Learning from the Land and One Another: Place-based Indigenous health research education and mentorship in Atlantic Canada

The Atlantic Indigenous Mentorship (AIM) Network was formed in 2017. The goal of the Network is to support and expand research capacity, skills, and career trajectories of Indigenous early career researchers, health care practitioners, and trainees across the program's two sites in Wabanaki and Labrador, Canada. The Network involves a suite of activities that include mentorship opportunities for Indigenous graduate students and early career researchers, a health research portal to connect communities with research opportunities, place-based summer institutes and field schools, a seed grant and scholarship program, and an assessment of Indigenous health research priorities in the region. The AIM Network is impacting the Indigenous health research field by supporting the next generation of Indigenous health researchers; leveraging the mentorship capacity of established researchers and Indigenous community health partners; embedding activities in a Two-Eyed Seeing framework that promotes and centres Indigenous languages and ways of knowing, being, and doing from Inuit, Innu, Mi'kmaq, and Wolastoqey perspectives; facilitating the implementation of Indigenous knowledge(s) and support for Indigenous health research in post-secondary institutions; and, creating a supportive environment that welcomes, encourages, and builds capacity for Indigenous trainees. Through an innovative and ambitious program to advance Indigenous health research, the AIM Network is creating space for Two-Eyed Seeing, on-the-land learning, and reconciliatory and transformative research and education. It seeks to foster a safe and collaborative learning environment in Indigenous health research and to decolonize health professional programs and institutions.