Aboriginal peoples in Canada have diverse cultures but share common social and political challenges that have contributed to their experiences of health and illness. This collection addresses the origins of mental health and social problems and the emergence of culturally responsive approaches to services and health promotion. Healing Traditions is not a handbook of practice but a resource for thinking critically about current issues in the mental health of indigenous peoples. Cross-cutting themes include: the impact of colonialism, sedentarization, and forced assimilation; the importance of land for indigenous identity and an ecocentric self; and processes of healing and spirituality as sources of resilience.
Laurence J. Kirmayer is James McGill Professor and Director of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University; Director of the Culture and Mental Health Research Unit of the Institute for Community and Family Psychiatry at the Jewish General Hospital, Montreal; and Co-Director of the National Network for Aboriginal Mental Health Research. Gail Guthrie Valaskakis was Director of Research, Aboriginal Healing Foundation, Ottawa, and Co-Director of the National Network for Aboriginal Mental Health Research.
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