Navigating Dementia: Insights into Elder Healthcare from Nuu-Chah-Nulth First Nations Families
Dr. Cheryl Aro, Ph.D. Assistant Teaching Professor, University of Victoria
Abstract: This presentation brings a decolonial lens to anti-oppressive gerontological social work by centering the relational, cultural, and historical contexts of aging and caregiving in Indigenous communities. Drawing on doctoral research conducted in collaboration with the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council, it shares insights from storytelling interviews with dementia caregivers across Vancouver Island. Caregivers spoke to the ongoing impacts of colonial trauma—including residential schools, family disruption, and intergenerational grief—while also affirming the strength of kinship, cultural continuity, and home-based care practices. The findings point to a pressing need for increased resources and culturally grounded supports for Indigenous caregivers, ideally created and led by their own communities. This work highlights the importance of relational accountability and Indigenous knowledge in shaping more responsive and decolonial approaches to elder care.
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Dr. Louise Stern, Ph.D., Professor, Vancouver Island University
Abstract:
Relational and Spatial Exclusion in Later Life: Co-Constructing Knowledge with Black Older Adults through an Anti-Oppressive Lens
Dr. Blessing Ojembe, Ph.D, MSW, RSW, University of Manitoba
Abstract: This presentation offers a unique perspective on how relational and spatial exclusions shape experiences of loneliness among Black older adults (BOAs) in Canada. It delves into how these experiences are co-constructed through constellating systems of power, knowledge, and coloniality. Drawing on findings from previous research with BOAs, this work examines how anti-Black racism, migration history, and gendered caregiving roles contribute to the marginalization of BOAs in both private and public spaces. Through an anti-oppressive lens grounded in the coloniality of being, power and knowledge, the presentation will illuminate how invisibility and exclusion are not merely social experiences but ontological and epistemological disruptions that deny BOAs full recognition as knowers, contributors, and community members.
This presentation strongly argues that challenging the coloniality of being, power, and knowledge in gerontological Social Work research is not just a choice, but a necessity. It requires shifting authority away from academic gatekeepers who decide who deserves representation or not and toward the voices of those traditionally positioned at the margins. By co-constructing knowledge for addressing loneliness with BOAs, we uncover not only their struggles but also their agency, resistance, and visions of inclusion. Ultimately, this work calls for a decolonial, relational approach to aging research that centers dignity, reciprocity, and structural change.