ICINA: Indigenous Cultural Identity Narrative Assessment (2021)

Ram L. Chugh North Country Research & Public Service Award-1st Place

The devastating legacy of colonization and policies of assimilation led to the near annihilation of Indigenous identity through loss of language, land, stories and traditions (Dion & Morin, 2011). However, as Indigenous people have started to rebuild their communities and themselves, a new Indigenous identity has begun to emerge (St. Denis, 2016). The overall aim of my project is to create an assessment for use with Onkwe:hon’we clients that brings together Western clinical approaches and Indigenous cultural knowledge. A two-phase mixed methods project was designed; my presentation will discuss the first phase of this substantial project. In order to prioritize Indigenous ways of knowing, I designed an interview (ICINA, Indigenous Cultural Identity Assessment, Herne & Starrs, 2020) that focuses on collecting interpersonal stories, using a medicine wheel framework integrated with Western methodologies for coding and analyzing data. I will discuss my results and their implications.