Wellness Perspectives Surrounding Hepatitis C: Reflections on the Head to Heart Journey Within a Graduate Student Experience

Abstract

Reflecting on my experiences as an Annishinaabe student researcher within this wisdom-seeking journey highlights the personal and professional impacts of personal engagement in a relational approach when engaging head as well as heart in a learning journey incorporating reflexivity and wholistic traditional Indigenous perspectives in a Two-Eyed Seeing approach. Leading to cocreating culturally connected health awareness film media resources for liver wellness related to hepatitis C.

The longest, hardest journey you will take is from your head to your heart.

—D. Spence, pers. comm., Sept. 1, 2021.

Reflecting on personal experiences of a wisdom-seeking journey as an Annishinaabe student researcher highlights both the personal and professional impacts of respectful collaboration in sharing knowledge. When research is conducted not only within academic frameworks, or what some have called head perspectives, but also guided by Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Being, Doing and Connecting, or as some identify as heart perspectives, it becomes a life-changing experience. In my “head to heart” learning journey, two reflective questions provided an anchor to guide both my academic and personal experiences. First, how can medical treatment incorporate wholistic Indigenous perspectives from a Two-Eyed Seeing approach (Iwama et al., 2009) and work within the ethical space (Ermine, 2007). Second, taking an auto-ethnography view (McIvor, 2010; Nash, 2001), how is introspection integral to the cocreation of knowledge and health awareness resources for hepatitis C?

Common Western educational practice focuses on head learning; that is, the use of specific frameworks to facilitate an ability to define, retain, and demonstrate knowledge as an outcome within set confines that are then equated with academic success (Hunt, 2018). In contrast, heart learning in this context relates to traditional Indigenous learning approaches, which prioritize story, mentoring, traditional ceremony, learning through experience, and seeking to understand the relationships that connect this knowledge to the surrounding world (Gehl, 2012; McIvor, 2010; Murry et al., 2021; Wilson, 2008). In an increasingly globalized world where multiple knowledges exist, the ability to value the multitude of perspectives while acknowledging the space between them is imperative. My wisdom-seeking journey, conceptualized here as head to heart learning, is a process of acquiring, processing, integrating, and sharing knowledge. I share here my appreciation for my own head to heart journey within this doctoral research context and a recognition of the value of traversing this space including its impact on my role within the public health field.

Currently, my professional role as a nurse within a controlled scope of practice provides me the opportunity to offer educational and treatment support to people affected by the viral liver infection hepatitis C. As an Indigenous woman, I am also engaged professionally and personally in a relational approach of heart learning through Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Being, Doing, and Connecting. This acknowledgment is important because, as Kovach (2010, pp. 5) states, “identity and education always intersect.” This combination of perspectives gives me a unique opportunity to support the creation and delivery of culturally connected awareness around the importance of healthy blood and the vital role the liver plays on a journey to wholistic wellness. In this article, I offer my lived experience as an Anishinaabe woman and the journey I took over the course of my graduate research to find balance between perspectives and to walk with integrity while challenging colonial tradition in academic settings. This relational, heart perspective also provides pause for reflection and opportunity to incorporate questions of “how” and “why” within this research journey; an academic journey that often focuses on questions of “how much” or “how many.” This shift to include a heart approach seeks to both disrupt systems and move through research spaces by incorporating an awareness of relationality and traditional Indigenous perspectives (Van Maanen, 2011).

Identifying the Gaps in the Medical Perspective on Hepatitis C Prevention and Treatment

Hepatitis C is a blood borne virus impacting liver health; its silent progression may result in cirrhosis, hepatocellular cancer, and more life years lost than any other infectious disease in Canada (Shoukry et al., 2018). Nearly half of Canadians with this virus are unaware of its silent presence and, like many chronic medical issues, persons of Indigenous identity are overrepresented in hepatitis C rates (Alberta Government & Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre, 2017; Government of Canada, 2018). Current public health awareness and prevention approaches focus on printed materials listing high risk behaviors, the importance of protecting yourself, impacts of the virus in the liver, and the need for diagnostic screening.

Increasingly, a variety of options are available for diagnosing the presence of an active hepatitis C infection through laboratory tests. Once a person is diagnosed with hepatitis C, they are referred to medical practitioners trained to follow protocols and treat clinical manifestations of disease with the latest science-based pharmaceutical options. With a paucity of providers available, models of care aim to facilitate treatment of as many patients as possible. While this biomedical approach fosters expert treatment for symptomatic health issues on the large scale, it does not ensure relational and cultural lenses are applied to provide community-specific awareness or care (Allen et al., 2020).

Nanda Gikendan: Continuous Learning

While working on a related project, I received requests from Indigenous community members for relevant, culturally connected resources specific to hepatitis C prevention, screening, and treatment. This presented the opportunity for collaboration with Indigenous health perspectives, bringing relational-, wholistic-, and wellness-based perspectives to encourage prevention, screening to diagnose latent infections, and uptake of treatment for this potentially life-altering and sometimes fatal virus. A Knowledge Keeper once explained to me that the hardest journey as an effective healthcare provider or health researcher is to carry academic medical training from a “head knowledge to a heart-centered approach to healthcare” (D. Spence, pers. comm., Sept. 1, 2021). As I recently began learning the Anishinaabemowin language, I discovered concepts that describe this journey of always learning and always seeking wisdom as nanda gikendan. This community request was the inspiration motivating a wisdom seeking and learning journey in an academic institution to support the development of relationships with Knowledge Keepers and Indigenous community members to cocreate knowledge sharing awareness resources for hepatitis C. Within this journey, I centered Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Ways of Being, Ways of Doing, and Ways of Connecting to support liver health and wholistic wellness. Although the journey had a Western academic component, it resonated personally for me through the perspectives of Indigenous scholars Albert and Murdena Marshall. Their Two-Eyed Seeing (Iwama et al., 2009; Marshall et al., 2015) teachings provided the methodology for incorporating a background in nursing, ancestry as an Indigenous woman, and a passion for wholistic wellness in this wisdom-seeking academic journey (McIvor, 2010). This seemingly contradictory approach highlights the experience of learning to balance the perspectives seen from each eye or perspective, while at the same time increasing awareness of the space in the middle, where the line of vision from each eye overlaps; what Willie Ermine (2007) describes as the ethical space. This space within Two-eyed Seeing methodology provides opportunity for learning, seeking wisdom, open dialogue, engaging diversity, personal exploration, honest questions, and the potential for reconfiguring one’s principles to include cross-cultural awareness (McIvor, 2010). Blackfoot scholar Leroy Little Bear (2000) summarizes this awareness space by saying “no matter how dominant a worldview is, there are always other ways of interpreting the world.” Personal interpretation or experience of this space between Western and traditional Indigenous knowledge, between head and heart, is framed here in this personal perspective.

Relationships and Relationality Throughout the Wisdom-Seeking Journey

Relationships formed the foundation of my head to heart learning journey. Prior to engagement in the academic research process, I connected with an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper who became a mentor. Through this mentoring relationship, and relationships in the community requesting culturally connected awareness resources, a traditional Indigenous blessing ceremony was held to initiate the research project and encourage a reflective approach when proceeding through the steps involved in the phases of the academic research process. I was guided by the writings of Indigenous scholars such as Shawn Wilson (2008, pp. 74) who have shared their own reflections on head to heart learning, “Knowledge is relational. Knowledge is shared with all of creation. It goes beyond this idea of individual knowledge to the concept of relational knowledge.” I gained awareness of and appreciation for research as a flow of knowledge from one part of the circle to another, gaining insights through an open mind and heart within the process of research, because “research is a ceremony” (Wilson, 2008). This inclusion of ceremony is not just respectful incorporation of traditional protocol such as gifting, but a continual awareness that the spirit of relationality brings accountability and integrity into each step of the research journey. This awareness facilitates a heightened clarity of perspectives, creating the possibility for research to be reframed as a potentially healing, and thus decolonizing, opportunity for the researcher as well as the participant-partners. This approach also created an increased connection to the inspirational reasons for doing research and built a tangible community connection alongside a beautiful mix of culture, community, and academic mentoring to bring this relational experience into the academic research journey. Examples of incorporating this relational awareness into standard academic processes included forming a supervisory committee comprised of Indigenous individuals, submitting and receiving ethics approval for a relationship building phase prior to the research interview phase, and initiating the data gathering phase with a traditional sweat, feast, face painting, gift giving and blessing ceremony with Indigenous community members and several participant-partners.

These purposeful relationship-based actions built a bridge between myself and the academic process, supported my re-connection journey, and made me question my own understanding and perspectives on integrity in research, reciprocity, and traditional Indigenous knowledge sharing protocol fostering a connection between head and heart perspectives.

Participant-partner engagement created an opportunity for balancing varied perspectives within a community-based relational approach. Codesign with advising community members shaped the participant-partner group, or sample, as well as the purposive recruitment phase, and reflected a focus on relationality. This also supported equal representation of women and men from each of the three geographical Treaty areas in Alberta, Canada and represented Blackfoot, Cree, Stoney Nakoda and Metis participant-partners.

Instead of a formal recruitment process, relationships among community members, the advising Indigenous Knowledge Keeper, and networks of their relatives facilitated referrals to the research project thus creating a participant-partner group of Knowledge Keepers. These Knowledge Keepers willingly shared stories and perspectives related to liver health in a conversational interview format. Sharing knowledge from their personal experiences in traditional upbringing within respective Indigenous communities, and diverse background experience in land-based learning, education, justice, health, or peer counseling and purposely not from a medical expertise background.

Relationality was integral to initiating the wisdom-seeking journey with participant-partners, but it also remained a priority throughout, and continues even after the final analysis feedback loop interactions. Building such enduring relationships with participant-partners may not be standard research practice but within relationship-based Indigenous cultures this provides an example of respectful acknowledgment of knowledge shared (Smith, 2013).

Acknowledging the gift they have given by sharing their stories and experiences with me is a purposeful step that I can take toward healing myself from the past abuses of research and sharing these experiences and this approach with others. Mailing a notecard, dropping off home-baked treats, and calling to check on people’s well-being are valued in the community as examples of continued relationships and honor the interconnectivity of the community and the importance of sincere wisdom-seeking.

Ethical Research Processes and Community Protocol

We are all a story, and creating our best story includes walking in a space of authenticity and integrity; as Ojibwe author Richard Wagamese challenged, “change the world, one story at a time.” Although current academic guidelines may be designed with the intent of protecting Indigenous populations from further research abuses, the format of requiring written documents, such as participant consent forms, that are often lengthy, use high-level language, and are developed without community input continues to foster mistrust in research (Ninomiya & Pollock, 2017). Ethical protocols within Indigenous contexts are based on traditional knowledge systems and the needs of engaged community members, and Indigenous scholars need to be actively engaged in establishing guidelines informed by authentic lived experiences. This wisdom-seeking project incorporated options suggested by Kovach (2009) which included: simplifying the language in the consent documents; creating the opportunity for participant-partners to choose between signature or verbal consent following careful review of the informed consent documents; and showing respect by offering traditional tobacco protocol as part of the consenting process. Incorporating traditional protocol involves offering the Knowledge Keeper a small pouch of dried tobacco; their acceptance of the offering is also an acknowledgment that you have asked for help and shows their willingness to help you (Council of Aboriginal Initiatives, 2012). Altering the standard academic process to reflect respectful and meaningful consenting practice as requested by participant-partners within Indigenous community required numerous communications with the academic ethics board, locating and recruiting allies within the academic setting, and providing specific examples of simplifying the consenting process or documents and including community requested practice such as tobacco protocol while retaining ethical and informed consent practice standards.

As a minimal standard the OCAP® guidelines: Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession, are vital to support self-determining practices (First Nations Information Governance Centre, 2022). These principles of data governance were used to guide and shape each phase of the research and the outputs produced on this engaged wisdom-seeking journey. This included the recruiting process, the option to withdraw from the project, frequent feedback loops and sharing of documents as they took shape, the goal of consensus, the shaping of the final outputs, the invitation to review all publications, the option to be listed as contributing authors, and the opportunity to be involved in sharing the project results with their own community (First Nations Information Governance Centre, 2022). Although this approach and the added steps to communicate and include participant-partners in each phase may increase the researcher’s time and workload, it is vital to a respectful and fully informed process and acknowledges the relational accountability I have with both the participant-partners as well as the knowledge that has been shared. Working with participant-partners from several Indigenous communities and Treaty Areas also provided numerous opportunities to work through differing opinions toward consensus, recognizing there is no pan-Indigenous approach and each First Nation has specific practices and teachings, finding common ground in shaping this health awareness resource required frequent conversations and feedback loops.

Acknowledging this accountability to participant-partners, to communities, and to the academic faculty provides the opportunity to advocate for increased awareness of Indigenous sovereignty and co-learning with Knowledge Keepers as an acceptance of culturally connected research practices (Wilson, 2001; Kennedy et al., 2022). Ethical review and approval supported by a culturally informed consent process grounded this journey as a circle of knowledge sharing, creating space for traditional gifting, reimagining honoraria practices, and acknowledging how integral spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health is to this wellness research. This exemplifies looking through both eyes, as in the Two-Eyed Seeing approach, to find the shared ethical space between perspectives and work within that space to move forward both with head knowledge as well as heart knowledge to include Indigenous perspectives in shaping health awareness resources.

Valuing Storytelling Over Story-taking

A nanda gikendan approach to wisdom-seeking research required creativity, flexibility, and a focus on relationality. Facilitating time and space with each participant-partner for the knowledge to be shared by way of story, memories, and conversation included consistent phone calls, Zoom calls, and visits over tea. These story sessions also included gifting protocol by presenting tobacco in homemade pouches along with various gifts such as home-baked bread, sweetgrass braids, tea, cloth prints, blankets, artwork, or similar items supporting evidence of personal investment and care in the creation of a trusting relational space for conversation and sharing. Each conversation began with a review of the previous conversation’s notes, transcripts, and points shared by other participant-partners. This allowed us to refresh the topic of liver wellness and cocreate a shared story or web of ideas between the eight participant-partners, supporting reflexivity and inclusivity of ideas, stories, and themes (Hovey et al., 2017). Listening reflectively to what was shared by participant-partners required being aware of potential personal bias. On the one hand, thinking within the perspective of my nursing training where science-backed facts are the focus when shaping health awareness resources required awareness of the importance of historical practices on current wellness habits. On the other hand, listening attentively to traditional stories, traditional diet and lifestyle histories, and patiently waiting for a story to come full circle to a relevant point in relation to liver wellness, this required patience and attention to the way the knowledge or traditional approaches are still very relevant in today’s health context.

The experience of seeking traditional Indigenous knowledge within an academic space challenged not only my personal perspectives, but also my experience of self within the process and how this dual positionality created opportunity for respectful collaborations between values, philosophies, practice, and healing approaches (Martin, 2012; McIvor, 2010; Smith, 2013). Researchers and ethical review boards sometimes raise concerns regarding the sharing of traditional Indigenous Knowledge, which is occasionally labeled as sacred or untouchable (Battiste, 2005). This aspect was a particular concern of the academic ethics board and they were uncomfortable approving any interaction with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers or knowledge sharing. Thus prompting several conversations with Indigenous community members, the Indigenous mentor and allies within the academic system to clarify and reiterate that the origin of the request for this project was in the Indigenous community, and highlight the cocreation process of the health awareness resource, as well as the collaboration with many Indigenous participant-partners. Elder Crowshoe (pers. comm., April 13, 2022) shared that there is immense value in what is shared by Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, and that this knowledge is sacred. But he shared that the process of acquiring this knowledge and what touches our hearts is also sacred because it is rooted in relationships. This does not make the knowledge untouchable, or Knowledge Keepers unapproachable, but it recognizes the value as part of a larger, interconnected value system and highlights distinct features of Indigenous knowledge and traditional knowledge systems.

Content Analysis in Context

Historically, the analysis phase typifies the power imbalance or appropriation of research, where pieces of knowledge are extracted and shaped by predetermined dominant theoretical frameworks (Magnat, 2014). In contrast, working within the space between two perspectives, also known as Two-Eyed Seeing (Iwama et al., 2009), supports overlapping the knowledge shared by participant-partners with Indigenous traditional ceremony while acknowledging that each step and each word shared is part of a larger collective journey working toward synthesis and problem solving (Iwama et al., 2009; Magnat, 2014; Wilson, 2008). Traditional Indigenous knowledge is an intergenerational, dynamic system of relationships, mentoring, consensus building, and sharing, often leading these perspectives to fill gaps within current knowledge systems (Battiste, 2005; Murry et al., 2021; Smith, 2013).

For me, the analysis process necessitated listening reflectively with the heart as well as the head to the intended message and context of each transcript. I intentionally proceeded with ceremony, such as smudging and prayer, prior to review and analysis of the data or knowledge shared. I held awareness of the presence of both the beauty and the pain behind the perspectives and stories shared and treated these with respect so that the content was heard in a respectful way. I reflected on the power in words and my responsibility as a facilitator in the process. Rather than controlling all aspects of the resource outputs, I supported the Knowledge Keepers as participant-partners with careful documentation and inclusion of feedback loops to reach consensus. I also reflected on the content and context of the interview transcript stories, and the themes and lessons that were harmonious between their respective First Nation and Metis communities. There are three Treaty areas in the province of Alberta, each with distinct Indigenous cultures, so patient listening with frequent check-in conversations including review of what the other participant-partners had shared was vital to come to a point of consensus. Including participant-partners in the cocreation and co-analysis process requires researcher humility and vulnerability, and places priority on the relationship and the journey of working together to shape and share knowledge versus a typical research process. This relational journey arrived at four themes—mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health as related to wholistic liver wellness—that then informed the cocreation of our resources for knowledge sharing.

Sharing Knowledge Through Practical Media

Knowledge comes with an inherent accountability to share it forward in a good way, or in other words respecting both the topic, and the audience, as well as the participant-partner who shared their insights. This responsibility provoked careful thought on the legacy of the process, invested energies, and the wishes of the participant-partner Knowledge Keepers from a heart perspective, as well as academic value and practical utilization within Western healthcare infrastructure. Historically, knowledge has been taken from many Indigenous communities and published, used, or stored without knowledge or informed consent, rationalized by the perspective that the researcher owns and controls the information. Conversely, codesigning and validating the outcomes with participant-partner Knowledge Keepers involved in the project from its conception cocreated a relevant, respectful, and reciprocal wellness message. Seeking balance between the head and heart perspectives of knowledge sharing led to Indigenous community members and the participant-partners cocreating an infographic poster (illustrated poster including key points from the conversational interviews) and a DocuStory film script (a short film incorporating aspects of documentary style with story and related land-based visuals). This codesign then used modern media to merge traditional perspectives of an oral storytelling transfer of knowledge with the use of visual cultural symbols and land-based connections to cocreate a 20-min film resource. This awareness resource shares traditional perspectives providing a cultural connection along with scientific facts and a wholistic message of awareness for liver health and the importance of screening for hepatitis C as a step forward in a wellness journey.

Reflections on My Head to Heart Learning Journey

Considering the initial question of how a Two-Eyed Seeing approach used for my own wisdom seeking journey might work with a medically-based perspective to motivate positive change requires that I also consider the second question about the importance of introspection because combining these perspectives requires an introspective, relational, respectful, and community-engaged wisdom-seeking process to which I am now accountable (McIvor, 2010; Smith, 2013). As a researcher, wholistic wellness requires that I connect with self and find balance within myself if I want to find balance in perspectives (Brown, 2022). While medicine places value on answers and cures, balancing perspectives in a Two-Eyed Seeing approach places value on subjective knowing in relation to our ecological systems from within one’s own knowing, and listening with the heart to the stories of wellness shared by Knowledge Keepers forming a context and connection to wellness.

Connection is not only an awareness but a humble relationship. Humility is not a characteristic encouraged in higher education, and yet it is a quality admired and respected within the context of traditional Indigenous knowledge. Because in the head to heart journey, succeeding requires acknowledging that I do not know everything, and that wisdom-seeking is a lifelong process. Acknowledging both my Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Being, Doing and Connecting and my training and background as a nurse invites introspection around identity and intersectionality, where placing myself within this relational approach also creates the perspectives of autoethnography (McIvor, 2010; Smith, 2013). Although not the focus of this research, nor a deliverable goal, this journey of connecting head and heart did foster a stronger connection to my Indigenous culture and ways of sharing knowledge. Verbalizing the autoethnography experience made me realize that at times in this journey I felt “not white enough” because this wisdom-seeking approach was relational, challenged the norms in typical health research, and focused on the “process” as well as the results, a perspective not commonly seen in academic research projects. At other times I felt “not Indigenous enough” because I am not as connected to my First Nation’s traditional teachings, ceremonies, or Indigenous Ways of Knowing as many other Indigenous researchers are. This learning journey has strengthened me in many ways and also changed who I am as a person.

The challenges I faced in academia in attempting something that has been historically excluded, included the nuances and demands of focusing on relational engagement with participant-partners as cocreators which included delays, misunderstandings, increased expenses for gifting and honoraria protocol and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. And a frequent sense of vulnerability in sharing this cocreation process with Indigenous community members who could stop or delay the project. Other challenges included respectfully bringing cultural protocols and traditional ceremony into the research process within the academic setting where sharing meals, gifts, or tobacco protocol as part of informed consenting and participating in a sweat ceremony are not typically part of a health research process. Further impacts of this relational approach coupled with intersectionality and identity include beginning to learn my Indigenous language, mentoring other students, public speaking on a relational wisdom-seeking approach, advocating for awareness of barriers Indigenous students face with community-engaged research, submitting numerous proposals to fund the wisdom-seeking process, and coproducing the media awareness resources that Indigenous community members had requested. In his book Research is Ceremony, Wilson (2008) describes the process of research and how, if done well, it should change you in some way. When I began this wisdom-seeking journey, I did not anticipate that it would, or even could, change my perspective.

Responding to a community request to improve health awareness through culturally connected media resources and collaboration with Indigenous community partners was the motivation and goal, but by encountering and engaging myself in the research process with purposeful integration or blending of perspectives, and constantly engaging myself through the wisdom seeking process, I have changed. I have become more conscious of the responsibility of my role as decolonizing, Indigenizing, and the reconciliatory position of respectful and relational health research that centers Indigenous knowledge which has been historically devalued in these settings (Absolon quoted in McGuire-Adams, 2020; Iwama et al., 2009; McIvor, 2010; McNally & Martin, 2017; Murry et al., 2021; Smith, 2013). Although I did not set out to decolonize or Indigenize, this has become a corresponding effect for those who have been impacted as a result of either being involved in the cocreation of the media resource or have watched the resulting DocuStory film (Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1.

Knowledge Keepers share the importance of balance between emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical health and the value of returning to traditional ways of wellness and passing these ways on to the next generations.

Figure 2.

The DocuStory film can be viewed by scanning the QR code.

Sharing the findings or teachings from this project focused on valuing the approach of Indigenous storytelling through visuals and spoken word within the concept of wellness which led to the cocreation of a culturally relevant DocuStory film. Because the conversational interviews with Knowledge Keepers, along with input from Indigenous youth, shaped the script, the DocuStory shares a story of wellness that includes what the liver does in our bodies, how it works to filter toxins, why it is so important for healthy animals as well as for humans, and how respecting life is so important. The story continues through lived experiences shared by young people who have been cured of the hepatitis C virus and how their lives have changed as a result of this diagnosis and the opportunity to heal. Healthcare providers in the film share the medical facts about the virus, its impacts on the liver, actions to take for prevention, and how the treatment medication works to stop viral replication. Knowledge Keepers share the importance of balance between emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical health and the value of returning to traditional ways of wellness and passing these ways on to the next generations. Western healthcare messages about liver health have often induced stress, stigma and shame while focusing on scientific or medical wording. This approach combined the teachings or findings into a wellness focused story conveying land-based visuals as impactful as the words in conveying hope. Indigenous community members who have seen the DocuStory film found it inspirational to watch the Knowledge Keepers sharing stories accompanied by images of locally filmed land and animals. A Knowledge Keeper commented that this media approach gave “visual voice” to an important message of wholistic wellness that fostered trust (E. Comstock, pers. comm. Aug. 30, 2022). This awareness resource is relevant for diverse settings and has been shared at community-wide events, high schools, clinic waiting areas, health screenings, correctional facilities and educational spaces. This relational media approach fosters trust and sparks an interest, creating space for community members to ask questions about liver health and learn what they could be doing to support wellness both for themselves and their community. By supporting health education in a visual story format focusing on wellness versus disease this awareness resource has given Indigenous Healthcare teams an education tool that has increased engagement in hepatitis C screening and provided opportunities to engage in potentially life-saving care in treating the hepatitis C virus.

At the initiation of this education journey, an academic asked me if I was setting out to Indigenize or disrupt. Although this is not the focus of this piece, nor is there space here to include the many nuances, impacts and history of Indigenizing or being a disrupter, at the time I had not considered either as an objective, nor seen myself in relation to those concepts, but in placing myself within the research process, acknowledging a perspective of criticality and awareness, I have begun a process of self-decolonization (Iwama et al., 2009; McIvor, 2010; McNally & Martin, 2017; Murry et al., 2021; Whitinui, 2014; Wilson, 2008). I shifted from knowledge mining to knowledge sharing, from story-taking to storytelling, from owning knowledge to giving back to Indigenous communities in a way that is accessible and relevant to today’s community priorities. Through fostering a relationship with the land and with myself as someone who is always learning, and by necessity, someone who is both Indigenizing and disrupting, I will move forward. This means advocating and continuing to blend the spaces of and between two perspectives, between head and heart, while finding my place in a space that needs wisdom-seekers to build relationships and bring awareness to wholistic wellness stories.