Chantelle Richmond

Assistant Professor
Cross Appointed with First Nations Studies

Research Interests

I am a First Nation scholar who has trained primarily in health geography. Both from a personal and academic perspective, I am deeply concerned with the current health and social inequalities endured by Indigenous Canadians, and the contributions of environmental change to these realities.

My research draws from various methods to examine the social and environmental determinants of Indigenous health, and to better understand the dimensions linking health and place among Indigenous peoples in Canada and around the world. I have research interests in the ways that social, environmental, economic and political processes – broadly defined - work to affect the environments within which Indigenous peoples live. I am particularly interested in understanding how these environments shape access to, and the quality of, social determinants of Indigenous health.

I currently have two on-going community-based projects with First Nation communities in Ontario.

The first is a CIHR-funded project designed to preserve local Indigenous Knowledge among Anishinabe youth and elders on Northern Lake Superior. This project bridges researchers from UWO and Lakehead U with community collaborators from three First Nation communities on Lake Superior (Red Rock Indian Band, Ojibways of the Pic River First Nation, and the Batchewana First Nation of Ojibways). The objective of the project is to create multiple sites of knowledge transfer between Elders, Youth, Community collaborators and University partners – the aim being to preserve local knowledge and use it in tangible ways to protect local environments and improve health.

The second project is funded by the Heart & Stoke Foundation of Ontario to describe dietary patterns and better understand the social determinants of food choice among First Nation people in London and at a nearby reserve. This project is a collaborative effort of University partners (Western, Toronto) and Dietitians and other staff at the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre (SOAHAC). SOAHAC has identified issues such as low income, access to transportation and lone parent family status to be linked in significant ways to food security among some of their clients. In this study, we are using both survey & interview methods to better understand the social and environmental determinants that underlie dietary patterns and food choices.

Publications (past 7 years)

Refereed Journals

Richmond, C.A.M. 2009 'The social determinants of Inuit health: A focus on social support in the Canadian Arctic' International Journal of Circumpolar Health 68 (5): Pages 471-487

Richmond, C.A.M. and Ross, N.A. 2009 'The determinants of First Nation and Inuit health: A critical population health approach' Health and Place 15(2): 403-411

Richmond, C. 2008 'Explaining the paradox of health and social support among Aboriginal Canadians' Canadian Issues Winter: 65-71

Richmond, C. and Ross, N.A. 2008 'Social support, material circumstance and health behaviour: Influences on health in First Nation and Inuit Communities of Canada' Social Science and Medicine 67: 1423-1433

Richmond, C., Ross, N.A. and Egeland, G.M. 2007 'Societal resources and thriving health: A new approach for understanding the health of Indigenous Canadians American Journal of Public Health. 97(10): 1827-1833

Richmond, C. 2007 'Narratives of Social Support and Health in Aboriginal Communities' Canadian Journal of Public Health 98(4): 347-351

Frohlich, K., Ross, N.A. and Richmond, C. 2006 'Health disparities in Canada today: Some evidence and a theoretical framework' Health Policy 79(2-3): 132-143

Richmond, C., Elliott, S.J., Mathews, R. and Elliott, B. 2005 'The political ecology of health: Perceptions of environment, economy, health and well-being among 'Namgis First Nation' Health and Place 11(4): 349-365

Chapters in Books

Richmond C. and Big-Canoe, K. (Forthcoming) 'The social determinants of Aboriginal health: Defining a research Agenda for Canada’s Urban Population' in Aboriginal Policy Research: Urban Perspectives ed J. White, J. Peters, D. Beavon and P. Dinsdale (Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing)

Wilson, K. and Richmond, C. 2009 'Indigenous Health and Medicine' in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography ed R. Kitchin and N. Thrift (Oxford: Elsevier Limited)

Richmond, C., Ross, N.A. and Bernier, J. 2007 'Exploring Indigenous concepts of health: The Dimensions of Métis and Inuit Health' in Aboriginal Policy Research: Directions and Outcomes Volume 4 ed J. White, D. Beavon, S. Wingert and P. Maxim (Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing) 3-13

Supervised Graduate Students and Theses Titles

PhD Students Year Title
J. Tobias

(co-supervised)

 Current Preserving Elder Knowledge, Protecting Health: Participatory Health Research with Anishinabe Communities in The Great Lakes Region
MA Students Year Title
C. Isaac Current TBA
K. Kulmann Current TBA
K. Big-Canoe 2011 Preserving traditional knowledge to improve health: knowledge translation with Anishinabe youth and elders
J. Tobias
(co-supervised)		 2010 Embodied political ecologies of health: Examining the relationship between alcohol misuse and hepatitis in the Upper West Region of Ghana

Also from this web page:

Chantelle Richmond

 

Courses Taught

GEO 2411G / FNS 2601G - Indigenous Environments