The next seven generations: at the heart of care alongside Mi’kmaw women

Abstract

The strawberry is connected to heart teachings for many Indigenous people. The strawberry plant produces beautiful things. However, when exploring the topic of Indigenous women and heart health, the focus of the conversation is most often around deficits. Indigenous women have diseases related to the heart at a higher proportion than both non-Indigenous women and Indigenous men. There is a lack of understanding specific nations’ relationships to heart, and there is little to no research available specific to Mi’kmaw (adjective for a Mi’kmaq (First Nations people, Atlantic provinces, Canada, who call themselves L’nu) person) women and heart health. The focus of this Mi’kmaq research, which aligned with community-based participatory research, was to explore and gain a better understanding of what heart means to Mi’kmaw women on the west coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Four Mi’kmaw women joined the research and shared their experiences to co-create knowledge about heart health. This knowledge in turn shaped my understanding of nursing practice.