It has been a very long time since I have posted anything and I have been meaning to post an update for a while now and have finally just got around to it. So a lot has happened in the past year or so (minus my placed based art post) that I have not posted about. I got a new job, completed a whole semester and have learned a lot.
I’ll start with talking about my new job. I have was hired as a research assistant at the Indigenous Peoples Health Research Centre (IPHRC) in mid September 2014 and have been working their since. We are working under a Suicide Prevention grant right now and are aiming to reduce the risk of suicide in Aboriginal youth, through the promotion of well-being, through the arts (all of them). We are trying to find out if participation in the arts promotes well-being in youth, and if so in what ways? If our findings are verified, hopefully we could help influence a change in policies. Many schools on First Nation reserves do not have art classes available. So hopefully we will be able to help get more art classes made available to Aboriginal youth in those communities. I love this job and feel very blessed because it seems to fit perfectly into my studies at the University of Regina. My duties mainly include developing and leading visual art lesson plans with youth, as well as conducting interviews, reading and books and writing reports and reviews, and developing research hypothesis. I have been learning so much about research and education, and even stuff about myself as a Aboriginal person and educator throughout my time with IPHRC. I will start to post more updates about my personal learnings.
“The project will build the capacity of Aboriginal youth, community members, knowledge users, and researchers to investigate, identify, and address conditions leading to Aboriginal youth suicide and other self-harming behaviours through the development of culturally appropriate arts-based methods of research. The team will also study the short and long-term effectiveness of arts-based approaches in supporting Aboriginal youth wellness. Lastly, this study will formulate policy recommendations on Aboriginal youth suicide that are culturally appropriate and have the potential to increase the health and well-being of Aboriginal peoples over the coming generations. Using what Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall deems “two-eyed seeing,” we will bring together statistically-based epidemiological techniques and Indigenous ways of knowing. This research project has the potential to significantly and positively impact the health of Aboriginal peoples in Canada by increasing the health and well-being of Aboriginal youth, thereby decreasing suicide rates.”
More information about the research project can be found here on our websites: Acting Out and IPHRC
Besides my new job, I have also completed and started some cool classes in school. Last semester I had Visual Arts Education 101, Dance Education 101, Music Education 101, Drama Education 101 and Literature Education 101. And this semester I have the exact same set of classes except instead of being the 101 level, they are now the 202 level. My classes last semester all went very well (I passed) and I am enjoying the start of my new semester. I have gotten a lot more proficient at completing my work and time and procrastination seems to become less and less of an issue. But even still, I cannot say that I have not found myself finishing a large assignment the day before its due and trying to find comfort in the phrase “pressure builds diamonds.”
Benjamin Ironstand 