Exploring the Leisure - Health Nexus: Pushing Global Boundaries

By Janette Young, Lynn Anderson, Holly Bowen-Salter and 22 more

By exploring past, current, and future intersections between leisure and health, this book considers research and academic thought to reveal and critique the nuanced ways that leisure impacts health as well as considering how health professions use leisure as a 'tool'. Aided by the diverse chapters, readers will be challenged to explore future intersections between leisure and health using an overarching eco (ecological/environmental), bio(biological), psycho (psychological), social (sociological) lens. Many of the chapters include case-studies which consider further developing leisure and health themes, particularly in relation to a number of emerging environmental, health and societal challenges that confront the world. In addition, the book:

·Is cross disciplinary and demonstrates non-individualized framing of health (as per the WHO definition) giving readers a unique opportunity to develop an understanding of sociological frameworks, including ecobiopyschosocial, salutogenic, multi-species and criticalist.

·Moves readers from an individual level understanding of interconnections between leisure and health through to a consideration of global issues (including a section on the impact and consequences of Covid-19).

·Examines the nexus between leisure and health through a focus on a number of population groups including First Nations peoples, women, incarcerated people, migrants, people with disabilities, older people, and the human-animal interface.

The book will be of significant interest to researchers/academics/practitioners in the leisure, health, sport, tourism, recreation, events, social science, and arts disciplines.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CAB International
• Release date: Nov 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781789248166

Book preview

Introduction

RICHARD MCGRATH¹, HAZEL MAXWELL², JANETTE YOUNG¹ AND NICOLE PEEL

³

¹University of South Australia

²University of Tasmania

³Western Sydney University

© CAB International 2022. Exploring the Leisure - Health Nexus: Pushing Global Boundaries (eds H. Maxwell et al.)

DOI: 10.1079/9781789248166.intr

Leisure and health. Health and leisure. At the most fundamental level it seems obvious that leisure and health are interlinked and interrelated. The perspective that leisure and health are connected can be seen in the way leisure can be viewed as essentially a positive feeling/activity/period of time where we are able to undertake activities we enjoy doing, at a pace we enjoy, in a place we feel comfortable, with those we choose to be with. Good health is commonly associated with physical, social and psychological wellbeing.

Connections between leisure and health have been discussed and theorized for decades, however books and articles specifically focused on this intersection are still scant. Over a quarter of a century ago, Wankel (1994) reviewed interconnections between leisure and health. Wankel put forward an argument that connections between leisure and health had reduced because of academic specialization, particularly the emergence of fields such as human kinetics, kinesiology, and sport and exercise science. Recent analyses have argued that connections between leisure and health need to be viewed through an intersectional, interdisciplinary lens in order to highlight how they are closely interwoven (Rojek, 2010; Watson and Scraton, 2013; Peel et al., 2021).

The concept of intersectionality was initially put forward by Crenshaw (1991) within a legal studies context in relation to interconnections of race, gender, and class. Crenshaw argued there was a need to move beyond siloed perspectives of social constructs as it is often at the intersections of these that the most intense inequalities can occur. Indeed, people who experience the worst health and struggle most to access or experience leisure are likely to fit multiple categories of disadvantage (Long et al., 2017; Evans, 2019; Mielke et al., 2022). Conversely the most advantaged are not advantaged by any one characteristic (Hollier, 2004). Adopting an intersectional approach that views human experiences using multiple lenses provides the opportunity to analyse specific sets of circumstances experienced by individuals and communities, and reveal the impacts and manifestations of power (Valentine et al., 2010).

In drawing together authors from various disciplines, backgrounds, expertise and geographic locations, this publication has adopted an intersectional perspective on leisure and health. Authors are located in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Iran, New Zealand, the UK and the USA; they include people who identify as male, female and non-binary; First Nations, migrants and people living with a disability; and are from academic areas as diverse as veterinary sciences, allied health, and tourism and business. This diversity of perspectives is brought to exploring an array of complex interrelated social, political, environmental and biological intersections between leisure and health. The leisure–health nexus.

Chapters in this book have been collated and presented to take readers on a journey through diverse interconnections of leisure and health, discussing, critically analysing and future-gazing across a variety of biological, economic, environmental, historical, medical, political, psychological and sociological interconnections that exist in the leisure–health nexus.

As Peel et al. (2021) identified, interconnections between leisure and health need to move beyond perceptions of two separate but related areas or binaries. Interconnections between leisure and health are ‘more than agency or structure, individualistic or holistic, psychological or sociological, biomedical or health promotion’ (p. 12). There is also a need to move beyond the view that experiential interconnections between leisure and health are homogeneous, universal and constant. Various perspectives and voices have consistently been marginalized in respect to leisure and health interconnections. Whether this is First Nations peoples’ understandings of what constitutes leisure and health, through to the privileging of particular forms of leisure over others – for example, the huge focus on sport and organized physical activity as leisure compared to discussions on the arts and informal activities such as people and their pets.

Questions of justice, morality and ethics are entangled within leisure–health intersections. Exploring interconnections between leisure and health take us beyond the individual, and beyond human centricity. Global issues such as climate change and pandemics threaten not only humanity but all living creatures. There is a need to consciously seek to understand the impacts that leisure activities have on the health of the planet, and the impact of the environment on human (and other species) leisure and health. In bringing together a diverse range of authors and topics our aim was to provide a platform for reinforcing the view of ‘leisure and health as a dynamic interrelationship between individual’s and societal health, where one cannot be viewed without the lens of the other’ (Peel et al., 2021, p. 11).

As scholars with interests covering a range of topics related to leisure and health, we align within a social philosophical position (Spracklen, 2011; Gaus, 2015) in that we understand that both the social and behavioural contexts of any phenomena are woven together and that power resides in multiple forms across and within the various social institutions as well as individual and collective social behaviours (Bevir, 1999; Gallagher, 2008; Foucault, 2019). Hence the chapters in this book are presented in two distinct sections. Section 1 focuses on various ‘identities’ in relation to interconnections between leisure and health. The rights of all to be healthy and to be provided opportunities to experience leisure have been enshrined in numerous United Nations conventions and national constitutions for decades. However, the lived experiences and voices of various groups within and across societies remain marginalized. Within academia, these voices and perspectives are often relegated to specialized research fields of study, rarely brought together to provide an understanding of the interconnections between leisure and health.

Chapter 1 highlights a number of leisure and health connections from the perspective of Canadian and Australian First Nations peoples. The authors share stories from a strengths-based outlook focusing on hope within existing environments. Demonstrating the connections with land and humans as shared agency, the authors challenge a dominant western view of Indigenous people being victims in favour of one that views the positive teachings that are occurring to offer hope. Using case examples of sport as an activity participated in during leisure, readers are offered opportunities to develop understandings from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives. The authors encourage those who read this chapter to assist with further enhancing hope by sharing these stories and readers’ own learnings to support the growth of hope within First Nation communities. These stories share positive experiences of First Nations peoples and sport that occurred in the past and are still occurring. A key theme across all the case examples provided is the determined efforts of individuals to make a difference not just for themselves as active participants, but to share the broader message of reconciliation across different cultures with others

In Chapter 2, Maxwell et al. focus readers’ attention on the rights of people with a disability to experience leisure through the arts. They provide an insightful overview of the health outcomes for people with a disability who are using arts, particularly in relation to impacts related to social capital and improved emotional health. They discuss the social determinants of health in relation to arts participation and the social inclusion outcomes experienced by individuals. The authors take the reader through the history and traditions of disability and arts to demonstrate that while exclusion still occurs in the 21st century, progress is being made in some areas.

The chapter provides three Australian partnership case studies where inclusive leisure can be linked to the social and emotional health of people living with a disability that are actively engaged in the arts. The first case study discusses the artistic benefits of participating in theatre performances, the second involves the production of a musical performance over a two-year period and the third outlines an urban art studio project involving casual art participation that led to a committed group of artists being matched with artistic mentors. This chapter maps the social interactions in these case studies using social network diagrams that visualize the connections between stakeholders involved in art and leisure activities, leading to social impact and wellbeing outcomes.

In Chapter 3, Marcoux Rouleau challenges readers to reflect on the role of leisure within the prison system. The chapter begins by identifying the links between the social determinants of health and female prison populations and levels of ill-health experienced by women in prison. Marcoux Rouleau puts forward an argument that leisure provision in prison may be being used as a form of ‘leisure-washing’. That is, governments and prison authorities may promote leisure opportunities within the prison system to mask systemic and structural issues related to the social determinants of health that lead to imprisonment, while also disguising lack of healthcare provision within prisons. Furthermore, Marcoux Rouleau argues, provision of regulated leisure opportunities within prisons is linked to discourses of ‘healthism’, a form of ‘biopower’, where a focus on leisure activities, directly linked to physical health, position leisure as [re]making prisoner bodies into useful, docile bodies that ostensibly enable them to be [re]integrated in the economic system of industrialized western societies.

In the next chapter McDonald et al. explore the meanings and understandings that migrant women from non-English speaking backgrounds living in Australia attribute to the term ‘physical activity’. The authors begin by discussing the approach taken to collecting information from migrant women living in Sydney using social cognitive theory. We learn that physical activity is known and understood by migrant women as the definition given by the World Health Organization with a focus on movement, however deeper exploration also revealed challenges the women faced in regard to participation in physical activity across different stages of their lifespan. Drawing from the understandings and experiences of migrant women, the authors advocate for change by proposing a number of actions at both an institutional/organizational and individual level that could be adopted to enable migrant women to be involved in physical activity throughout their life journey.

In Chapter 5, Karacsony and Simard provide five vignettes that offer insights into older people’s experiences, perceptions, and desires regarding leisure, including those living with dementia, and those who have lived more than 100 years. The authors note that their focus is not on direct causal connections between leisure and physical health. Their interest relates to developing a deeper and more nuanced understanding of leisure as we age. These authors note that patterns of extended longevity offer insights into leisure that are often unknowable until we reach the various life stages and ages ourselves. Decreased physical capacities can mean that older people’s personal leisure time is more overtly about quality of life than in younger, more active years. However, it is also important to recognize that older people, like all other age groups, are not homogeneous. Culture, life experiences, personality and personal choices impact on what is seen as leisureful or meaningful use of time and skills, and whether leisure is even a recognized concept.

Chapter 6 continues with a focus on ageing and leisure, however from a different perspective. While Karacsony and Simard in Chapter 5 identify less physically active leisure pastimes, with an overt focus on stillness and sedentariness as legitimate leisure pursuits, Michelsen la Cour and Maxwell focus on physical activities but make the emotive and social factors of laughter and enjoyment within these activities the core of their discussion. Drawing from a case study of a group physical activity programme with older people, they unpack the role and nature of play and playfulness as a key aspect in the group programme described as ‘succeeding’. They argue that joyless physical activity leading to joyless health outcomes can be aligned with neoliberal interests, in the need for healthy aged bodies that disconnect pleasure and playfulness from the enactment of physical health. However, as their participants identify, joy, laughter and playfulness enable barriers to physical activity to be surmounted, especially by older people with histories of sedentary, non-active adulthoods. The authors highlight that laughter, particularly laughing with others, while collectively being involved in new and difficult physical activities, can lead to joy that allows people to forget themselves and unthinkingly undertake healthful actions.

The chapters presented in Section 2 shift explorations concerning interconnections between leisure and health beyond individual population groups to broader community perspectives that have generally been underappreciated. The four chapters in this section reveal interconnections between leisure and health through alternative forms such as the arts and informal sport as well as pets. Through exploring alternative and often unappreciated aspects of human activity we seek to reveal distinctive interconnections between leisure and health.

In Chapter 7, Davies et al. explore ‘recreational arts for health’ through a ‘Healthy Arts Framework’ (Davies et al., 2014), theories of social epidemiology (Krieger, 2001), the biopsychosocial model of health (Engel, 1977) and a salutogenic perspective (Mittelmark and Bauer, 2017). A continuum of recreational arts engagement from active (e.g. making art) to receptive involvement (e.g. listening or viewing art) is examined. The authors point out that these interactions may be casual or occasional (e.g. attending a gallery opening), or could occur on a regular basis (e.g. reading every day to and from work). Impacts of these recreational arts activities on mental, social and physical health are discussed. The authors discuss how recreational arts engagement has been shown to play a part in the promotion of both good health as well as recovery from illness. They identify a number of strategies that could be adopted across society to encourage engagement in the arts by removing barriers and increasing opportunities for participation.

We continue with a focus on connection between art and health in Chapter 8 with Peel and Bowen adopting yet another perspective. These authors point out that while the connection between arts engagement and good health has long been accepted, there has been minimal investment in Australia in artistic programmes for either preventive health or artistically guided therapeutic programmes. The authors highlight that in contrast, the US and UK support creative arts therapies as a coordinated mental health practice which receives funding. Four case studies are presented to illustrate how art can be used in the community to promote health. The chapter considers the interaction of art and health across the lifespan, the interaction of arts and health as ‘cultures’ and how these art and health ‘cultures’ come together in both positive and negative ways. In a world where engaging in art is seen to belong to one domain and engaging in health a different one, it is argued that art therapy can bridge these spheres and provide constructive, healthful outcomes for participants.

Chapter 9 shifts the focus with McGrath and Milanese exploring the relationship between sport and health via sport for development programmes. The authors explore this link using both an academic and a practitioner lens based on their personal experience of delivering programmes to a range of Australian populations. They discuss links between sport for development and various health frameworks including the social determinants of health and salutogenic perspectives. The eight most common sport for development organizational focus areas of disability, education, gender, health, livelihoods, peace, social cohesion and infrastructure, as proposed by Svensson and Woods (2017) are operationalized by the authors examples of programmes offered in various locations and for different purposes. They note that links between sport for development programmes and broader health understandings not only require further research to enable longitudinal evidence regarding impacts and outcomes to be identified, but such research can also assist sport for development programmes to become more accepted, providing alternative leisure opportunities to competitive sport activities.

In Chapter 10, Young et al. explore a range of leisure and health intersections between human and pet animals. They discuss not only the leisure–health nexus between humans and pet animals, but also the notion of animal leisure and animal health, an intersection that has had little focus to date (Dashper, 2019). Young et al. discuss the connections of anthropocentric concepts developed within leisure studies (such as activity enjoyment, entertainment and freedom) to the ‘five domains’ of animal welfare (Mellor, 2017; Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 2021) to argue there is a need to not only recognize pet animal leisure as an aspect of human leisure but also animal leisure in its own right. Furthermore, the authors identify links between human and pet animal health, not only focusing on the impact of animals on human health, but also humans’ impact on pet animal health. This latter aspect is discussed particularly in relation to human leisure activities that involve pet animals (such as pet shows) and the potential negative effects these can have on pet animal health (physical, social and mental). Building on the interconnections between humans and pet animal leisure–health the authors provide thoughts in respect to how the human–pet animal relationship could be reimagined in ways to reduce negative impacts on animals and maximize cross-species wellbeing.

The final three chapters further extend discussions concerning interconnections between leisure and health to issues facing humanity at a global scale. Over the past decades, nations, societies, communities and individuals have been facing the threat and impact of climate change on numerous aspects of life, including leisure and health. More recently we have seen regional epidemics (such as MERS and Ebola) as well as the global Covid-19 pandemic impact on not only the health of individuals but also on leisure opportunities, as physical distancing and social isolation were implemented as the only means of addressing a highly contagious deadly disease.

Anderson begins the discussion in Chapter 11, drawing on an ecological perspective to explore interconnections between leisure and well-being. The chapter provides a broad discussion on the impact the environment has on leisure, and conversely the impact leisure has on the environment, and how these intersections influence health and wellbeing. Drawing from the ecological perspective of Bronfenbrenner (1977), Anderson guides the reader through micro, meso and macro environmental levels, highlighting not only the intersections between people and their physical environment but also various barriers and facilitators that need to be recognized to enable people and communities the opportunity to engage in leisure pursuits. Anderson provides a comprehensive discussion of the ‘flourishing through leisure’ model (Anderson and Heyne, 2016), outlining how this model can be used to guide practitioners in facilitating inclusive leisure that promotes flourishing for all people, regardless of ability or health status.

Chapter 12 by Peel et al. provokes readers to think about the relationship between human leisure and the natural environment. In particular, the authors question and critique the health of the natural environment in relation to human leisure using a socioecological perspective. In doing so, the authors discuss both the impact human leisure can have on the natural environment, as well as the impact shifts occurring in the natural environment due to climate change are having (and will continue to have) on human leisure. They argue that there is a need for all to be involved in advocating for action from governments and policymakers to address issues related to climate change, particularly in relation to what is viewed as ‘normal’ practice and consumption in leisure: to not act on climate change is to ignore the clear impacts on human health created by the reduced health of the natural environment.

We conclude in Chapter 13 with a focus on the leisure–health nexus during a pandemic. Since 2020 with the spread of Covid-19 around the globe most of our lives – of authors and readers – have been changed. With the initial outbreak of Covid-19, health thinking became intensely focused on acute, individualized healthcare systems and institutions. Arguably, in consequence, leisure perspectives related to public health diminished. In this final closing chapter we summarize the intersections, dilemmas, ways forward and key points of discussion raised through the book within the context of Covid-19, presenting what we consider to be the key questions for those involved in both leisure and health industries and academia (as well as broader society) to ponder as the global community moves into the post-Covid, but now pandemic aware, future.

As posited at the outset of this introduction, it seems somewhat self-evident that leisure and health are interlinked and interrelated. Discourses concerning the benefits of leisure are woven into the vast majority of societies across the world. However, as we and the authors in this book show, these interconnections are nuanced. There is a need to seek to not only draw out and make visible these nuances so they can be overtly understood and responded to; but also, to work together across the various leisure and health fields, as both academics and practitioners, to ‘spread the word’. We hope, in some small way, this publication can assist with promoting such collegial, intersectional discussion and action.

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1A Strengths and Hope Perspective on Leisure, Health and Physical Cultural Practices of Indigenous Women: Stories of Wellbeing From Canada and Australia

HAZEL MAXWELL

¹

*, VICTORIA PARASCHAK², MICHELLE O’SHEA

³ AND SONYA PEARCE⁴

¹University of Tasmania

²University of Windsor

³Western Sydney University

⁴University of Technology Sydney

*Corresponding author: [e-mail]

© CAB International 2022. Exploring the Leisure - Health Nexus: Pushing Global Boundaries (eds H. Maxwell et al.)

DOI: 10.1079/9781789248166.0001

Introduction

In this chapter we consider leisure and health in a (w)holistic way in relation to a marginalized population group, Indigenous peoples in colonized/invaded countries, specifically Australia and Canada. Lavallée and Lévesque (2013), in ‘Two-eyed seeing’, argue for the use of the term ‘wholistic’ vs ‘holistic’, since the former spelling ‘emphasize[s] the concept of wholeness when the four areas of health – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual – are in balance’ (2013, p. 208). We are convinced by their argument and thus will use the concept and spell it in the same way. In particular, we focus on four case studies, two from each country. The first case study from Canada titled ‘Physical Cultural Practices, Reconciliation and Inclusion: Indigenizing the Whitestream Approach to Sport’, considers Waneek Horn-Miller, a Mohawk Olympian, broadcaster, activist and role model from a health and wellbeing perspective. She represents a powerful example of how a single Mohawk woman can contribute towards a hope-enhancing environment in Canadian sport.

The second narrative is also from Canada, titled ‘Physical Cultural Practices, Decolonization and Cultural Resurgence’. It comprises Anishinaabe researcher Tricia McGuire-Adams and settler scholar Audrey Giles telling stories related to a running programme, operated by and for Anishinaabekweg women that was connected to Indigenous cultural understandings demonstrating the wholistic benefits emanating from these activities. Brief concluding comments on an outdoor programme created by Sḵwx̱wú7mesh founder Myia Antone similarly highlight her intention to safely reconnect Indigenous women and youth to their land. Both examples point out how physical activity tied to the land can contribute towards a process that promotes both repatriation of the land and accompanying Indigenous understandings of that relationship, which is central to decolonization. Tuck and Yang (2012) note that within settler colonialism, settlers come to stay and make their home on the land:

Land is what is most valuable, contested, required. This is both because the settlers make Indigenous land their new home and source of capital, and also because the disruption of Indigenous relationships to land represents a profound epistemic, ontological, cosmological violence. This violence is not temporally contained in the arrival of the settler but is reasserted each day of occupation … In the process of settler colonialism, land is remade into property and human relationships to land are restricted to the relationship of the owner to his property.

(Tuck and Yang, 2012, p. 5)

In contrast to settler understandings of the land, Vanessa Watts (2013) outlines an Indigenous worldview that sees both the land and humans in relationship and as having agency, as contrasted with a Euro-western view wherein agency is limited to humans:

As Indigenous peoples, it is not only an obligation to communicate with Place-Thought (ceremonies with land, territory, the four directions, etc.), but it ensures our continued ability to act and think according to our cosmologies. To prevent these practices deafens us. It is not that the non-human world no longer speaks but that we begin to understand less and less. This is why, despite five hundred years of colonialism, we are still not fully colonized and we are still continuing to fight; we have within us the ability to communicate with the land but our agency as Indigenous peoples has been corrupted within this colonial frame.

(Watts, 2013, p. 32)

The third narrative is from Australia and is titled ‘Reconciliation Action and the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games’. The focus here turns to how sport organizations are developing Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs), signalling a formal commitment to reconciliation and wellbeing. The fourth and final case study titled ‘The Indigenous Round’ explores the recent practice of Australian professional sport leagues celebrating Indigenous athletes and their culture on an annual basis during a competition round focusing on inclusion and wellbeing of a historically marginalized population group.

In an effort to challenge the dominant deficit perspective, which focuses on the barriers faced by marginalized groups and thus reinforces their status as victimized individuals, we draw from a strengths- and hope-based theoretical framework (Paraschak, 2013; Paraschak and Thompson, 2014), and begin with the identification of a shared, Indigenous-expressed ‘hope in’ (Jacobs, 2005) wholistically healthy lives for Indigenous women, framed within the teachings of the Medicine Wheel (Lavallée and Lévesque, 2013).

From an Indigenous Australian perspective the concept of dadirri (da-did-ee) (Ungunmerr, 2017) is also used to inform the chapter framing. Dadirri is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘inner deep listening and quiet still awareness’ (Ungunmerr, 2017, p. 14). The word, concept and spiritual practice that is dadirri is from the Ngan’gikurunggurr and Ngen’giwumirri languages of the Aboriginal peoples of the Daly River region (Northern Territory, Australia). A perspective based on strengths and hope needs to be informed by an understanding of Indigenous peoples which can only be achieved by paying close attention through the practice of listening to their voices. Additionally, in this chapter Atkinson’s Healing Circle is foundational (Atkinson, 2002), showing culture as the key to healing from the trauma of colonization by bridging the gap between Aboriginal cultural and spiritual practices, and western world views.

Through drawing on these underpinnings we endeavour to illuminate how, despite marginalization, Indigenous individuals and their communities have and continue to draw on and further foster their strengths to improve the mental, emotional, spiritual and/or physical health of themselves and/or their communities through participation in leisure activities such as sport, physical culture, arts and music (Paraschak and Thompson, 2014; Maxwell et al., 2019a). Additionally, resources in their environment have been used to further those strengths or create new strengths, which amplifies the need to maintain existing, and provide additional support for, ongoing meaningful Indigenous community-led opportunities.

Our research in Australia (Stronach et al., 2016; Maxwell et al., 2017, 2019a) and Canada (Paraschak and Thompson, 2014) in partnership with Indigenous communities and individuals has found that through opportunities for Indigenous-only leisure pursuits, partnerships with health agencies and sports organizations, culturally safe spaces and Indigenous people acting as role models, their agency to achieve wholistically healthy lives has been augmented.

This chapter is authored by Sonya Pearce, an Indigenous Gooreng Gooreng woman from south-east Queensland (Australia); the other three authors (Victoria Paraschak, Hazel Maxwell and Michelle O’Shea) are non-Indigenous women. In writing about Indigenous women, these three women have assumed roles as active participants in cultural experiences both inside and outside of our university environments and have close connections to Indigenous Australian and Canadian colleagues, research partners and friends. We have also intentionally sought out and included where possible the voices of Indigenous women in the narratives we have generated.

This exploration focused particularly on women and girls, as evidence from Canada (McGuire-Adams and Giles, 2018) and Australia (Stronach et al., 2018; Maxwell et al., 2019b) indicates Indigenous women are particularly at risk of poor health. Gender-based health disparities were found, for example, among Indigenous women in Canada who lived off-reserve; these women had higher rates of ill health and engaged less in physical activity than their male counterparts (McGuire-Adams and Giles, 2018).

The research shows that partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in health promotion contexts can assist with efforts to successfully navigate the effects of colonization (Stronach et al., 2018), which continue to be the basis of health issues for Indigenous peoples. Listening to Indigenous women’s needs and desires and co-creating opportunities for Indigenous control of their own participation helps expedite this health improvement process (Stronach et al., 2018). However, one of the fundamental contentions which we later turn to is the dominance of Eurocentric health and allied meanings. Dominant western biomedical health models do not necessarily align with how Indigenous peoples interpret and experience health. Traditional Indigenous perspectives of health are typically