Ways of Being and Well-Being

http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/aswt/#/well_being

This post will explore the significance of kinship and well-being in FNMI cultures. I am putting both of these subjects in one blog post because I believe they go hand-in-hand.
In the Well-being segment, I learned about the value of "balance" in Aboriginal worldview. The most influential video to me (found in the Respecting Wisdom tab) was Wilton Goodstriker's speech on balancing the mind , the body, and especially the spirit.
I don not believe in "spirits," nor do I believe in "souls" in the sense of ghost-like vapor trails that leave our bodies to roam elsewhere when we die. However, I do believe "spirituality," in the sense of having an emotional, self- and  environment-aware consciousness that is with us every waking moment. Like the First Nations and Aboriginal people, I believe it is through this type of "spirit" that we experience life, and make sense of it all after moving through it with our bodies and witnessing it through our intellect.
Through prayer, meditation, ceremonies, and various means of fellowship, traditional FNMI people strive to attain the balance between the mind/body nd the spirit; once balance is achieved, it is said that peace, wellness, and oneness with the environment around us is also attained.

In the well-being section, there are speeches about different age groups spending time with each other on a frequent regular basis, and how it affects the wellness of the individuals and the community.

http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/aswt/#/kinship

The kinship section goes into further detail the value of each member of an individual's community. Not surprisingly, this connection with a person's family is demonstrated by a flower model (as can be seen here). It is of note that aunts and uncles in Aboriginal cultures have just as much signinficance in parenting as the mothers and fathers. This is why language is so important to FNMI peoples - in English "aunt" and "uncle" do not have the same strength, because in English speaking cultures, aunts and uncles have little to no parental power in most cases.
The connections between family members in FNMI communities are much, much closer in comparison to Western cultures and therefore are of much greater importance in regard to the individuals that are a part of their community or heritage.