Getting to the Heart of the Matter

Erica Hurley is conducting her research right where her heart is — in the Mi’kmaq communities along the West Coast of Newfoundland where she grew up and is now raising her own family. Her goal is to turn the tide on disturbing statistics from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada that show Indigenous women are twice as likely to die of heart disease and stroke as non-Indigenous women.

“A lot of heart health interventions are not gender- or culturally based, and the cookie-cutter approach just isn’t working,” Hurley says.In hopes of building heart-health services from the ground up, Hurley’s research follows a story-based Indigenous methodology grounded in a Mi’kmaq worldview that puts community and relationships at the centre of everything. 

“The spirit is connected to mental health and physical health — all is interconnected,” Hurley says. “So when we’re talking about heart, or any type of health, we really have to understand — how is it connected to community?”

Hurley’s PhD research project “At the Heart of Health Care: An Exploration Into Mi’kmaw Women’s Thoughts of Heart” explores how Mi’kmaq women view the word heart, what they do to stay healthy and what public-health interventions they think might be effective in their community. 

Hurley believes her method of inquiry can be used elsewhere to help identify other Indigenous communities’ particular needs so the health-care system can become more responsive. 

“Each community knows what it needs — it’s just that we don’t necessarily have the resources, or we don’t have the infrastructure to move forward,” she says.

According to the Mi’kmaq Language keepers that she has consulted, there’s no word for “research” in the language,  so Hurley is exploring what it means within her research work.  Whenever she needs guidance, she seeks support from the team of professors who are supervising her work, as well as a Mi’kmaq Elder and Knowledge Keeper: Arlene Blanchard-White and Dr. Elder Andrea Simon serve on her research advisory committee. 

Hurley takes inspiration from her ancestors, including her great great-grandmother Mary Webb, a renowned Mi’kmaq healer and midwife who travelled up and down the coast, delivering more than 700 babies during her lifetime. 

“She was very to-the-point, so I’m sure she would tell me, ‘Just do what’s got to be done to get it done right.’ ”

Read the full story "Big Care in Small Centres" in our Winter 2022 Alumni Magazine: https://issuu.com/uofanursing/docs/nursing_winter2022_v10.