DANCE FOR WELLNESS: INDIGENOUS ADOLESCENTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON MENTAL HEALTH, WELLNESS, AND DANCE.

Background: The effects of colonization, the Indian Residential School System, and intergenerational trauma damages Indigenous ways of living and profoundly impacts the mental health and wellness of Indigenous adolescents. This impact was felt by the adolescents in a northern Saskatchewan Indigenous community; therefore, the community initiated a wellness-based dance program. Purpose and Research Questions: The purpose of this qualitative case study was to generate insight into the understanding and experiences of mental health and wellness in Indigenous adolescents aged 10 to 19 and identify if and how a 4-week dance program affects their sense of mental health and wellness. The research was guided by the following questions: 1) What are Indigenous adolescent’s understandings and experiences of mental health and overall sense of wellness; 2) what are the positive and negative influences on the adolescent’s sense of mental health and wellness; and 3) what are Indigenous adolescents’ understandings and experiences of mental health and wellness after participating in a four-week dance-based program? Methods: Eight participants completed semi-structured interviews and symbol-based data collection methods were selected to honour Indigenous ways of knowledge transfer. Thematic and symbol-based methods were used for data analysis. Findings: The findings demonstrate that dance improved the Indigenous adolescents’ mental health and wellness. Dance also helped the participants to temporarily escape from their life challenges and negative experiences, and had a positive effect on the participants’ moods before, during, and after class. In addition, dance provided the unique ability to allow the participants to feel comfortable in expressing themselves and their emotions through movement. Three unique themes and multiple subthemes emerged including: It Helped My Mental Health and Everything (Dance Helps Me Escape, Dance Makes Me Feel Good, and Dance Is Just Really Fun); A Little Bubble Around Me When I Dance (I Can Be More Confident and I Can Be Myself); and We Won’t Judge You Here (Creation of Friendship, He Said I Was Really Good, and Improved School Attendance). Implications: There are a number of implications for future dance programming, nursing practice, research, and education, such as for school administrators to understand what attracts Indigenous adolescents to attending school, for Registered Nurses (RN) to create dance-based programs for improving mental health and wellness, and the incorporation of trauma-informed research in core undergraduate and graduate courses. Conclusions: Additional research is needed to advance our knowledge on the effects of dance among Indigenous adolescent mental health and wellness. Overall, this study provides insight into the perspectives of Indigenous adolescents’ living in remote northern Saskatchewan on mental health and wellness and their experience with participating in a four-week dance program