Hostname: page-component-669899f699-8p65j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-25T14:53:57.605Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Beyond resilience: A scoping review of Indigenous survivance in the health literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2023

Rachel E. Wilbur Open the ORCID record for Rachel E. Wilbur [Opens in a new window]  and
Joseph P. Gone Open the ORCID record for Joseph P. Gone [Opens in a new window]
Rachel E. Wilbur*
Affiliation:
Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Joseph P. Gone
Affiliation:
Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
*
Corresponding author: R. E. Wilbur; Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Health inequity scholars, particularly those engaged with questions of structural and systemic racism, are increasingly vocal about the limitations of “resilience.” This is true for Indigenous health scholars, who have pushed back against resilience as a descriptor of modern Indigeneity and who are increasingly using the term survivance. Given the growing frequency of survivance in relation to health, we performed a scoping review to understand how survivance is being applied in health scholarship, with a particular interest in its relationship to resilience. Results from 32 papers indicate that health scholars are employing survivance in relation to narrative, temporality, community, decolonization, and sovereignty, with varying degrees of adherence to the term’s original conception. Overwhelmingly, authors employed survivance in relation to historical trauma, leading us to propose the analogy: as resilience is to trauma, so survivance is to historical trauma. There may be value in further operationalizing survivance for health research and practice through the development of a unified definition and measurement tool, ensuring comparability across studies and supporting future strengths-based Indigenous health research and practice.

Keywords

SurvivanceIndigenous communitiesHistorical traumaResilienceMental health
Type
Special Issue Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 35 , Issue 5: Special Issue: Resilience in Development: Pathways to Multisystem Integration , December 2023 , pp. 2226 - 2240
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Allen, J., Hopper, K., Wexler, L., Kral, M., Rasmus, S., & Nystad, K. (2014). Mapping resilience pathways of Indigenous youth in five circumpolar communities. Transcultural Psychiatry, 51(5), 601–631. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461513497232 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arksey, H., & O’Malley, L. (2005). Scoping studies: Towards a methodological framework. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8(1), 19–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/1364557032000119616 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
*Asher, A. (2022). Protecting native motherhood: A longitudinal investigation of interpersonal violence among Alaska Native women. Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2667. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/2667 Google Scholar
Beltran, R., Schultz, K., Fernandez, A. R., Walters, K., L., & Duran, B. (2018). From ambivalence to revitalization: Negotiating cardiovascular health behaviors related to environmental and historical trauma in a northwest American Indian community. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 25(2), 103–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biermann, M., Hillmer-Pegram, K., Knapp, C. N., & Hum, R. E. (2016). Approaching a critical turn? A content analysis of the politics of resilience in key bodies of resilience literature. Resilience, 4(2), 59–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brave Heart, M. Y. H., Chase, J., Elkins, J., & Altschul, D. B. (2011). Historical trauma among Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: Concepts, research, and clinical considerations. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 43(4), 282–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2011.628913 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, T., Chartier, B., & Dadgostari, T. (2017). I’m not really healed. I’m just bandaged up”: Perceptions of healing among former students of Indian residential schools. International Journal of Indigenous Health, 12(1), 39–56. https://doi.org/10.18357/ijih121201716901 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
*Carter, J. (2015). Discarding sympathy, disrupting catharsis: The mortification of Indigenous flesh as survivance-intervention. Theatre Journal, 67(3), 413–432. https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2015.0103 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
*Crath, R., Karpman, H., Mull, J. J., & Francis, L.-A. (2021). Theorizing Black trans survivance and care in the context of COVID 19: A clinical case study. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 91(1), 55–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377317.2020.1867030 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Danard, D. (2016). Medicine wheel surviving suicide-strengthening life bundle [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Toronto.Google Scholar
* Diaz, T. P., Ka‘opua, L. S. I., & Nakaoka, S. (2020). Island nation, US territory and contested space: Territorial status as a social determinant of Indigenous health in Guam. The British Journal of Social Work, 50(4), 1069–1088. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcz097 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
* Drees, L. M. (2010). The Nanaimo and Charles Camsell Indian hospitals: First Nations’ narratives of health care, 1945 to 1965. Histoire Sociale/Social History, 43(85), 165–191. https://doi.org/10.1353/his.2010.0002 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gone, J. P. (2011). The red road to wellness: Cultural reclamation in a Native First Nations community treatment center. American Journal of Community Psychology, 47(1-2), 187–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-010-9373-2 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Gone, J. P. (2016). Alternative knowledges and the future of community psychology: Provocations from an American Indian healing tradition. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58(3-4), 314–321. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12046 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gone, J. P. (2021a). Decolonization as methodological innovation in counseling psychology: Method, power, and process in reclaiming American Indian therapeutic traditions. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 68(3), 259–270.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
* Gone, J. P. (2021b). Recounting coup as the recirculation of Indigenous vitality: A narrative alternative to historical trauma. Transcultural Psychiatry. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13634615211054998.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, A., Gagnon, E., Eryigit-Madzwamuse, S., Cameron, J., Aranda, K., Rathbone, A., & Heaver, B. (2016). Uniting resilience research and practice with an inequalities approach. SAGE Open, 6(4), 215824401668247. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016682477 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Hartmann, W. E., & Gone, J. P. (2014). American Indian historical trauma: Community perspectives from two Great Plains medicine Men. American Journal of Community Psychology, 3-4(3-4), 274–288. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-014-9671-1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartmann, W. E., Wendt, D. C., Burrage, R. L., Pomerville, A., & Gone, J. P. (2019). American Indian historical trauma: Anticolonial prescriptions for healing, resilience, and survivance. American Psychologist, 74(1), 6–19. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000326 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hatala, A. R., Desjardins, M., & Bombay, A. (2016). Reframing narratives of Aboriginal health inequity: Exploring Cree elder resilience and well-being in contexts of historical trauma. Qualitative Health Research, 26(14), 1911–1927. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732315609569 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
* Hedlund, S. (2020). Medicines at Standing Rock: Stories of Native healing through survivance. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 44(4), 59–78. https://doi.org/10.17953/aicrj.44.4.hedlund CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Henry, K. (2019). An American Indian war on drugs: Community, culture, care, survivance [Doctoral dissertation]. Michigan State University.Google Scholar
* Hernández, K. (2020). Land and ethnographic practices—(Re)making toward healing. Social & Cultural Geography, 21(7), 1002–1020. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2020.1744703 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horn, Z. (2021). Are we heading for disaster? The problem with resilience in disaster management and recovery. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 36(2), 11–12.Google Scholar
Humbert, C., & Joseph, J. (2019). Introduction: The politics of resilience: Problematizing current approaches. Resilience, 7(3), 215–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/21693293.2019.1613738 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Jacob, M. M., Gonzales, K., Finley, C., & RunningHawk Johnson, S. (2019). Theorizing Indigenous student resistance, radical resurgence, and reclaiming spiritual teachings about Tma’áakni (Respect). Religions, 10(4), 286. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10040286 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* James, S. (2018). Indigenous epistemology explored through Yoruba Orisha traditions in the African diaspora. Women & Therapy, 41(1-2), 114–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/02703149.2017.1324192 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Ka’opua, L. S. I., Friedman, B. D., Duncombe, R., Mataira, P. J., & Bywaters, P. (2019). Editorial: Indigenous peoples and the social determinants of health: Weaving tradition and innovation to advance health for all. The British Journal of Social Work, 49(4), 843–853. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcz074 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Kirmayer, L. J., Dandeneau, S., Marshall, E., Phillips, M. K., & Williamson, K. J. (2011). Rethinking resilience from Indigenous perspectives. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56(2), 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674371105600203 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kirmayer, L. J., Gone, J. P., & Moses, J. (2014). Rethinking historical trauma. Transcultural Psychiatry, 51(3), 299–319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lavallee, L. F., & Poole, J. M. (2010). Beyond recovery: Colonization, health and healing for Indigenous people in Canada. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 8(2), 271–281. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-009-9239-8 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luthar, S. S., Cicchetti, D., & Becker, B. (2000). The construct of resilience: A critical evaluation and guidelines for future work. Child Development, 71(3), 543–562. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00164 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mahdiani, H., & Ungar, M. (2021). The dark side of resilience. Adversity and Resilience Science, 2(3), 147–155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42844-021-00031-z CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Manson, S. M., & Buchwald, D. (2021). Bringing light to the darkness: COVID-19 and survivance of American Indians and Alaska Natives. Health Equity, 5(1), 59–63. https://doi.org/10.1089/heq.2020.0123 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Manuelito, B. K. (2015). Creating space for an Indigenous approach to digital storytelling:, living breath, of survivance within an Anishinaabe community in northern Michigan [Doctoral dissertation]. Antioch University.Google Scholar
Masten, A. S., Lucke, C. M., Nelson, K. M., & Stallworthy, I. C. (2021). Resilience in development and psychopathology: Multisystem perspectives. Annual Reivew of Clinical Psychology, 17(1), 521–549. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-081219-120307 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mohatt, N. V., Thompson, A. B., Thai, N. D., & Tebes, J. K. (2014). Historical trauma as public narrative: A conceptual review of how history impacts present-day health. Social Science & Medicine, 106, 128–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.01.043 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
* Parkhurst, N. D. (2017). Protecting Oak Flat: Narratives of survivance as observed through digital activism. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 21, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3127/ajis.v21i0.1567 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, M. D. J., Godfrey, C. M., Khalil, H., McInerney, P., Parker, D., & Soares, C. B. (2015). Guidance for conducting systematic scoping reviews. International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, 13(3), 141–146. https://doi.org/10.1097/XEB.0000000000000050 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pham, T. V., Pomerville, A., Burrage, R. L., & Gone, J. P. (2022). An interview-based evaluation of an Indigenous traditional spirituality program at an urban American Indian health clinic. Transcultural Psychiatry, 136346152210767, 136346152210767. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634615221076706 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Phillips, A. (2018). Survivance confronts collective trauma with community response. American Quarterly, 70(2), 353–356. https://doi.org/10.1353/aq.2018.0023 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pomerville, A., & Gone, J. P. (2019). Indigenous culture-as-treatment in the era of evidence-based mental health practice. In Routledge handbook of Indigenous wellbeing (1st ed. pp. 237–247). Routledge.Google Scholar
* Quayle, A. F., & Sonn, C. C. (2019). Amplifying the voices of Indigenous elders through community arts and narrative inquiry: Stories of oppression, psychosocial suffering, and survival. American Journal of Community Psychology, 64(1-2), 46–58. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12367 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
* Ramirez, L. C., & Hammack, P. L. (2014). Surviving colonization and the quest for healing: Narrative and resilience among California Indian tribal leaders. Transcultural Psychiatry, 51(1), 112–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461513520096 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Rodriguez, C. M. (2015). The journey of a digital story: A healing performance of Mino-bimaadiziwin: The good life [Doctoral dissertation]. Antioch University.Google Scholar
* Rowe, R. K., Rowat, J., & Walker, J. D. (2020). First Nations’ survivance and sovereignty in Canada during a time of COVID-19. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 44(2), 89–100. https://doi.org/10.17953/aicrj.44.2.rowe_rowat_walker CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Shickluna, D. M. (2020). Remembering as praxis: Reconceptualizing structural and state-sanctioned violence, oppression, and trauma through radical survival narrative pedagogy [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Toronto.Google Scholar
* Stephens, C. V. (2009). Toxic talk at Walpole Island First Nation: Narratives of pollution, loss and resistance [Doctoral dissertation]. McMaster University.Google Scholar
* Sun, J., Goforth, A. N., Nichols, L. M., Violante, A., Christopher, K., Howlett, R., Hogenson, D., & Graham, N. (2022). Building a space to dream: Supporting Indigenous children’s survivance through community-engaged social and emotional learning. Child Development, 93(3), 699–716. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13786 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
* Thompson-Guerin, P., & Mohatt, N. V. (2019). Community psychology and Indigenous Peoples. American Journal of Community Psychology, 64(1-2), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12383 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Urrieta, L. (2019). Indigenous reflections on identity, trauma, and healing: Navigating belonging and power. Genealogy, 3(2), 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy3020026 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Usher, K., Jackson, D., Walker, R., Durkin, J., Smallwood, R., Robinson, M., Sampson, U. N., Adams, I., Porter, C., Marriott, R. (2021). Indigenous resilience in Australia: A scoping review using a reflective decolonizing collective dialogue. Frontiers in Public Health, 9, 630601. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.630601 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Van Bewer, V. (2022). Trauma and survivance: The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Indigenous nursing students. Nursing Inquiry, 30(1), e12514. https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12514 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vizenor, G. (1994). Manifest manners: Postindian warriors of survivance. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Vizenor, G. (1998). Fugitive poses: Native American Indian scenes of absence and presence. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Vizenor, G. (1999). Manifest manners: Narratives on postindiansSurvivance. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Vizenor, G. (2008). Survivance: Narratives of native presence. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska.Google Scholar
Vizenor, G., & Lee, A. R. (1999). Postindian conversations. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska.Google Scholar
* Weiss, N. M., Anderson, O., Bolton-Steiner, A., & Walls, M. I. (2022). From resilience to survivance. Contexts, 21(1), 60–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/15365042221083013 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* Wieskamp, V. N., & Smith, C. (2020). What to do when you’re raped”: Indigenous women critiquing and coping through a rhetoric of survivance. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 106(1), 72–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2019.1706189 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization. Constitution 2023, https://www.who.int/about/governance/constitution.Google Scholar