About Us
The Turtle Island Journal of Indigenous Health (TIJIH or TIJIH-CoP) was founded in 2019 by graduate students at the University of Toronto. It is a collaborative project run by an expanding network of graduate students, community members, and Knowledge Keepers from across Turtle Island. The Journal and accompanying Community of Practice (CoP) are currently supported by the Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.
Our Vision
Respectful co-learning between Indigenous ways of knowing and western science
Collaborating and partnering with Indigenous Peoples in knowledge generation and capacity-building
Building a community of practice that honours relationality as a model of high-impact engagement
Our Mission
TIJIH fosters respectful collaboration and co-creation of knowledge within the field of Indigenous peoples’ health. We aim to provide a forum for dialogue and knowledge translation between academia, Indigenous communities, and broader society in a way that honours all Indigenous ways of knowing and being.
TIJIH provides a home for graduate student research, particularly research conducted in partnership with Indigenous communities.
Collaborating and partnering with Indigenous Peoples in knowledge generation and capacity-building
Our Values
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Knowledge is relational. The understanding that all beings are connected to the land, culture, spirituality, culture, society and each other, is central to Indigenous epistemologies. All knowledges stem from the Land and so are sacred, alive, and ever-changing.
We honour how relationality manifests as complex kinship systems to maintain responsibilities to uphold the integrity our vision and mission.
Love, compassion, and respect must be at the core of all we do. These values are manifest when relationality and kinship are the focus.
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All knowledges stem from the Land and so are sacred, alive, and ever-changing. We recognize the value inherent in community knowledges.
We respect Indigenous communities’ right to intellectual sovereignty. Knowledge and knowing come from our own respective experiences and relationships. We can speak only from our own spaces. We cannot claim ownership of another’s knowledge.
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We must look beyond a single journal issue or volume to preserve the sustainability of knowledges and relationships several generations into the future.
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We recognize the value inherent in Indigenous community knowledges. As keepers of their knowledges, Elders and communities are integral to TIJIH’s processes for approval and accountability.
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Research and relationships must adhere to local cultural protocols.
Our Governance
As TIJIH grows, we integrate the learnings from our new and ongoing relations. We continue to function in alignment with our initial co-developed governance structure, the Turtle
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Turtle’s head represents the Elders and ancestors as the ones who lead our way;
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Turtle’s front legs represent the communities and graduate students who propel the journal forward;
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Turtle’s hind legs represent the Elders’ helpers and regional teams that connect TIJIH with local knowledges and protocol; and
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Turtle’s tail represents the gathering of medicines that keep us grounded in spirit and ceremony.
The model below shows how both our values and governance structure (as the Turtle in the middle) support learning, including access to unharnessed knowledge, excluded from Euro-centric approaches, and encompasses Indigenous perspectives.
The Indigenist framework, partnerships/relationships, and community-driven and community-relevant activities guide TIJIH-CoP in ethical practices (Gehl, 2017). Importantly, ethical practices are the core of Indigenous ways of being to ensure inclusion (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 2001). All activities are supported by the feedback, models, and principles captured in the raindrops that enable and nourish TIJIH's work to grow.
Collaborating and partnering with Indigenous Peoples in knowledge generation and capacity-building
Gehl, L. (2017). Claiming Anishinaabe : decolonizing the human spirit . University of Regina Press.
Kirkness, V. J. and R. Barnhardt (2001). First Nations and Higher Education: The Four R’s - Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, Responsibility. Knowledge Across Cultures: A Contribution to Dialogue Among Civilizations. R. Hayoe and J. Pan. Hong Kong, Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong. http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/education2/the4rs.pdf
