MCC Summit 'Exploring Mindfulness: Indigenous Knowledge, Well-Being and Connection'

Mindfulness evolved from ancient indigenous and Eastern traditions. Drs Jeffrey Proulx  (Brown U) and Michael Yellow Bird (U of Manitoba) were collaborators, with others, on a project that developed and implemented the Indigenous MIND (IM) program, a culturally adapted mindfulness intervention developed in partnership with Indigenous communities in the USA. The group explored the program’s cultural resonance and documented the processes by which it evolved in each of two indigenous partner communities, while exploring how the program could be exported to other Indigenous communities. In this impactful summit they describe that work and reflect on Michael’s special interest: the influence of colonialization on attempting to eradicate some of the most crucial aspects of indigenous rituals and beliefs, founded in what we know as mindfulness, necessary for health and wellbeing of their future generations.

Dr Norman Farb is a professor of psychology at University of Toronto whose research focus on mindfulness…