Table 3.

Specific benefits of Indigenous elders’ contributions to individual and collective wellness

Specific benefits (scientific papers) (gray literature)
Support and relationships (56) (49)
• Providing support to extended family (30) (20)
• Community relations and support3 (27) (32)
• Providing support to close family (24) (12)
• Maintaining and strengthening family bonds and traditional family structure (19) (3)
• Relationships with health professionals3 (4) (7)
• Reciprocity (4) (0)
• Connectivity and cohesion (3) (0)
• Following advice (2) (2)
Services, systems, and policies (51) (42)
• Education policies3 (50) (52)
• Health policies (47) (22)
• Social services policies3 (8) (13)
• Associative and mutual services3 (8) (11)
• Babysitting grandchildren (7) (6)
• Community development (6) (6)
• Basic needs policies (5) (2)
• Legal policies (4) (4)
• Architecture, planning and heritage material3 (2) (6)
• Human rights (2) (1)
• Communication policies3 (1) (3)
• Citizen participation policies3 (1) (2)
• Media policies (1) (1)
• Participation in juries (1) (0)
• Establishment of a television network1 (1) (0)
• Employment policies (1) (0)
• Planning and developing open-air recreational areas, protected areas and rural areas1 (1) (0)
• Social security policies and civil protection1 (0) (4)
• Social harmony1 (0) (3)
• Civil protection policies3 (0) (3)
• Land claims1 (0) (2)
• Preparation of conditional release hearing1 (0) (1)
• Employment reintegration program for prisoners1 (0) (1)
Formal and informal education (50) (52)
• Cultural knowledge, traditional values (e.g., honesty), regulations, and life philosophy3 (36) (41)
• Role modeling (22) (11)
• Identity (18) (17)
• Indigenous language and territory (14) (15)
• Activities and traditional practices (cooking, sewing, knitting, fishing, picking, hunting, dancing) (10) (11)
• Learning by seeing, learning by doing, learning by sharing, intellectual knowledge transfer (7) (9)
• Concepts, values, perceptions, behaviours, verbal and non-verbal communication, interpersonal relations (5) (7)
• Encouraging perseverance to higher education levels (2) (0)
• Inspiring educational programming suitable for reality (1) (2)
• Fauna and flora (1) (1)
• Philosophical approach of education programs1 (0) (2)
Health (47) (22)
• Traditional medicine. Healing with medicinal plants (14) (11)
• Traditional treatment of hemorrhage in childbirth1 (0) (1)
• Promotion of health and well-being (14) (6)
◦ Culturally healthy life (14) (6)
◦ Dental health (2) (0)
◦ Exercise (i.e., dance) (1) (0)
◦ Mental health1 (0) (1)
◦ Advice for a healthy pregnancy1 (0) (1)
◦ Immunity against diseases1 (0) (1)
• Prevention (14) (5)
◦ Substance abuse (alcohol and drugs) (11) (4)
◦ Junk food (5) (2)
◦ Suicide (4) (1)
◦ Smoking tobacco (2) (0)
◦ Sexual abuse1 (2) (0)
◦ Gambling (1) (0)
◦ HIV/AIDS (1) (0)
◦ Delinquency (0) (1)
◦ Behaviours related to lifestyle1 (0) (1)
• Newborn care (4) (1)
• Health professionals’ behaviours3 (2) (3)
• Childbirth support1 (2) (1)
• Help in accepting interventions and learning to trust health services (1) (0)
• Multi-sectoral collaboration with teachers, researchers, police, youth and community members1 (0) (1)
• Therapy co-animation1 (0) (1)
Attitudes and behaviours (44) (38)
• Personal
◦ Strength development (spiritual, cultural, family-related)/life vision (18) (10)
◦ Resilience (14) (4)
◦ Wisdom, balance, harmony (8) (4)
◦ Healing (philosophical, psychological, spiritual, social)3 (7) (10)
◦ Independence and perseverance (4) (6)
◦ Self-confidence, self-esteem (4) (5)
◦ Consciousness/transformation/integration (3) (0)
◦ Grieving (2) (2)
◦ Forgiveness (1) (2)
◦ Philosophy, optimism (1) (2)
◦ Discipline (1) (1)
◦ Catharsis (1) (0)
◦ Meaning in life (1) (0)
◦ Adaptability1 (0) (1)
◦ Hope1 (0) (2)
◦ Inner peace1 (0) (2)
◦ Anger management1 (0) (1)
◦ Liberation1 (0) (1)
◦ Motivation, energy and passion1 (0) (1)
◦ Dignity1 (0) (1)
• Relational
◦ Extended family behaviours (12) (4)
◦ Close family behaviours (10) (5)
◦ Respect1 (4) (4)
◦ Sense of belonging (1) (0)
◦ Responsibility (personal, family/community) (0) (4)
◦ Empathy1 (0) (2)
◦ Kindness1 (0) (1)
◦ Preservation of peace between families1 (0) (1)
◦ Tolerance1 (0) (1)
◦ Patience1 (0) (1)
◦ Youth’s sense of purpose towards elders1 (0) (1)
• Collective
◦ Community behaviours3 (9) (16)
◦ Societal norms (9) (11)
◦ Societal behaviours (6) (3)
◦ Proudness (3) (6)
◦ Rooting in culture (2) (3)
◦ Collective memory and conscience (1) (2)
◦ Economic security (1) (1)
Product development (20) (13)
• Educational material development (10) (6)
• Religious/spiritual material development (4) (4)
• Food product development (4) (4)
• Cultural and leisure products development3 (3) (8)
• Story writing3 (1) (4)
• Communication products development3 (1) (2)
• Sweat lodge construction1 (0) (3)
• DVD recording for traditional knowledge (i.e., traditional handcrafts)1 (0) (2)
• Recording and transcription of traditional songs1 (0) (1)
• Short film production and participation1 (0) (1)
• Transcription of elders’ conferences explaining traditional medicine and other traditional knowledge1 (0) (1)
◦ Preparation of traditional food1 (0) (1)

¹Only mentioned in the gray literature

²Only mentioned in coffee meetings

³More frequent in the gray literature than in scientific papers