Dr. Keatton Tiernan’s research on Indigenous youth mentorship highlights a view of health rooted in connection — to each other and to the world. Growing up in Dawson Creek, Tiernan spent much of his time outside, amid the forests of Bear Mountain and the rolling landscape where the prairies meet the foothills. He remembers his surroundings as bountiful and flourishing, a living example of how systems thrive through connection. What Tiernan saw in nature shaped his understanding of what it means to be healthy. That perspective has long guided Tiernan’s research with the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health, including his work with the Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program. His PhD supervisor, Dr. Kate Storey, helped expand the Manitoba-based after-school program to Alberta in 2016, with support from the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute (WCHRI). Tiernan, who is Cree on his mom’s side and Métis on his dad’s, says when he joined Storey’s SIRCLE Research Lab, he jumped at the opportunity to get involved. The program involves Indigenous high schoolers mentoring elementary students in a culturally grounded setting. It promotes well-being, resiliency and Mino-bimaadiziwin/Mino-pimâtisiwin — “living in a good way” in Anishinaabe and Cree — concepts closely aligned with Tiernan’s wholistic understanding of health. Everything that I do is informed by relationality. As individuals, we’re all a part of a community, and for a community to be healthy, all the individuals have to be healthy. — Dr. Keatton Tiernan For his WCHRI graduate studentship, Tiernan examined the program’s effects on the mentors. He found it builds confidence and communication skills, which makes school more enjoyable, increases employability and strengthens overall wellness. He described these ripple effects in a recently published paper, using the tradition of Indigenous beading as a metaphor for the interconnected skills gained by the youth mentors. The study notes the need to embed high school course credits in the program more consistently, to help enable mentors to participate. Tiernan also chairs the WCHRI Trainee Advisory Committee, bringing together students, residents and fellows across academic and clinical levels and disciplines. “It’s a great place to share knowledge and connect with other people you wouldn’t necessarily connect with,” he says. The support of his committee colleagues has helped Tiernan navigate his own atypical career path. His parents were teenagers when they had him, and he was the first in his family to graduate high school. He knew he wanted to help people live healthy lives and initially considered medicine, but undergraduate electives in community and population health shifted his thinking. “They really aligned with my teachings growing up, of this wholistic view of health that is rooted in community and connection and building up people,” he says. Tiernan’s identity as an Indigenous researcher shapes how he approaches his work. “Everything that I do is informed by relationality,” he says, describing a worldview that centres collectiveness over individual approaches. “As individuals, we’re all a part of a community, and for a community to be healthy, all the individuals have to be healthy.” Indigenous perspectives remain rare in academic spaces, and Indigenous health researchers are vastly underrepresented. But Tiernan sees such ways of thinking reflected in the youth mentors involved in the program, alongside a drive and tenacity that pushes them beyond simply accepting things as they are: “They see things that can be changed, and are willing to put in the work to change them.” Working closely with young people gives Tiernan hope for the future and for his own path in research. “Ultimately, my career goal is that the Indigenous youth behind me have an easier time than I did, just like it was the goal of a lot of scholars before me. From what I’ve seen, it will be, and if it isn’t, they have the gumption to make a change.” Story by Cailynn Klingbeil Patient and community engagement ensures research is conducted with people, not just about them. This collaborative model integrates the voices and priorities of those served to make studies more relevant and ethical. WCHRI awards at least four graduate studentships annually to support students driving this approach. Dr. Keatton Tiernan joined the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation as an assistant professor in July. His PhD research in the School of Public Health was supported by the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation through WCHRI.
Photos by Katrina Grey Did you know?
