Expanding enabling places theory through land-based cultural learning with indigenous men

Abstract

Urban Indigenous men often lack opportunities to connect with the land and their culture. In this article, we report on a community-based participatory research project with urban Indigenous men in a land-based traditional drum-making program in Manitoba, Canada. Using a two-eyed seeing approach that brings together Indigenous ways of knowing and the concept of enabling places from health geography, we examine how land-based programming contributed to the men’s experiences of well-being. Data were collected through Sharing Circles and individual interviews. Two researchers and a research assistant completed inductive narrative analysis of verbatim transcripts using NVIVO software. We found that access to Land was central to men’s relationship-building and sharing of traditional knowledge. The Land supported feelings of energy, awe, and belonging as well as a sense of purpose. Indigenous men’s experiences highlight the importance of land-based knowledge as an enabling resource alongside the material, social and affective resources that have long been recognized as essential in Western models of well-being. This manuscript contributes to the literature on enabling places by bridging Duff’s theory with Indigenous ways of knowing, which emphasize the role of knowledge sharing in the wellbeing of urban Indigenous men.