Year: 2000 Source: Advanced Study Institute/McGill Summer Program in Social & Cultural Psychiatry, (2000: Montreal), p.120-134 SIEC No: 20011527

For many First Nations peoples, the present is a period of recuperation: a time of both ‘taking back’ & of regainng the health & strength of individuals & communities. While mental health experts address individual expressions of & responses to social suffering (e.g. depression, substance abuse, suicidal ideation), the author parallels those works with an examination of community responses & focusses on the complexity & heterogeneity of recuperation in light of a history of missionization. Drawing from ethnographic interviews with eastern Cree church elders, the author discusses the active negotiation of faith as part of the recuperative process. (34 refs.)