Community-based Indigenous Research

All Nations Hope Network (ANHN) has been involved in Community-based Research for over the last decade. The first Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIH) grant was submitted in the fall of 2006. The 1st research project for ANHN was titled "A Gathering of Support: Developing an Aboriginal Grassrooots Research Network."

ANHN has been involved in many research projects over the years:

  • A-Track
  • Safe Homes Stable Families
  • Cedar Project
  • CHIWOS
  • Visioning Health II

Historically, Indigenous Health Research in Canada has failed to engage Indigeous people and communities as primary stakeholders of research evidence.  In the past, the research was conducted in Indigenous communities by external researchers who did not understand the culture, knowledge or experience of Indigenous peoples, nor did they collaborate with formal leaders, elders or other knowledge keepers in the community. In some places those practices continue today.

In response, researchers and mainstream institutions have developed new practices and ethical principles for research involving Indigenous people. The principles of ownership, control, access and possession, commonly known as OCAP ensure that Indigenous people have control over data collections processes, and that they own and control how this information can be used. The OCAP prinicples apply to all research, data or information initiatives that involve Indigenous people.

ANHN now has the capacity to hold  CIHR research funds and has been committed to the ANHN research projects over the past years and the ones that are currently in progress. Those projects include:

  • Digging Deep: Examining the root causes of HIV and AIDS among Aboriginal women
  • Macipiciw: Restoration of Indgenous men's roles and responsibilities
  • Kotawe: Igniting cultural responsiveness through community-determined intervention research

ANHN is currently working with Waniska Saskatchewan/Manitoba Indigenous Centre of HIV/HCV/STBBIs Inequities. it is an Indigenous-led centre for research on HIV, Hepatitis C and other sexually transmitted and blood borne infections (STBBI) focused on Saskatchewan and Manitoba. For more information