Utilizing Indigenous Pathways of Knowledge Transfer to Build Injury Free Communities

Background and Purpose: The Indigenous people in Canada experience a disproportionately high rate of injury from vehicular accidents compared to that of the general population. Disabling injuries, death, and psychological trauma not only affect those hurt, but also impact their families and their communities as a whole. To address the causes and effects of vehicular injury disparities, respectful and creative approaches that are collaborative, sustainable, and rooted in traditional ways of knowing are imperative. Appreciating that the shared experiential understanding of and solutions to the challenges facing Indigenous people may differ from that of others in the society, decision-making and problem-resolution for First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people will arise out of the narrative that shapes the community message and reshapes communal messaging. It is about how people orally share and value knowledge via community networks involving family, friends, leaders, and elders.

Methods: This roundtable session considers how a Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach engages Indigenous people and communities in a collaborative process to understand current vehicular safety practices in several communities, assess the vehicular safety needs of their communities, and incorporate traditional modes of knowledge translation to develop community-based safety interventions to reduce the risk of injury from vehicular accidents.

Findings: Outcomes focus on a number of community identified concerns including the use of child booster seats and infant car seats, wearing seatbelts, distracted driving, driving while impaired, and speeding. Arising out of these courageous conversations were a number of promising practices that exemplify community capacity to find solutions that fit including a sharing circle guide entitled “Booster Seat Confessions”, culturally respectful safe driving signage using Indigenous language and art, and intergenerational board games created by youth.

Conclusions and Implications: Working towards an injury-free destiny has important ramifications for all, but more so for those facing challenges in terms of accessibility to resources and services. With a vehicle injury and death rate twice that of the general population, Indigenous people in Canada are positioned as experts on the devastation that vehicle collisions can cause to individuals, families, and communities. Through wisdom and understanding, Indigenous people know best how to mitigate and eliminate the risk of injury and loss of life. This CBPR initiative demonstrates what can be achieved by engaging Indigenous people in finding solutions that protect and strengthen their communities.

Valuating personal injury and fatality goes beyond those associated with the obvious costs related to emergency, medical and rehabilitative services, and/or property damage. Repercussions which complicate psychosocial-economic-cultural-spiritual "costs" must also be accounted for as part of the assessment process. Relatedly, when prevention strategies are developed, implemented, and evaluated any cost-saving that results must be returned to the community for reinvestment. Using this type of analysis moves the discourse on community betterment and capacity-building to a level that provides a defensible argument to those planning, funding and providing services. In doing so, oppressive and subsistence-oriented colonial dogma and practices which have historically been foisted on Indigenous people and their communities are confronted, challenged, and changed.