The Climate Crisis and Indigenous Youths’ Mental Health: The Pilot Project

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56508/mhgcj.v8i1.254

Keywords:

Mental Health, Climate Crisis, Indigenous Methodology, Arts-Based, Community Research, Indigenous Youth, Indigenous Youth Mental Health

Abstract

Introduction: The climate crisis significantly and disproportionately impacts Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island, and worldwide. Some major issues faced are threats to reserve lands, food sovereignty, and traditional employment. The harms caused by climate change have been uniquely placed on Indigenous youth as both the future and current caretakers and land defenders of Turtle Island, impacting the mental health of our youth. Yet, their perspectives are rarely included in scholarly literature, research, or decision-making on environmental policy.
Purpose: This article outlines findings from initial pilot phases of a climate crisis research project regarding the perspectives of Indigenous youth on the impacts of the climate crisis on their mental health and recommendations for service providers.
Methodology: The findings outline themes and perspectives from Talking Circles with youth and Elders, as well as the development of a play created and performed in collaboration with an Indigenous theatre expert and our community partner, 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations, in Toronto. Additionally, a quantitative survey was conducted to gather audience feedback on the performance.
Results: 4 qualitative themes emerged: anxiety, fear and powerlessness; finding voice & using voice; autonomy & decolonization in government; education, educating & training youth. Audience feedback was mainly positive, impactful and inspiring. 6 main recommendations for policy and service delivery shifts were also acquired.
Conclusion: This research responds to the emergent need for the inclusion and empowerment of Indigenous youth voices on the ongoing climate crisis and investigates its impacts on Indigenous youth mental health. Overall, the study had a positive impact on Indigenous youth mental health, with future research underway. Recommendations for programming and policy changes provided to continue supporting positive Indigenous youth mental health and wellness.

References

Brascoupé, S., & Waters, C. (2009). Cultural safety: Exploring the applicability of the concept of cultural safety to Aboriginal health and community wellness. International Journal of Indigenous Health, 5(2), 6–41.

Brown, M., Mirza, S., Lu, J., & Stewart, S. L. (2024). Walking forward together—The next step: Indigenous youth mental health and the climate crisis. Psych, 6(1), 210–220. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/psych6010013

Cunsolo Willox, A., Stephenson, E., Allen, J., Bourque, F., Drossos, A., Elgarøy, S., Kral, M. J., Mauor, I., Moses, J., Pearce, T., et al. (2015). Examining relationships between climate change and mental health in the Circumpolar North. Regional Environmental Change, 15, 169–182. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-014-0630-z

Estey, E., Smylie, J., & Macaulay, A. (2009). Aboriginal knowledge translation: Understanding and respecting the distinct needs of Aboriginal communities in research. Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Retrieved from https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/41392.html

First Nations Information Governance Centre. (n.d.). The First Nations principles of OCAP. Retrieved from https://fnigc.ca/ocap-training/

Gerlach, A. J. (2012). A critical reflection on the concept of cultural safety. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 79(3), 151–158. https://doi.org/10.2182/cjot.2012.79.3.4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2182/cjot.2012.79.3.4

Government of Canada. (2022). TCPS 2 – Chapter 9: Research involving the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples of Canada. Retrieved from https://ethics.gc.ca/eng/tcps2-eptc2_2022_chapter9-chapitre9.html

Hickman, C., Marks, E., Pihkala, P., Clayton, S., Lewandowski, E. R., Mayall, E. E., Wray, B., Mellor, C., & van Susteren, L. (2021). Young people’s voices on climate anxiety, government betrayal and moral injury: A global phenomenon. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5, e863–e873. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3

Kovach, M. (2009). Indigenous methodologies: Characteristics, conversations, and contexts. University of Toronto Press.

Lebel, L., Paquin, V., Kenny, T. A., Fletcher, C., Nadeau, L., Chachamovich, E., & Lemire, M. (2022). Climate change and Indigenous mental health in the Circumpolar North: A systematic review to inform clinical practice. Transcultural Psychiatry, 59(3), 312–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634615211066698 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13634615211066698

Marshall, A., & Batten, S. (2004). Researching across cultures: Issues of ethics and power. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 5(3). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-5.3.572

Marshall, A., Guenette, F., & Stewart, S. (2008). Mapping possible selves: A culturally relevant career counselling strategy [Presentation]. Annual Cannexus National Career Development Conference, Toronto.

Marshall, M., Marshall, A., & Bartlett, C. (2015). Two-eyed seeing in medicine. In M. Greenwood, S. de Leeuw, N. M. Lindsay, & C. Reading (Eds.), Determinants of Indigenous Peoples’ Health in Canada: Beyond the Social (pp. 16–24). Canadian Scholars’ Press.

Marshall, A., Shepard, B., & Leadbeater, B. (2006). Interdisciplinary research: Charting new directions collaboratively. International Journal of the Humanities, 2(2), 953–960. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9508/CGP/v02i02/41400 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9508/CGP/v02i02/41400

Noronha, N., Smith, S. J., Martin Hill, D., Davis Hill, L., Smith, S., General, A., McQueen, C., Looking Horse, M., Drossos, A., Lokker, C., et al. (2021). The use of mobile applications to support Indigenous youth wellbeing in Canada. International Journal of Child and Adolescent Resilience, 8, 124–134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1077724ar

Stewart, S. (2008). Promoting Indigenous mental health: Cultural perspectives on healing from Native counsellors in Canada. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education, 46(2), 49–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2008.10708129 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2008.10708129

Stewart, S. L. (2010). Deconstructing Chinn and Hana’ike: Pedagogy through an Indigenous lens. In D. Tippins, M. Mueller, M. van Eijck, & J. Adams (Eds.), Cultural Studies of Science Education, vol. 3 (pp. 247–256). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3929-3_19 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3929-3_19

Vecchio, E. A., Dickson, M., & Zhang, Y. (2022). Indigenous mental health and climate change: A systematic literature review. Journal of Climate Change and Health, 6, 100121. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2022.100121

Papps, E., & Ramsden, I. (1996). Cultural safety in nursing: The New Zealand experience. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 8, 491–497. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/8.5.491

Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples (2nd ed.). Zed Books

Downloads

Published

2025-05-12

How to Cite

Stewart, E. ., Sabina Mirza, & Brown, M. (2025). The Climate Crisis and Indigenous Youths’ Mental Health: The Pilot Project . Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal, 8(1), 36–47. https://doi.org/10.56508/mhgcj.v8i1.254