Holistic experiences of Indigenous carer-employees in Southern Ontario

Abstract

This qualitative study uses Indigenous ethical protocols and the Medicine Wheel as a guiding framework for deductive coding to examine the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual care provided by ten Indigenous Carer-Employees (CEs) living and working in Ontario. CEs are individuals who work in paid employment while providing unpaid care to family, friends, and/or relatives with physical, mental and/or cognitive disability or challenges. The paper adopts a holistic perspective by acknowledging the Medicine Wheel's four aspects—spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical well-being—to understand the nature of care provided by these CEs to their loved ones from an Indigenous perspective. This care manifests in a plethora of ways, including the importance of aiding loved ones with intellectual tasks, the need to provide physical labour, the importance of providing a safe emotional space for loved ones, and the role of helping with spirituality in the caregiving practice. The role of the workplace, including policies, experiences, and the differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous employers, is also explored through inductive thematic analysis. This paper contributes to the growing literature on CEs and contemporary Indigenous caregiving. It provides suggestions for future scholarship to elevate the voices of Indigenous CEs, the importance of Carer-Friendly Workplace Policies, and the necessity to consider participant positionality in all research, particularly in research involving Indigenous participants, where the impacts of colonialism continue to pervade into many aspects of daily life.