libraries' collections related to Indigenous health topics. 

Choosing databases and journals to find relevant information

UNB Libraries provides access to many Indigenous-specific databases and resources, and also broad subject-specific databases for locating scholarly articles for assignments or course work. Depending on your research topic, it may be necessary to search multiple databases, and branch out from health-specific ones if your topic is interdisciplinary.  You may also need to consult the Statistics, Reports & Websites tab to expand your research to include grey literature sources. 

Search through these Indigenous-focused journals using the journals' internal search functions to find relevant articles:

• International Journal of Indigenous Health 
• AlterNative : an international journal of indigenous scholarship
• Canadian Journal of Native Studies 
• Native Studies Review
• The Indigenous Nurse
• International Indigenous Policy Journal
• The Indigenous Law Journal 
• Other Indigenous-related journals available through UNB Libraries (or open access)

 Here is a list of Indigenous-specific databases which may include health-related research:

Key Resources

These additional subject databases may also be useful:

Key Resources

See Additional Resources Hide Additional Resources

Finding Indigenous Perspectives

It's important when searching for information on Indigenous topics to ensure you're looking for Indigenous authors and voices. This is especially important when looking at a specific community or nation. Indigenous people have long been "othered" as objects of research by non-Indigenous academics, with Indigenous knowledge and research methodologies often not valued and Indigenous researchers shut out of scholarly conversation through lack of citations and publishing opportunities. These articles provide more information about these issues: "Indigenous scholars struggle to be heard in the mainstream. Here’s how journal editors and reviewers can help"; "The politics of citation: Is the peer review process biased against Indigenous academics?"

 The University of British Columbia's library catalogue is a good resource to use to search to locate Indigenous authors.

Search the phrase "First Nations author" with your topic keywords, then click on a result to look for the local note: First Nations author. Then search UNB Libraries' catalogue for the title to access our copy, or request a copy from another library (or contact a librarian to purchase a copy for our collection).

Consider doing a known citation search in Google Scholar to find additional Indigenous scholars. Indigenous authors often cite other Indigenous research, and Google Scholar allows for browsing or searching within citations of a publication. Remember to look for clues the studies were written by/with Indigenous authors. Search the article title in Google Scholar, click on the "Cited by" link (if there are any citations)

Many Indigenous organizations, governments, and other health associations produce their own research which may be studies, reports, infographics, videos, etc. These types of sources are considered grey literature because they're not published in "traditional" academic spaces like journals, but are still credible, scholarly sources of information. 

Open access resources (freely available)

• National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health (NCCIH)
  • NCCIH Knowledge Resources and Publications
  • Map of Indigenous health programs and services across Canada
  • Indigenous Health Links Database (can search for research institutes and organizations working on Indigenous health and knowledge translation)
• First Nations Information Governance Centre Data Online
• Statistics Canada: Statistics on Indigenous Peoples 
  • Health & Wellness results
• Aboriginal Health Research - Reports and Publications (Health Canada)
• Government of Canada: Indigenous Health
• Canadian Indigenous Nurses Association 
  • Browse Resources > Publications, Nursing Links
• National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
  • Reports
  • Research

Resources requiring access through UNB Libraries (subscription)

Key Resources

Within Statista here are some examples of how to search:

• Keyword search in the general search box (example: Indigenous health)
• Look under Reports > Countries > Filter by Country then check out the dossier for that country
• Search under Statistics > All industries > Health, Pharm, Medtech > State of Health > Topics: Indigenous health in Canada

Tips for searching the OECD iLibrary:

• Try different keywords in the search box (example: Indigenous; Indigenous health)
  • Scan search results or focus your results by selecting to limit by Theme > Social Issues/Migration/Health  

Grey literature search tips

Finding and evaluating grey lit sources can be tricky, especially if you need local, credible information sources. Using your regular google searching may be hit or miss so here are a few tips and tricks on "creative googling" and evaluating what you find. Grey literature sources tend to be government or other organizations' reports or publications, but other sources might be applicable as well (if you're not sure, ask your instructor or a librarian!) 

• Play around with your search terms and do multiple different searches - consider adding words like statistics, reports, data, policy, toolkit, evaluation, assessment to your search. If you're trying to find local grey literature, try switching between searching on Saint John and New Brunswick as keywords - sometimes Saint John specific info will only come up in results when searching broader.  Pay close attention to your search results as some may be from St. John's or Newfoundland and Labrador (N.L.), and New Brunswick is also a city in New Jersey
• Go beyond the first page of Google's search results - often really useful results are on the second or third results page
• Consider using the Advanced Google Search
  • Limit by file type - lots of documents show up as PDFs or powerpoint files and it can be helpful to add this as a limit
  • Limit by domain - doing specific site searches can often be more useful than going directly to the website and using their search function or manually looking for publications. For example, if you wanted to search the federal government website for a specific topic, you'd put https://canada.ca in this "limit by domain" field, then search on your topic. The results will only be from this website. Also try limiting by https://gnb.ca 
  • Limit by region - select a specific country, like Canada, and your results will be more focused
• News articles reporting on a recent study or report can be a good place to start to then track down the original source - always cite the original source if available rather than the news study

This video provides a demo search of the tips provided above, using the topic of food insecurity as the example (this video is from another course but the tips are still relevant):

Using Grey Literature (or Amplifying Marginalized Voices) handout

Evaluating grey literature

The type of information found through Google searches and on many websites is considered unpublished and hasn't gone through the traditional peer review process that most academic journal articles go through. This means you'll need to do some evaluating yourself to ensure the sources you're using are credible and reliable.

Ask yourself questions like these:

• Who wrote the source? Is it an individual person or coming from an organization? Try Googling the author or organization and try to find information that comes from a source that the author or organization didn't produce/create themselves. What can you learn about their background?
  • If the author is an organization, what kind of reputation does it have? Is it known for promoting specific points of view (bias)? Is it known for sharing factual information or have you found controversies/concerns?
• What makes the author/organization an expert on this particular topic (or are they not an expert)? What about their background leads you to trust or not trust them?
• Where does the author/organization get the information from? Do they cite or link to sources? Do you find that information trustworthy or do you have concerns?
• Is this the most current information out there? How important is it for your topic to have the most recent information available?

10 Questions for Evaluating Information

Referencing print/online sources

Cite typical print/online academic sources like journal articles, books, and websites according to the citation style required for your academic writing (APA, MLA, Chicago).

When using a source by an Indigenous author consider acknowledging the author's Nation in the body of your work. 

Referencing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers (oral information)

While there is no agreed upon citation style for Indigenous oral sources, Kwantlen Polytechnic University Library (KPU) provides guidance for acknowledging Indigenous Elders and Knowledge keepers in your writing. There are templates for APA, MLA, and Chicago formats.

These citation templates were created by Indigenous Librarians at NorQuest College, and modified in collaboration with KPU and the Elder in Residence Lekeyten, the University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University.

More information is available here:
MacLeod, Lorisia. 2021. “More Than Personal Communication: Templates For Citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers”. KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies 5 (1). https://doi.org/10.18357/kula.135.

Writing Help

• Elements of Indigenous style : a guide for writing by and about Indigenous Peoples
  • Available as an e-book and print
• Style guide for reporting on Indigenous people
• Writing guide for Indigenous content (Government of British Columbia)

How can I tell if something is a reliable and/or scholarly source?

It can be challenging when you're starting out with academic research to determine what kinds of sources you're finding, and whether they're the type of sources you need for your paper. Library databases and resources are the usual places to find scholarly sources, but you can find credible, scholarly sources through Google and other resources. Over time you'll learn how to distinguish scholarly from non-scholarly sources, and how to evaluate all types of sources for credibility. 

These two handouts provide guidance on questions to ask yourself as you look for sources for assignments. Some evaluation will be easy and quick to do, and some will require you to read more of your source, or search for more information outside of the source to verify the accuracy or authority of the source. Use these tools and videos, and contact a librarian to help sharpen your evaluation skills.

• 10 Questions for Evaluating Information
• Handout on using RADAR framework to evaluate sources (University of Waterloo)

   

It's important to evaluate the background sources you consult.

Consider who published or authored the information, what the purpose of it is, and how old is the information. Wikipedia can be useful to get to know more about topics but should not be cited in academic assignments. Look at the references to follow the information back to the primary sources, and cite those instead.

UCLA Library. (2021, March 16). Positionality & Research: How our Identities Shape Inquiry. YouTube.

Indigenous Health Research YouTube playlist (USask University Library) > This playlist will introduce you to contextualizing information on Indigenous Healthcare in Canada and resources for research.

 For more information on Tri-Agency policies for Indigenous research, and research data management protocols, visit the Let's Talk Research Data guide.