Tier 2 CRCs, worth $120,000 annually for five years, are awarded by Canada’s three major grant agencies to exceptional emerging researchers who are recognized by their peers for their potential to be leaders in their field.
Henry, assistant professor of Indigenous Studies in the USask College of Arts and Sciences, and executive director of the Saskatchewan Network of Indigenous Health Research Settings (SK-NEIHR), aims to improve public understanding of street gangs and lifestyles through community research. , and to inform policies that can reduce the “hyper-incarceration” of indigenous people.
He wants to understand the intricacies of gang involvement by looking at it through the lens of “survival,” a term that encompasses survival, resistance, and resurgence.
“Survival is a strengths-based approach to understanding the process of an individual joining and leaving street gangs,” Henry said. “Some indigenous people use gangs to survive settler colonialism and see gangs as a space of resistance. By emerging from these violent spaces and lifestyles, they seek to resurface a positive identity.”
Henry, what is M.metis, is working with non-profits, STR8 UP in Saskatoon and Ogijiita Pimatisiwin Kinamatwin (OPK) in Winnipeg, to “touch the shoulder” of youth and adults with gang experience to establish a gender and age representative community advisory committee .
While the CRC will train USask Highly Qualified Personnel (HQPs), Henry said a major focus will be the community advisory group, which will brief him on local street politics and the specific research communities want.
He plans to use photovoice, digital storytelling, and body mapping that have proven effective in previous research projects, as well as interviews and focus groups to examine the life histories of indigenous people involved in gangs and street life.
With little community-involved research done so far with indigenous gangs, Henry said, much of what is presumed about these groups is based on street gangs in the United States and creates misconceptions.
“People say that once an individual is in an indigenous gang, they are forever. However, most are inside for a very short time,” he said. “When we look at who is or is not in an indigenous gang, for the most part what we see is a lot of people acting in a specific way to get their names out to join the gang.”
Both men and women who participate in gangs represent masculinity, conveying a tough, unemotional image that they believe society expects, he said. Masculinity is tied to the concept that toughness brings power, that it brings money, that it brings respect, Henry said.
The idea that people join gangs because it gives them a sense of belonging is simplistic, he said. Rather, many already have a sense of belonging because they were born to or are related to individuals involved in gangs. What they want is power, money and respect.
Indian gangs are individual entities that are often linked only by name, Henry said. However, Prairie gang members are often linked by kinship or ties such as past shared foster residence.
Henry wants to bring together community agencies from Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and even Thunder Bay, Ontario to share information and create a strong Prairie Survival Network to help develop effective local policies to improve justice and justice. general welfare of the community. .
“By the end of five years, I look forward to understanding the street lifestyle from scratch and expanding Prairie’s network to other national and international associations in places like Australia and New Zealand who I’m already working with,” Henry said.
Source: news.google.com